While the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) welcomes the name change of the August 1 public holiday to African Emancipation Day, political leader Kwasi Mutema said the party would have liked to be included in the decision-making process.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that Cabinet has approved a change of name for the holiday from this August.
“The time has come for us to make it quite clear what emancipation means and who is being emancipated,” Rowley said.
In an interview yesterday on CNC3’s The Morning Brew, Mutema said in 1985 there had been much consultation leading up to the decision to make August 1 the date for T&T to recognize and commemorate the liberation of slaves. There should have been some level of consultation when it came to changing the name, he added.
“We had consultations and also agitation for the day. It’s not like the Government woke up one morning and said okay, we will declare this day Emancipation Day. It was preceded by a process of national discussion, consultation, and agitation, so if one in this case now contemplates some kind of change, we felt that a similar process should have taken place,” he said.
Mutema said citizens should go beyond recognizing just one day in Caribbean African history and seek to understand the wider concept of emancipation, as well as embrace more of the culture and traditions daily.
Had there been consultations, he said, these issues would have been put forward to include educational programmes on emancipation, slavery and its long-term effects and how to move forward from it.