Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Organic on July 28, 2008, 06:06:09 AM
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Did you know that-
On August 1, 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the first country in the world to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.
What does emancipation and the day mean to you? Does it have any significance to you personally?
To my fello trinis with an east indian background does have any meaning to you personally?
I think the Concept of freedom is relevant to us now more than ever, with the amount of wealth, prosperity and strife facing Trinidad and Tobago. We have the potential for greatness but will this potential be realized?
I welcome you to share ideas, opinions and experiences here. Keep the dotishness to a minimum!
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Nice post organic
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As long as it means a day off from work or school, I think people embrace most holidays.
On Independence day I doubt that anyone stops to ponder the significance of independence before cracking a beer and dropping a slab of meat on the grill.
With religious holidays, there may be a bit more thought regarding the meaning of the holiday itself and the desire to recognize it/celebrate it...For non-religious nat'l holidays, it's a day off from work so ppl just give thanks....
I'm not indian, but when I lived in Trini, I looked forward to Divali and Indian arrival day, as much as I did to independence day, emancipation day and whateva else there was, simply because it meant that I could party the night before, sleep in the next morning....and breeze for the rest of the day....I have a feeling that that's the common sentiment regardless of racial background.
..Most, if not all native Americans ignore Thanksgiving for obvious reasons.
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Good post Bamboo!
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Ah jus come from de village in de stadium, drink some beers with mih bro Brother Resistance (he was drinking mack ).
Dey have a psoter up against the jean pierre fence (an obscure location) , the postter had Ture, Kambon, Butler, Barette and Cristina King.
Ah say to mih breds "who is Christina King?" he tell mih " It look like ah fella" anyhow ah ask about 10 passerbys who that is and is only when ah hook up with ah fella call Tracy Wilson ah get the info.
So the emancipation question is " who is Christina King and what did she do for the Trinidad and Tobago African?"
Do not google the answer , ask yuh family , friends or any Trini you know.
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Fishs,
I did not know you know Bro. Resistence. I know from QRC and EDR. Tell him Pedro say hello!!!
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Fishs,
I did not know you know Bro. Resistence. I know from QRC and EDR. Tell him Pedro say hello!!!
;D ;D
Yeh I guess you did not realise I'm an old QRC man mihself. ;D ;D
Will pass on the sentiment.
Ah suppose ah too difficult question would be " What is Bro Resistance christian name and how he took up the moniker resistance ?
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Ah jus come from de village in de stadium, drink some beers with mih bro Brother Resistance (he was drinking mack ).
Dey have a psoter up against the jean pierre fence (an obscure location) , the postter had Ture, Kambon, Butler, Barette and Cristina King.
Ah say to mih breds "who is Christina King?" he tell mih " It look like ah fella" anyhow ah ask about 10 passerbys who that is and is only when ah hook up with ah fella call Tracy Wilson ah get the info.
So the emancipation question is " who is Christina King and what did she do for the Trinidad and Tobago African?"
Do not google the answer , ask yuh family , friends or any Trini you know.
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
I eh have to google nuttin, i dont know much about her, but i think she was involved in trade unionism and i think she migrated from a small island. There were a few other women involved in trade union also.. cant remeber thier name.
Never heard of Barette
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Ah jus come from de village in de stadium, drink some beers with mih bro Brother Resistance (he was drinking mack ).
Dey have a psoter up against the jean pierre fence (an obscure location) , the postter had Ture, Kambon, Butler, Barette and Cristina King.
Ah say to mih breds "who is Christina King?" he tell mih " It look like ah fella" anyhow ah ask about 10 passerbys who that is and is only when ah hook up with ah fella call Tracy Wilson ah get the info.
So the emancipation question is " who is Christina King and what did she do for the Trinidad and Tobago African?"
Do not google the answer , ask yuh family , friends or any Trini you know.
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
I eh have to google nuttin, i dont know much about her, but i think she was involved in trade unionism and i think she migrated from a small island. There were a few other women involved in trade union also.. cant remeber thier name.
Never heard of Barette
A partial, she was trade union but she also had invovlment in a bigger sphere.
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Freedom for everyone may mean something different. I never felt the sting of massa whip, the pangs of hunger or embarassment and anger of having him bed my wife. Emancipation isnt a release from this of slavery.
Emancipation, my freedom was the ability to go to the river with my padnas and lime with the only fear being the cutass we going to get when we reach home.
Emancipation, my freedom, was not being afraid to go gape on the front page and be hailing out all the lil douagla's and red oman passing through " oh reds, gawd let that tiger free nah it suffocating".... the only fear was that she smile back and wink cause then we woulda have to back up we talk.
Not worrying when i see 6 pm and wondering where my brother was, hoping only, that he use a condom or dat he return raj blues cause raj woulda cuss, dat was my freedom.
Going in all kinda hole all hour in de night to check ah fren, palancing with meh gold chain and meh air jordon and "ben-nin", yuh know what, not fraid ah man rob meh, and even if ah get lock neck, meh life safe.
These freedoms, i see as no longer available, so this emancipation day i see trinidad as a society which has regressed, no has progressed into a new kind of slavery. Slavery which could be worse than those suffered by our ancestors. Its not a white- black slavery. ITS A TRINI- TRINI slavery. When surviving becomes your soul goal, part of our humanity is lost, we no longer can claim to be moral.
I want to see the return of my country's freedom. when the oft uttered "sweet sweet t&t" is relevant now, not nostalgia of when you and i were young or or a refrain from a song..!!
Happy Emancipation Day!!
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Freedom for everyone may mean something different. I never felt the sting of massa whip, the pangs of hunger or embarassment and anger of having him bed my wife. Emancipation isnt a release from this of slavery.
Emancipation, my freedom was the ability to go to the river with my padnas and lime with the only fear being the cutass we going to get when we reach home.
Emancipation, my freedom, was not being afraid to go gape on the front page and be hailing out all the lil douagla's and red oman passing through " oh reds, gawd let that tiger free nah it suffocating".... the only fear was that she smile back and wink cause then we woulda have to back up we talk.
Not worrying when i see 6 pm and wondering where my brother was, hoping only, that he use a condom or dat he return raj blues cause raj woulda cuss, dat was my freedom.
Going in all kinda hole all hour in de night to check ah fren, palancing with meh gold chain and meh air jordon and "ben-nin", yuh know what, not fraid ah man rob meh, and even if ah get lock neck, meh life safe.
These freedoms, i see as no longer available, so this emancipation day i see trinidad as a society which has regressed, no has progressed into a new kind of slavery. Slavery which could be worse than those suffered by our ancestors. Its not a white- black slavery. ITS A TRINI- TRINI slavery. When surviving becomes your soul goal, part of our humanity is lost, we no longer can claim to be moral.
I want to see the return of my country's freedom. when the oft uttered "sweet sweet t&t" is relevant now, not nostalgia of when you and i were young or or a refrain from a song..!!
Happy Emancipation Day!!
Bamboo aka Hoe aka Organic, I think your conclusions about a new type slavery are also reflected in Bob Marley's comments on mental slavery in "Redemption Song"
Redemption Song
Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
---
/guitar break/
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Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs -
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.
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Happy Freedom Day to all
And I pray and hope we all can be free of the chains we put ourselves in on a daily basis :beermug:
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I forget....what does happen on emancipation day?
any parade or procession?...or it does turn into a real 'eating bake and shark on maracas' kinda day
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I forget....what does happen on emancipation day?
any parade or procession?...or it does turn into a real 'eating bake and shark on maracas' kinda day
My guess is that people use it as a day to think about their heritage whilst recovering from a serious hangover.
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Big procession from d Lara 2 d Hasely
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Weary since you are the only local who I can ask ah question and not be bullshit roun' much
You hear anything about this?
One of my friends email me with this side note asking me what I thought bout that. I had to remind the girl I outside looking in, so I throw back the question to her....still waiting ah answer
"Kafra Kambon saying he's going to organise a boycott of those companies which do not support emancipation celebrations/events"
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Did not hear anyting but I can find out and let u know
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Did not hear anyting but I can find out and let u know
actually no doh worry nah....
jus wonderin if he succeeded in his plans :-\
and since when in dey employment standards handbook it was written dat companies mus comply wid dress code per holiday ???
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Is d dress code hetalkin bout I thought was financially supportin d venture. What rubbish I sick like a dawg these days so 2 go 2 wuk yday I just thow on someclose not meh usual african wear so I was not celebratin d holiday loud steupssssssss
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girl is cluth he vex bout. how some companies not allowin dey staff to dress up for dey occasion....ya ever see more ?
big man like he ? steupse
ah waiting for indian arrival day, lemme see if he go open up he ass and talk again
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Dem fellas 4 real y he eh come up wit a strategy 4 dem lil black boys in d east west corridor 2 own some cloth store rather than killin out each other loud loud steups
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'Cana I eh know bout de clothes thing ... However, there is this from today's Express (in the story regarding free funding for PhD graduates (an initiative that I find problematic on a few fronts ... NEVERTHELESS ... ah wonder what Patrick feel bout electoral term limits???):
Chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee Khafra Kambon once again sounded the warning that certain top companies which refuse to provide financial support for annual Emancipation Day celebrations will face an organised boycott.
If these companies continue not to financially support Emancipation Day celebrations, the names of the companies will be publicised, Kambon also warned.
"What is taking place in this society, in many areas of that private sector...is that they have total contempt for African people in society and the reason they have that contempt for us is because we allow them to get away with that disrespect for us as a people," said Kambon
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Excerpt from Express:
"When African people elect a black government to do their affairs. They should," he said, "Deal with all the problems of all Trinbagonians but do not forget the Africans. He said the country is at a time when young men in (the ghetto) are choosing their coffins, as Maximus Dan describes in one of his songs.
"It seems to me as we look around, the state of black Trinidad and Tobago is not as healthy as it ought to be. Even the government has acknowledged black youth is in crisis. I suggest that the legacy of slavery has left deep scars," Cudjoe said.
He suggested a massive mobilsation of black organisations, social workers and university students to assist in transforming minds of young people.
Statements from Prof. Selwyn Cudjoe
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asylum I heard is cloth datz why ah ask weary if she hear
and ah get dat information from 2 people (one dis morning). and both ah dem doh know each other :-\
so again datz why ah ask weary.
thanks for clearing it up doh :beermug:
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'Cana I eh know bout de clothes thing ... However, there is this from today's Express (in the story regarding free funding for PhD graduates (an initiative that I find problematic on a few fronts ... NEVERTHELESS ... ah wonder what Patrick feel bout electoral term limits???):
Chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee Khafra Kambon once again sounded the warning that certain top companies which refuse to provide financial support for annual Emancipation Day celebrations will face an organised boycott.
If these companies continue not to financially support Emancipation Day celebrations, the names of the companies will be publicised, Kambon also warned. Eh???
"What is taking place in this society, in many areas of that private sector...is that they have total contempt for African people in society and the reason they have that contempt for us is because we allow them to get away with that disrespect for us as a people," said Kambon eh???
ah doh understand dat whole paragraph....help please
And furthermore last month big on the newspapers the ministry of education begging parents of students who made below 30% in the SEA to bring their kids to summer classes....ah sure half of dem ain't even reach in front the school gate. Next 7 years these same children looking for jobs and can't get none why ??? Of course the private sector will stare down your resume especially the education part.....Throw blame man, throw blame.
Kambon bawl at the parents first....
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Thany u Trinicana d camp dem bust wide open dey go do d exam next yr score under 30 again and end up in a sec sch 2 fustrate some set ah teachers and it go b d govt fault.
Dey gettin books, transport, breakfast and lunch plus doh not in sufficient quantities but it have social workers in school what dey want bloodddddddddd
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Wars can be fought on more than one front simultaneously. Social responsibility and corporate responsibility can geh lick out at de same time. Why not?
The structure Kambon dealing with dey bears no less responsibility than the other structure dealing with academic outcomes. Further, the structure Kambon dealing wid operates to the equal detriment of qualified resumes coming from those who come from environments where the social responsibility element has been handled.
Kambon's underlying premise rests on Africans being substantial economic consumers but seemingly gehhin no returns invested by way of even symbolic support for an event that, like it or not, is one (among others) that defines Trinbagonian society.
It's an interesting proposition. My caution is that it's a proposal that ought to be refined in its pronouncement because it's a provocative and sensitive issue. I'll use the phrase TT doh like me to use ... public education - in the sense an expansive view of civic responsibility and social education - is required.
What Kambon knows is that the lack of prestige of the lower social economic strata outweighs their market consumerism ... such that no tangible consequences flow from being contemptuous to that constituency. However, the truth is ... consequences do flow although presently they have not presented themselves at the doorstep of the captains of industry.
It's not a question that the private sector MUST contribute ... it's a question of them accepting the morality of contributing.
I suspect that beyond the perceived contempt there is also an unwillingness (from within the private sector) to be seen aligned or assisting with certain ppl toplining the Emancipation remembrance.
Let's see whether the rubber hits the road.
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Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.....
....den some bawling it ain't have no jobs, nobody ain't want to hire meh cause ah black or brown. But you fail to add "black or brown and uneducated" Granted it really don't have jobs out there, and really is not what you know, is who you know. BUT still make yourself marketable nah?
Government and private sectors hiring chinese and foreigners to do dey wuk in construction and ah know half ah allyuh go say is 'cheap labour' dat why.
Not ah shit ah dat....ah carpenter salary is bout 3000-4000 TT ah month. Dey mason is 4000-4500 TT....cheap labour what ?
Another way the money leaving Trinidad. Continue liming by the corner man ::) You think the Government care who gets the money ? Is who doing the business or helping the business grow and how fass it can be accomplished. If you don't want to be part of that, keep liming by dey corner man
Public and private sectors in part with the Government forking out thousands of dollars for Apprenticeship programs advertising all over the place. Where are the young people ?
Having dat craftsmanship 'degree' after your name, nobody cyah make style on ya nuh....(ah using Bakes frien' as ah example here)
Is the same way you having ya masters degree, nobody cyah make style on ya
at dey end of dey day, is ah little bit ah common sense ya know :-\
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Throw this (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161359554) BC Pires intervew with Earl Lovelace into the mix.
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Throw this (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161359554) BC Pires intervew with Earl Lovelace into the mix.
Talk about a conversation @ cross-currents! Pires angling in one way, Lovelace cutting the wave on a different take.
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Throw this (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161359554) BC Pires intervew with Earl Lovelace into the mix.
Talk about a conversation @ cross-currents! Pires angling in one way, Lovelace cutting the wave on a different take.
Funny that you use that analogy as his son is ah real good surfer....must be learn dem skills from he fadder
Only ting is when he refuse to get pin down on the mugabe question..I callin dat a wipeout ;)
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Throw this (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161359554) BC Pires intervew with Earl Lovelace into the mix.
Talk about a conversation @ cross-currents! Pires angling in one way, Lovelace cutting the wave on a different take.
Funny that you use that analogy as his son is ah real good surfer....must be learn dem skills from he fadder
Only ting is when he refuse to get pin down on the mugabe question..I callin dat a wipeout ;)
Dude!!! ... Definite wipeout!
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here's my 2 cents- now worth only about 0.5 cents with inflation running at 11%, and cheese now costing $52 per kg. (my favourite food ;D)
anyhow, kambon wants to insist that all business they ask must agree to pay advertising or just give money to their emancipation efforts. Their efforts are:
1. a street procession. does this mean that the musicians are paid? who gets money from this?
2. booths at the venue to sell merchandise. surely vendors pay for their booths, and they inturn sell merchandise.
3. cultural displays. government pays
4. visits by lecturers who come to tell us about slavery etc. givernment pays.
at the end of the day who goes to these lectures? Maybe 100 people, if so much. they haven't been able to stir any interest in the younger generation in these topics. I can't see how money will help this. young black people (sorry this is a generalisation) are basically uninterested in the past. Most of them are just trying to get through the day. Very few in the 'at risk' areas can think about the future, much less the past.
I guess I sound cynical, but things in sweet T & T are moving slowly. we have some really great young people who do succeed in rising out of this sick society, but they have to also keep a low profile otherwise they put themselves at higher risk.
I'm sorry Mr. Kambon thinks that blackmail (no pun intended) is the way to go, but that's not how you get support- whether clothes or for financial.
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here's my 2 cents- now worth only about 0.5 cents with inflation running at 11%, and cheese now costing $52 per kg. (my favourite food ;D)
anyhow, kambon wants to insist that all business they ask must agree to pay advertising or just give money to their emancipation efforts. Their efforts are:
1. a street procession. does this mean that the musicians are paid? who gets money from this?
2. booths at the venue to sell merchandise. surely vendors pay for their booths, and they inturn sell merchandise.
3. cultural displays. government pays
4. visits by lecturers who come to tell us about slavery etc. givernment pays.
at the end of the day who goes to these lectures? Maybe 100 people, if so much. they haven't been able to stir any interest in the younger generation in these topics. I can't see how money will help this. young black people (sorry this is a generalisation) are basically uninterested in the past. Most of them are just trying to get through the day. Very few in the 'at risk' areas can think about the future, much less the past.
I guess I sound cynical, but things in sweet T & T are moving slowly. we have some really great young people who do succeed in rising out of this sick society, but they have to also keep a low profile otherwise they put themselves at higher risk.
I'm sorry Mr. Kambon thinks that blackmail (no pun intended) is the way to go, but that's not how you get support- whether clothes or for financial.
OR CHILD!!
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correct! :rotfl:
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Taken from the newspaper ..
Did not see the Government bashers put it so here we go..
$4M IS ENOUGH
Kambon pleased as Govt adds another $3 million for Emancipation celebrations
By Camille Bethel camille.bethel@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Jul 26, 2012 at 10:53 PM ECT
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Story Updated: Jul 26, 2012 at 10:53 PM ECT )
Anger has turned to pleasure as the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) yesterday received $2 million with another $2 million promised from the State for this year's Emancipation celebrations.
Speaking with the Express after receiving the first cheque for $2 million from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday, ESC chairman Khafra Kambon said he was pleased as the $4 million was what they had asked for.
"We have gotten what we requested and we didn't expect more than what we requested. The Minister assured us that he is working on getting additional funds and the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism sent us a letter indicating we will be getting $2 million from the Ministry," he said.
"This afternoon I enquired at the Ministry and I was told that it (the cheque) was being prepared. So if it doesn't come this afternoon it will come in the morning," Kambon said.
On July 24, the ESC held an emergency press conference at the Lidj Yasu Omowale Village at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain, to announce that it had refused a $1 million cheque from the government for Emancipation celebrations on the grounds that it was not enough.
Kambon had charged that the Government had reneged on a promise to include funding for the Emancipation Day celebrations in the annual budget and that the committee was disappointed and angered by the lack of financial support for the Emancipation celebrations.
Asked by the Express yesterday about the Committee's accountability for the funds, Kambon said there was thorough accountability by the Committee to the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism.
"It is very detailed accounting and we have done audited accounts. We have even had someone at the Ministry for about three years working with us on the accounting," he said.
This, he said, was what allowed them to know their budget beforehand, and that the Ministry was aware of it.
The ESC's total budget, he said, ranged from between $5 million to $6 million , but this did not include the none-cost items, where people volunteer their services and resources.
"The basic setup of the village is very expensive—putting up the tents, stage, decor and lights .... and we are not even talking activities yet. Anybody who has a sense of events planning would know that $ 2 million would not cut it," Kambon said.
Kambon said the Emancipation activities run from May 25 and last for six weeks, up to the Emancipation week at the Queen's Park Savannah where there are many shows.
"Government funding can't cover all of it, but we have been asking for more than they usually give us because it is our 20th anniversary and our 50th year of Independence...we really wanted to do more," he added.
Kambon said although the Committee assisted with other festivals, they were unable to do so financially because they were currently operating at a deficit.
Commenting on the $4 million in State funds to the ESC yesterday, general secretary of the Maha Sabha, Sat Maharaj, said he was happy for the group, but hoped that the same would be done for Indian Arrival Day next year.
"Well I am glad for them that they are able to get all this amount of money, and once the Treasury can afford it we say increase it. We only got $300,000 from the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism for Indian Arrival which was in May.
"I have no problem with them getting more money because what it will do is set the pattern for us to get more too. We expect that when our turn comes around next year that our figure will be somewhere near theirs," Maharaj said.
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Happy Emancipation day to all Trinidadians and Tobagonians!
Here are some photos I see surfacing online
https://www.facebook.com/OPMTT/photos/?tab=album&album_id=301635320188990
Her are some more
https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10154293982135610/
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Emancipation Day: A time for Reflection
The Nation
The following is an Emancipation Day message from the Chairman, CARICOM Reparations Commission, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
“We join annually with communities across the world in marking the moment in which the crime of chattel enslavement was confronted and uprooted from our existential realities. For us, the moment is August 1; other dates are determined elsewhere and officially recognised.
Marking the moment in a celebratory fashion remains necessary despite the despicable nature of the gesture of Emancipation, legislated by Britain in 1838. It was an act in which black peoples were finally defined by Parliament as property, and their enslavers deemed entitled to compensation for property loss.
Today is an opportunity for descendants of the enslaved, and enslavers, to reflect upon the causes and consequences of these crimes against humanity, and in particular their significance on how we live today, and will in the future.
Rising up from the barbarity of bondage, we have dedicated our development energies to the advancement of democratising social values, with a primary emphasis on building societies that are free and fair; upon platforms of multiracialism and multiculturalism.
As descendants, we celebrate the values of human decency left as an additional burden for our ancestors to carry. Every day they imagined would be an Emancipation day. They protected and projected the best tried and tested human values – joys of family life, fine spirit of community living, vitality of food security and material production, moral commitment to equity and justice, and critically the overarching, indispensable importance of freedom as the source of all happiness.
Effectively transcending and conquering the legacies of enchainment, impoverishment and racial denigration continue to elude us. Residual elements of the plantation-based past continue to shape our societies and determine their trajectories.
This year, we find it necessary to litigate the restoration of democratic rights and citizenship, illegally stripped away by the British government from thousands of Caribbean descendants rightfully living in that country since the immigration door was opened to passengers aboard Empire Windrush in 1948.
Last year, evidence of hostility against the Caribbean community by the British state erupted against the background of data, unearthed by historians, showing that the finance bond, by which the British government raised £20 million in 1834 to pay reparations to slave owners, remained active until 2015.
This fact powerfully shows that, for the British state, the slavery world persisted well into the 21st century, putting to rest its argument that “slavery was a long time ago”. These contemporary examples show how the effects of historic crimes still surround our societies. Emancipation for us remains a work in progress and in no way can be considered a distant event that is settled and closed.
It is specifically for these reasons that we celebrate Emancipation day as a moment in which we demand reparatory justice. The Caribbean calls upon the enslaving governments of Europe, and their national institutions, all enriched and empowered by their crimes against humanity, to return to the region in order to participate in cleaning up their colonial mess. The advancement of economic growth is dependent upon it; social justice is dependent upon it; and a 21st century humanity is dependent upon it.
As we confront the future, let us be guided by Sir Arthur Lewis, who stated in 1939 that the 200 years of unpaid labour extracted by the British from the enslaved people of the Caribbean is a debt that must be repaid to their descendants. This is important, he asserted, if we are to have a fair shot at sustainable development. Pushing ahead with a self-emancipatory agenda is critical, but we must do so fully conscious of this broader context of our development efforts.
Blessings to all on Emancipation Day.”
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HAPPY EMANCIPATION DAY TO EVERYONE!
Researched & Written By Ian Socapro Henry
The Emancipation Day holiday was first declared by the T&T government on 1st August 1985 which makes Trinidad & Tobago the first country in the English speaking western world to officially declare the 1st August as an Emancipation Day public holiday 33 years ago.
Most people are unaware that during the 1800's between 1834 and 1845 (for over a decade) T&T had two annual Carnival celebrations; the Pre-Lent Carnival which was referred to back then as "Jamette Carnival" by the upper-classes who generally stopped having their upper-class Mardi Gras Balls after slavery was abolished in 1834 and there was also the Canboulay Celebrations which was a more African style Carnival that became an annual celebration for a period of a decade plus between 1834 and 1845 on 1st August in celebration of the abolition of slavery.
By the way, the word “Jamette” is derived from the French word “diametre” and this referred to the class of people below the diameter of respectability or the underworld. Essentially Jamettes referred to individuals who were part of the urban working class who lived in the barrack ranges of Port of Spain and San Fernando. In a broader context it also included all those who participated in urban Carnival celebrations after slavery was abolished. A description of Jamettes can be found in the San Fernando Gazette of 1871.
Canboulay is a French-Creole word derived from the French term "cannes brulées" meaning burnt cane. Canboulay is a precursor to T&T Carnival and is also the festival where calypso music has its roots. Canboulay was originally a harvest festival at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part. After Emancipation (1834), it developed into an outlet and a festival for freed slaves who were banned from participating in the masquerade balls – derived from the European Christian traditions of the colonial elite.
Sometime after 1845 the Canboulay celebrations were moved from the 1st August and fused with the more European influenced Jamette Carnival celebrations which was based on many of the characters that were depicted by the upper-classes at the plantation class Mardi Gras Balls during slavery.
So to a certain extent the Emancipation Day Holiday in T&T is a revival of the original Canboulay celebrations that was started by ex-slaves on the 1st August 1834 to celebrate their perceived liberation from slavery when the Abolition of Slavery was announced in Trinidad by the British Governor at the Governor House in Port-of-Spain on 1st August 1834.
What added more energy to the early Canboulay celebrations in Trinidad from 1834 onwards was the fact that the British Governor to Trinidad tried to announce the implementation of a temporary Apprenticeship system in Trinidad (which was really the continuation of slavery by another name) to last until 1840 but the masses gathered outside of the Governor House protested and sang a kaiso composed on the spot by Congo Bara in French-Creole called "Point De Six Ans" ("Not Six More Years"). The growing crowd outside of the Governor House kept drowning out the Governor's announcement about the proposed Apprenticeship system and would not disperse and they eventually forced the Governor to concede that the proposed Apprenticeship system will not be implemented in Trinidad. However the Apprenticeship system was successfully announced and implemented in all the other British colonies in the West Indies and that system was not officially abolished until 1838. This fact also makes T&T the first British colony to unofficially get rid of slavery in 1834 which was 4 years ahead of the other British colonies.
1834 is thus the more accurate year that truly inclusive Trinidad Carnival started and not 1783 as many of us have been misled into believing. 1783 was the year when the French Plantation class introduced their European style Mardi Gras Masquerade Balls to Trinidad to celebrate the wealth and class elevation they had acquired on the backs of the free labour provided by the majority enslaved African population. It should also be noted that the general enslaved African population were not allowed to take part in the plantation class Mardi Gras Balls during slavery. Most of the plantation class Mardi Gras Balls died a natural death in T&T after slavery was abolished as many European planters decided to migrate back to Europe. Post abolition of slavery the early colonial Police force was actually set up in T&T with its main agenda being the protection of the Plantation classes from any possible or imagined retribution from the former physically enslaved African majority.
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Interesting stuff Socapro :thinking:....now getting a chance to take a read.....
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Nice one, Socapro. I agree with Brownsugar. And the word "jammette" coming from diametre is what I had read in a book. The piece I read said since the dry river(St.Anns) river was the boundary, inhabitants in and around the dry river(boundary) were jammette. So from Gorge street going east was all jammette. Haha. What a ting!