The Emancipation Support Committee says a review of the placement of statues, monuments and other historical signage in this country is long overdue. In a press release issued today, the committee congratulated the government for establishing a committee, however, they called on the government to make the committee more representative and inclusive.
The following is a press release from the Emancipation Support Committee:
The Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago congratulates the Government of Prime Minister Dr the Honourable Keith Christopher Rowley for the establishment of a committee to review the placement of statues, monuments and other historical signage in Trinidad and Tobago.
It is an action that is long overdue as tangible reminders of the past which glorify major crimes and their perpetrators be they street names, symbolic monuments, or representational statues, are really stains on our landscape. They continuously reinforce colonial values, more so, ideas of white supremacy. They obliterate the recognition of and concerns for the genocide committed against the indigenous peoples, the dehumanization of Africans forcibly transported and enslaved to replace them, the exploitation that characterized Indian Indentureship and the continuing legacy of inequality.
We call on the Government to make the five-member committee, more representative and inclusive. We seek an explicit mandate for the committee which tasks it with arriving at an outcome that is based on social justice, the affirmation of universal human values in our built environment and re-education of our citizenry. This should not be seen as just another technical committee. The ESCTT considers the job of the Committee to be profound and consistent with its own advocacy and that of the Caribbean Freedom Project. We therefore view with concern the constitution of such a committee without representation from the ESCTT, which has been re-educating people on our history for decades, or a representative of the Caribbean Freedom Project that has ignited the interest of a new generation.
Additionally, we wish to suggest that the Committee should be strengthened to include Dr Claudius Fergus and Professor Brinsley Samaroo both outstanding historians who have been committed to the decolonization of Trinidad and Tobago.
Members of the Warao community, as reported in the daily newspapers, have indicated that the representative of the indigenous people who has been named, does not represent their views or the views of indigenous peoples across the hemisphere on this matter.
We respectfully submit that the mandate of the Committee and the issues of inclusivity and representativeness should be considered and addressed