Reporter
carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
The committee set up to review and report on the placement of statues, monuments and other historical signage says Wednesday’s incident, where participant Frank Ferrier interrupted Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) member Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada's presentation, will not be tolerated in future engagements.
“We deeply regret the disrespectful interruption that occurred and extend our gratitude to the other contributors and participants for their dignity and respect in sharing their diverse perspectives,” the committee said in a statement yesterday.
Member Lawrence Arjoon said the outburst, where Ferrier told Uzoma-Wadada to “go back to Africa,” not only diverged from the purpose of the discussions but failed to reflect the sentiments of attendees.
Cultural activist Attillah Springer called for Ferrier to leave the consultations after the outburst, saying she did not want to spend energy focusing on the “fossils in our society” who are not interested in the future.
“In the same way that he’s asking for us to regard our history, I am also asking for him to regard nuance and informed history that is not Eurocentric and not the product of a colonial education,” she said.
Springer said she’s been back to Africa several times and loves it there.
“It’s not the insult that he thinks it is and I would beg him to do a little more reading so he understands that when he wants to insult people and shout them down, he should be coming from a place of information. As far as I am concerned telling people to go back to Africa just shows the amount of ignorance he has with our relationship with the continent,” she said.
Springer believes Ferrier attended the consultations with an agenda and was not open to respecting the views of others.
Abeo Jackson, a member of the Merikin Heritage Foundation, described Ferrier’s actions as vile “especially to the elders in the space.” She said free speech comes with social responsibility and this is why re-education needs to take place after the removal and renaming of symbols and monuments.
Caribbean Freedom Project founder Shabaka Kambon said Ferrier “really answered the question on why we need to remove the ships, why we need to end the open glorification of Christopher Columbus.”
“The tragedy of it was the way Africans and Indians and other non-white people in the room, the way they acted so demurely to someone who was so outrageously out of line, and again that is another feature of the cast. It’s okay to use that tone, you go back to Africa, you are a bunch of savages...your tradition wear a bunch of costumes why you doh wear clothes? The way we responded is really a reflection of the impact of these colonial values that exist in our public space,” he said.
First Peoples Grand Chief Eric Lewis said Ferrier was miseducated. However, he said it was good to hear his comments because it shows the work that needs to be done.
“It gives you bearing of what to teach and what’s going on in common society today because his views are views that many others like him with the same cultural upbringing would have experienced in society today,” he said.
Wednesday’s public consultation at the Government Plaza Auditorium, Port-of-Spain, was the first of a series to come. So far, the committee has spoken to 43 stakeholder groups.