Children dancing
The Caribbean Region Observes Emancipation Day
Written by: A. Felecia Valenzuela
Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and their South American and CARICOM neighbour Guyana, all observed Emancipation on August 1st. This day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States. It’s a day to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people of African descent.
Here in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a call for African history to be a part of the school curriculum when it is revamped. This call comes from Chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee, Khafra Kambon. Following the opening of the Lidj Yasu Omawale Village at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Kambon told the media this was his recommendation in light of current economic challenges facing the nation. Kambon’s statement is in relation to the theme of this year’s celebrations of “Empowerment To Face Today’s Challenges”. He says the curriculum must stimulate pride in a people who have been deprived of their identity for centuries.
In Trinidad the five-day celebration which began on July 28th included, among others; ancestral veneration at the All Stars pan yard, the site of the historic Kambule riots and a dramatic reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at the site of the Treasury Building on Emancipation morning.
Meantime, over in Guyana, the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA) held its annual Emancipation Day celebrations at the National Park. The event saw citizens of different ethnicities dressed in both traditional and modern African clothing, as they celebrated what has come to be known as “a day of freedom”
In Jamaica, there was a re-enactment of the reading of the Emancipation Declaration in town centres especially in Spanish Town, which was the country’s capital when the Emancipation Act was passed in 1838.
It should be noted that The first country in the world to commemorate Emancipation Day as a national holiday was Trinidad and Tobago, in 1985.
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