its membership was during the 1930s when it was recorded there were three fleets of sixty ships with a membership of over 3,000 men and 800 women. Over the following years, there have been several periods of adjustment with the number of ships and membership fluctuating until at present there is only one ship in 2021 remaining, the Director(located in landlocked Highland, St Thomas Parish) with twenty-four members. After all this time, not much is known by the Barbadian public about the Land-ship outside of its visual impact of lily-white uniforms decorated with colorful cords, and animated performance with the accompaniment of the Tuk Band known as its “engine”. The phenomenon known as the Barbados Land-ship is truly an example of an oxymoron of the English language. This is a combination of two contradictory terms - a marine activity on land. This institution carries within the body of its maneuvers the oldest African-based performance of the journey known as the Middle Passage. This traumatic experience of the enslaved West Africans, who were brought to Barbados mainly during the seventeenth century, created this re-enactment to ensure that their children never forget from whence they came. It demonstrates the predominantly African provenance of the Barbados Land-ship which origins can be traced to the traditional maritime organization of the Fante peoples from the Gold Coast region of Ghana known as the Asafo. The general characteristics of the Asafo organization are quite similar to those of the Barbados Land-ship in several areas: the development of companies or ships located within one domicile; the naming and identification of companies; the titles attached to the offices and uniforms within the companies; the collection of the monetary contributions accumulated by the membership, linked to the responsibility for the funeral ceremonies of their members and, most importantly, the animated ceremonial processions and performances within the communities. Research on the Asafo institution and corresponding links with the Barbados Land-ship Association is ongoing, drawing largely on the disciplines of African art history and Caribbean history. It has become clearer that the artistic, social and political traditions of the Akan peoples bind these two institutions. It has been a long process of research, trying to identify the connections from the past, addressing the period from slavery to Emancipation and into the present. These linkages offer some meaningfulness and identification for a people who have been separated for over four hundred years.