tidings
Melissa Doughty
Caribbean Freedom Project director Shabaka Kambon made it clear to Homeland Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds on Monday that the Caribbean should not demand reparations for slavery from the British government, but instead demand it.
Kambon, speaking at the official ceremony before the start of the Kambule procession at the Treasury Building, Treasury Street, Port of Spain, was responding to Hinds’ earlier revelation that the Prime Minister had written to the UK’s Prince Charles and Prince William to “phone and thought”. for a system of reparations for the African people.
The procession, organized by the TT Emancipation Support Committee (ESCTT), was the first to be held to celebrate Emancipation Day in TT since the start of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020.
Kambon said, “We are at the point where the powers that be have already started paying reparations. That’s why we want to thank our honorable Prime Minister, but the days of seeking compensation have passed.
“We are demanding reparations and we will receive reparations!”
Dr Rowley’s letter, dated April 24, was posted on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Caricom on June 25 and its opening lines read: “I am writing to you about a matter that is both sensitive and sensitive. of great importance to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean countries and of which you are aware, i.e. reparations for slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, the negative impact of which remains to this day in the societies of the region.
“While I am aware of your acknowledgment of what you call the ‘horrible cruelty of slavery’ during the ceremony for Barbados’ transition to a Republic in November 2021, there remains an outstanding debt to the descendants of those who worked to enrich British Empire, whose present population enjoys the benefits of such work to this day.”
Also at Monday’s ceremony, Hinds announced the creation of an inter-ministerial committee to look at national TT spaces and routes with a view to “transforming the names into one that we would appreciate and recognize better”.
Hinds said: “I can truly tell you, brother Shabaka Kambon, that a few months ago, the honorable Prime Minister raised an inter-minister and other people from the national community and he made a committee.
“And they are now looking around our national spaces and our streets with a view The Cross Rhodes Project for Caribbean Freedom together with the TT Emancipation Support Committee has led the call for years for statues and streets to bear the names of certain figures colonial. changed to TT.”
The Caribbean Freedom Project is known for its work towards removing the name of Viscount Alfred Milner from a hall of residence on the St Augustine campus of the UWI; the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus from Independence Square, Port of Spain; and changes to signage at Lopinot Estate.
Kambon said the government’s move was in line with best practices around the world and a resolution made by the Caricom Reparations Commission in 2017. That resolution states that all statues and memorials dedicated to the people who led the genocide against the natives of Caribs, or those who advocated and practiced the crime of enslaving others and all those who aided them must be removed from public places.
In May this year, Kambon reiterated a call for the government to set up a committee “to identify, destroy, reuse or rebuild any monument, memorial, emblem, sign or symbol or the like that celebrates, commemorates and glorifies racism and white supremacy “. He made the call for the first time in 2020.
On Monday, as Hinds toured members of the public at the Lidj Yasu Omowale emancipation village in the Queen’s Park Savannah, he said the government took the decision to set up the committee.
“We as the Government listen to the feelings of the public. We follow social networks. We have open ears and open minds. It is not new. Since 1970 brothers like Khafra Kambon and others have raised these issues.
“You would have seen a long time ago that Nelson Mandela Park is now that, compared to King George V. And we have done that, but there is a call for us to pick up the pace. And in response, the Prime Minister created a ministerial team along with other technical support.
“And we’re good at work.”
Asked further by Newsday about his reaction to the announcement, Kambon said he was surprised.
“Because, as I told you in our interview, we were preparing a campaign in August to increase and increase our activism in the country.
He said his group also felt joy after it had been two years since he petitioned the Government and Parliament and it was read in the house without a dissenting voice.
He added that he was happy to hear there was a move forward from the authorities, but now details were needed.
He said Hinds assured him that the Caribbean Freedom Project and ESCTT would be invited to participate in the commission
Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell, Foreign Affairs and Caricom Minister Amery Browne, Planning and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles and Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly were also present at the celebrations. Former Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams under the Manning administration was also in attendance.
