tidings
Melissa Doughty
Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Randall Mitchell hopes the TT Emancipation Support Committee (ESCTT) will one day have its own home.
This is among the upcoming plans for the committee that celebrated the opening of the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village on Friday at the Queen’s Park Savannah. The village made its physical return two years after Covid19 restrictions forced it to close.
Mitchell, the committee’s executive director Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada and its director of regional and pan-African affairs, Khafra Kambon were among those who earlier opened the village on July 29.
In media interviews after the village tour, Mitchell said: “I would like to see the Emancipation Support Committee (ESCTT) get a space of their own, a permanent Yoruba village, a permanent place where they can give lectures and tell the world what we have contributed as a nation, our precious sons, our forefathers, to tell the story of TT’s journey in the African diaspora.”
Asked if the ministry will assist the committee in getting its permanent residence, Mitchell said it was working towards it and Uzoma-Wadada said yes.
Mitchell also said it was good to be back in the village after two years. The emancipation celebrations were held virtually for two years due to the Covid19 pandemic.
In his speech, Kambon called on the civil society to continue the emancipation celebrations and holidays long after the ones that started have passed.
He said that the celebrations were initiated by civil society and not by governments.
Talking about the role played by Emancipation Day pioneers like Elma Francois, Lancelot Lane, Makandal Daaga and John Cupid, he said TT should wonder why governments have not given the day the kind of emphasis it deserves.
“In fact, it has become what it is today, not because of the government, but because of civil society’s awareness of the African experience, becoming aware of who we are.
“The realization of the history that we celebrate is the history that took us away from our roots, the history that degraded us as human beings, and this is what makes Emancipation one of the most significant events in human history.”
Kambon said civil society – regardless of the government or its views – must ensure that Emancipation Day remains one of the main celebrations of TT.
He said in a recently published textbook, TT celebration days were marked, but Emancipation Day was not among them.
“It’s a shame. And we as an African people must stop allowing those responsible for those things to continue. We must make ourselves heard and seen not only as Africans, but as Africans who know who we are, who who know our history and who know what we deserve in this society because of what we have contributed to it.
“Our children today are losing out, in greater numbers than anyone else, for the simple reason that when they go to school, education does not motivate them. It leaves out the things that are important to them, the things that would build their psyche, their sense of who they are, and give them pride.”
Kambon said Emancipation Day was above all, giving people that sense of awareness.
He added that he felt great pride that ESCTT played such an important role in its revival.
Uzoma-Wadada, in her remarks, thanked the ESCTT team and many others involved in marking the day by the committee.
