'Reawakenng the Spirit of Liberty'By Joan Rampersad Friday, July 30 2010
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Khafra Kambon...
This year marks the 172nd Anniversary of our ancestors’ emancipation from chattel slavery in Trinidad and Tobago, the then British colonies of the West Indies and elsewhere in the world where Britain had enslaved Africans.
This year, 2010, also marks the 40th Anniversary of the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago, which had taken shape over a two year period. Beginning with being in solidarity with Walter Rodney, to the 1969 struggle at Sir George Williams University where students at UWI, St Augustine prevented Governor General Michener of Canada from speaking on the campus.
Then in 1970, the aggrieved people challenged the status quo and, in the process, got the Government to begin to seriously address some of the disadvantages and indignities that Black people were facing every day in some of the major institutions of this country.
During her welcome address at the launch of the 2010 Emancipation Celebrations and Kwame Ture Memorial Lecture Series, Tracy Wilson, Director of the Public Education Committee stated: “Some of the advances of the 1970’s have been eroded as overt racism, again made its presence felt in the race-based clubs, the sexual exploitation of our young women by others, the ensnaring of some of our young men in criminal activities and the lack of positive information about Africans in the schools’ educational material. Thus this year the Emancipation Support Committee intends to invoke that desire for reclamation of our authenticity, cultural integrity, sense of justice and fair play. Hence our Theme for 2010 is “Reawakening the Spirit of Liberty.”
Following the Grand Opening of the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the National Stadium last night, 2010 Emancipation celebrations will continue today with an International Trade Symposium at the Trinidad Hilton from 8am - 4 pm, while at the Village from 9 am to 3 pm there will be the Youth Day event, after which a Youth Steel pan concert will feature Exocubs, Starlift Juniors, St Margaret’s Boys’ RC School and bptt Renegades Youths.
Later at 7.30 pm at the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village, the seniors will be in a concert entitled: Pan Night that features Witco Desperadoes, bp Renegades, Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars, CLICO Sforzata, Arima Golden Symphony, Couva Joylanders and Tripolians.
Tomorrow at 3 pm - 6 pm, Brother Khafra Kambon will feature at “Fashion: Fabric and Fashion Designers/Rhythms of the People”, at the Village. Then at 8 pm, the Griots of 1970 will take over. This show will feature some very prominent calypsonians who composed songs back in 1970 highlighting the cause of the Black Power Movement. Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada, Executive Director of the Emancipation Support Committee, was especially to announce the kaiso bards who will be performing at this concert. They include the Mighty Chalkdust (Dr Hollis Liverpool), Valentino (Emrold Phillip), Black Stalin ( Leroy Calliste), Composer (Fred Mitchell) and Superior (Andrew Marcano). Also performing are Singing Sandra and Kizzi Ruiz, the latter with a focus on Haiti who Uzoma-Wadada stated that this year’s celebrations are with the Haitians in mind and as such a fund has been set up to help the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the country in January 2010.
On Sunday the actual day of Emancipation, activities will begin at 7.30 am outside the Treasury Building on Independence Square, Port-of-Spain with a re-enactment of the Proclamation of Emancipation. This will be followed by the Kamboule procession from the Treasury Building to the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the National Stadium from 9 am to 12 noon. Emancipation Celebrations will continue at the Village in the National Stadium until 7 pm when a Flambeau Procession will move from the National Stadium to the All Stars Pan Yard, Duke Street, Port-of-Spain.
On Monday, the Emancipation holiday from 10 am - 6 pm there is a Family Day/African Food Festival/Fashion Show at the Village, then from 7 pm -10 pm, a Youth Concert.
