Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has en­cour­aged cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go not to be afraid of em­brac­ing their African her­itage.

He made the com­ment as T&T cel­e­brat­ed the 186th an­niver­sary of Eman­ci­pa­tion. This year marked the first time the Au­gust 1st hol­i­day was re­ferred to as African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, fol­low­ing a change made by the Gov­ern­ment a few months ago.

As cit­i­zens gath­ered at the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade in Port-of-Spain to com­mem­o­rate the hol­i­day, the PM, in his fea­ture ad­dress dur­ing the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee’s Li­ba­tion cer­e­mo­ny, re­flect­ed on the strug­gles of our African an­ces­tors and em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of more young cit­i­zens par­tic­i­pat­ing in pre­serv­ing and con­tin­u­ing T&T’s rich her­itage.

“Let us not be afraid to pro­claim our African­ness, es­pe­cial­ly in to­day’s world where Africa is ris­ing and ris­ing to meet us. Let us not be found want­i­ng. It is an ab­sence of re­spect that was ce­ment­ed on this very ground, in this very lo­ca­tion, when the procla­ma­tion was read say­ing that the en­slaved were free,” Dr Row­ley said.

“In that doc­u­ment, which was the law of the day, no one had, with­out that, con­sid­ered the in­jus­tice of dis­re­gard­ing the con­di­tion, con­tri­bu­tion and sit­u­a­tion of the en­slaved who were now sup­posed to be free. Free­dom is some­thing that we will have to con­tin­ue to de­mand, and re­spect is some­thing that we will have to con­tin­ue to de­mand.”

He added, “Our an­ces­tors were not afraid to re­sist, whether it was Sandy, Dessalines, or Tou­s­saint. We, in the 21st cen­tu­ry, must con­tin­ue the con­ver­sa­tion and the de­mand. So, this morn­ing, in the city of Port-of-Spain, to those gath­ered, those who will join us, and those watch­ing, let us, as one hap­py, strong, re­silient peo­ple, not be afraid of our iden­ti­ty or our his­to­ry. With re­spect for all, es­pe­cial­ly our­selves and our an­ces­tors, let us take up our right­ful place in world so­ci­ety, even in a world that can some­times be harsh and un­fair.”

He said Cari­com lead­ers will be trav­el­ling to the 2024 Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM) in Samoa lat­er this year (Oc­to­ber 21-25) with a plan re­gard­ing repa­ra­tions for the At­lantic Slave Trade.

He added, “Un­til re­spect of our peo­ple be­comes ac­knowl­edged by those who hold au­thor­i­ty, African peo­ple will con­tin­ue to be viewed as sec­ond and third class and we will con­tin­ue to have to fight for free­dom and re­spect.”

T&T made his­to­ry as the first coun­try in the world to es­tab­lish a na­tion­al hol­i­day ded­i­cat­ed to com­mem­o­rat­ing the lib­er­a­tion of en­slaved Africans.

Al­so speak­ing was Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture, and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell, who praised the African in­flu­ence ev­i­dent in all as­pects of T&T so­ci­ety.

“The lega­cy of our African an­ces­tors is ev­i­dent in every facet of our so­ci­ety. Of par­tic­u­lar im­por­tance is the African in­flu­ence on our arts and cul­ture, in­clud­ing our car­ni­val arts, ca­lyp­so, so­ca, and the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the steel­pan—all of which have be­come syn­ony­mous with our cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. This lega­cy con­tin­ues to in­spire and shape us, and we pay trib­ute to those an­ces­tors who paved the way,” he said.

Hun­dreds took to the streets of Port-of-Spain dressed in vi­brant African at­tire and hand­craft­ed jew­ellery to mark the oc­ca­sion. With beam­ing smiles, they danced to the in­fec­tious beat of African drums, chant­ed, and sang in cel­e­bra­tion of African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day.

The pa­rade was led by the Prime Min­is­ter and mem­bers of his Cab­i­net.

The tra­di­tion­al pa­rade con­clud­ed at the Lidj Ya­su Omowale Vil­lage in the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.