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The Emancipation Support Committee of T&T (ESCTT), says the month of June ignites the energy and activities leading up to the celebration of Emancipation Day on August 1, as it announced the launch of the Kwame Ture Memorial Lecture Series.
The launch takes place on June 12, at 5pm, and will be streamed live on ESC’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the ESC, and the launch of the lecture series is the second phase of the commemoration, positioned after the formal launch of the Pan AfricanTT Commemorating Emancipation (PAFTT) in May.
The lecture series, championed by the late Director of Education and Research, Tracy Wilson, aims to perpetuate Ture’s legacy by increasing knowledge, building awareness, consciousness and intellect of African people and all peoples of T&T, with a view to enable better control of their destiny and social and economic well-being.
Leading the charge now is historian, former lecturer and Head of the History Department of the University of the West Indies, Dr Claudius Fergus, who will host the opening lecture, Kwame Ture in T&T: Revisiting Black Power.
Guest speaker tabled for the launch is Trinidad-lineage journalist and author of Pan Africanist Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael)/Becoming Kwame Ture, Amandla Thomas-Johnson.
Fergus explained that Thomas-Johnson is essentially a Pan Africanist, so it was a natural focus for him, and that growing up in Britain, his parentage was of the Windrush generation, so there was a natural connection to the Caribbean as well as identity to Caribbean heroes such as Ture and anti-colonialism.”
Thomas-Johnson is currently pursuing a PhD at Cornell University’s Department of Literatures in English, has reported from Chile, T&T and Switzerland.
Key speaker for the launch of the Emancipation Support Committee TT’s Kwame Ture Lecture Series 2022, Amandla Thomas-Johnson.
He was based in Dakar, Senegal for three years, covering West Africa, including The Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania and Mali for Aljazeera, Middle East Eye and the Daily Telegraph. Additionally, he has contributed to The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, Jacobin, Vice, and was a trainee on Chanel 4’s Investigative journalism programme.
At the launch of the Pan African Festival last month, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Randall Mitchell praised ESCTT for its continued determination to celebrate the African heritage.
He also commended the organisation for its work over the past 30 years in making citizens more aware of the African traditions which have significantly influenced our culture, food, music and other features of the way of life.
Further information: +1 868.628.5008; Fax +1 868.628.9526; or E-mail: info.emancipation@esc-tt.org.
To follow ESCTT: Emancipation Support Committee – ESC (Facebook).
The Lecture Series continues between July 3-24
July 3: Panel discussion addressing The Legacy of Discrimination in Education – the situation of the African Child. Key speaker: Dee Ann Kentish-Roberts, Minister of Education and Social Development in Anguilla.
Artificial Intelligence lecturer Renee Cummings
July 10: Documentary film, Decolonising Public Spaces: Documentary (Audit) on Picton, followed by a discussion with Gaynor Legall, coordinator of the Slave Trade and the British audit commissioned by the Welsh government.
July 17: Film on Caribbean state Haiti that will introduce Raisin Lakay: Contemporary Issues Affecting Haiti’s Development, and discussion led by Jessica St Ville Ulysses, a first-generation Haitian American dancer, educator, and choreographer.
July 24: Address on Decolonising Data and Democratising Artificial Intelligence to be delivered by Trinbagonian Artificial Intelligence Ethicist and Data Activist, Renee Cummings.