Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Kei­th Row­ley on the oc­ca­sion of African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day says African peo­ple must con­tin­ue to de­mand free­dom and re­spect from the world. 

He made the state­ment on the steps of the Trea­sury Build­ing in light of an im­pend­ing 2024 Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing in Samoa in Oc­to­ber. 

In that meet­ing, CARI­COM is set to put for­ward its case for repa­ra­tions af­ter slav­ery. 

"So when we meet in Samoa, the Caribbean lead­ers took a de­ci­sion this week to very force­ful­ly speak to the Com­mon­wealth as one voice; and there's one par­tic­u­lar coun­try with a new king, and a Labour Gov­ern­ment with an out­stand­ing man­date, and we look for­ward to the re­ac­tion in Oc­to­ber.  I be­lieve that 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 have to con­tin­ue to fight for free­dom and re­spect"

Row­ley praised Sir Hi­lary Beck­les, Chair­man of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) Repa­ra­tions Com­mis­sion who has been lead­ing the dis­cus­sions through­out the re­gion and be­yond on the is­sue. 

Dr. Row­ley al­so called on more young peo­ple to join the cel­e­bra­tions be­cause with­out them "the fight will not be as ef­fec­tive as it should be". He said a lot of young peo­ple are un­aware of their his­to­ry.  

He said, "It needs to be taught. it needs to be spo­ken about. It needs to be lived."

"Let us as one, hap­py, strong, re­silient peo­ple not be afraid of our iden­ti­ty; not be afraid of our his­to­ry; but with re­spect for all, par­tic­u­lar­ly our­selves and our an­ces­tors, take up our right­ful place in the world so­ci­ety and the world that we live in which is some­times so harsh and so un­fair," Dr. Row­ley said. 

In April, Dr. Row­ley an­nounced the Eman­ci­pa­tion Day hol­i­day be re­named African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day.