Barbadians challenged to embrace their heritage

This message was delivered on Sunday, as the Pan African Coalition of Organisations and the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration took part in a rally to the Emancipation Statue in Haggatt Hall, to commemorate Emancipation Day.

While over 50 participants gathered for the morning’s proceedings, St Michael East Member of Parliament, Trevor Prescod, urged Barbadians to not take the actions of freedom fighters from the past for granted, as they were persecuted within all levels of society, to fight a just cause on behalf of not just themselves, but all locals.

“Men died, [Israel] Lovell went to prison, [Clement] Payne got deported, and they did not live any long lives. They fought for a case and they did what they had to do, and it is our historic duty if we are truly to honour these great men like Bussa, and those other great men that went before us, it’s not about words alone, we have to be true to our historic mission.”

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with Responsibility for Culture, John King, voiced concern with some Barbadians showing complacency with the strides made by Barbados since its independence in 1966.

King said discrimination currently found at all levels of society on the island, are  still proving to be stumbling blocks in the way of more meaningful change for all citizens.

“We can spend our time reminiscing on what has happened in the past, but we have to ask ourselves, what is it that we are prepared to do as individuals and collectively now, so that the future generations that we have coming, don’t have to face the same problems we faced.

“I have a problem in this country where, depending on where you were born, depending on who your father and mother are, which school [you attended] people will either sometimes speak or don’t speak to you. How can you ask me to walk, talk, or take a journey with a person who looks at me as less than himself, based on all of these small silliness? The time has come where we must call out these things, because black people will continue to fool themselves unless they deal with these very individual, but also collective problems, that continue to plague us,” he said.

“The liberation of ourselves must first start with the liberation of the mind, all of the other things will happen organically. If you do not recognize that it is a problem, then the problem will persist because you will do nothing to correct it.” (SB)