Ryan Bachoo
Lead Editor - Newsgathering
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has urged educational institutions across the country to focus more on outstanding Afro-Trinidadians and Afro-Tobagonians who have made contributions both home and abroad. He made the call in his African Emancipation Day message.
Dr Rowley, who returned from the 47th CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting yesterday, urged the National Library (NALIS) and the National Trust to focus and devise educational programmes for the national audience, particularly the nation's youth. He singled out Afro-Trinidaddians and Afro-Tobagonians such as Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), George Padmore (Malcolm Nurse), Henry Sylvester-Williams, Dr Eric Eustace Williams, Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, CLR James, Oliver Cromwell Cox, Sir Learie Constantine, Lloyd Best, Selwyn Ryan, Earl Lovelace, A.P.T. James, James Biggart, Winifred Atwell and basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The prime minister went further in calling on the University of the West Indies, the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the University of the Southern Caribbean "to research further, then highlight and promote the African heritage in our art, literature, music, religion, drama, fashion, our cuisine, our technical and entrepreneurial skills."
He added, "It is only after the embrace of these assignments that the people of this nation can fully appreciate our challenges, our failures and our many successes."