File photo: Performers at the Emancipation celebrations at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s in 2022. Photo: Office of the Prime Minister
It’s now African Emancipation Day.
This was a decision made by Cabinet on Thursday.
Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall on Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
On August 1, 1985, Emancipation Day was declared as a national holiday in Trinidad and Tobago.
Dr Rowley said: “The time has come for us to make it quite clear what Emancipation means, and who’s being emancipated and from what.”
He said, “At the international level… there are other people attempting to climb on to the Emancipation bandwagon and are attempting to add appendages to it.”
Dr Rowley said: “We in Trinidad and Tobago who led on this matter will have none of it and we make it quite clear that Emancipation in Trinidad and Tobago is as a result of the emancipation of slaves; and there’s no comparison between slavery and any other form of human indignation.”
He said, “We, the descendants of slaves, we have a duty to preserve our history, our legacy, and make our claim without apologies to anyone.”
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