Bigger Emancipation celebrations next year

Minister with responsibility for Culture Senator Dr Shantal Dr Munro-Knight has pledged that the Government will provide resources to ensure Emancipation celebrations are bigger and better from next year.

Acknowledging the low turnout at this year’s commemoration held at the Emancipation Statue at Haggatt Hall, St Michael this morning, Senator Munro-Knight in her remarks assured the Pan Africanists that every effort will be made to ensure more Barbadians observe and celebrate the significant holiday.

“I want to say to you that as long as I am the Minister with responsibility for Culture, from next year this celebration will be bigger. That we will put more resources behind it, that we will have a celebration that is [a] remembrance of what we had before, when we had 3000 and 4000 people here, because we will invest in the education, we will invest in the public awareness that is necessary to ensure that our young people are here, that other young women like me would understand and connect with the history and with the journey,” she said.

Minister Munro-Knight also committed to working with the Pan Africanist community to promote emancipation awareness and make sure that next year Barbados has a bigger emancipation season, one that is grounded from start to the end.

“And I am always one to have a very honest conversation, and they [Pan Africanists] did come to me and say ‘Minister we feel a little bit left out of this process and we really want you to dig deeper’. And I am going to recognize that and I am always one to say I recognize, I reflect, and then I course correct. That’s who I am and because of that we are here,” she said.

She said the emancipation story of resistance must be told, as she also commended the young people from the Israel Lovell Foundation for consistently performing at the celebration every year.

“They too carry that story in that drum. I felt it as I came here, that there was an echo, an echo that was coming through. There is an echo of liberation; there is an echo that Barbados is on a journey for progress. It is not just about economic progress, but there is social progress that comes in awakening, in a cry for liberation,” she said.

Minister Munro-Knight also lamented that oftentimes, the stories of women are untold in the struggle that led to emancipation. She stressed that women, like men, also carried the journey of struggle on their backs.

The Senator said the Division of Culture, under her leadership, is committed to developing a booklet that will tell the stories of the women of Barbados who were freedom fighters and who struggled.

“We will tell those stories frontally and bring them to the fore and we will have a conversation with the Ministry of Education to make sure those stories are embedded frontally within our education system. So, I salute all of you, sisters and brothers. Happy Emancipation Day,” Munro-Knight said.

Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong, during his speech, reminded those gathered that August 1, 2022 marks 25 years since the first official Emancipation Day ceremony was held at the Bussa Statue.

He said it was at that time that the then former Prime Minister Owen Arthur led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) decision to make August 1 a public holiday.

Comissiong said thousands of Barbadians converged at that statue to mark the historical moment in 1997.

Noting that emancipation is a process, he declared that over the past year, Barbados has made very significant progress. He said one year ago when the country commemorated Emancipation Day, the British monarch was still the head of state.

“We have removed from ourselves that badge of shame. The British didn’t do it for us; we removed that badge of shame. A year ago we did not have official embassies on the continent of Africa. Now we have embassies in Ghana and Kenya. The embassies exist, we have ambassadors, it is up to us now to make those embassies meaningful,” Ambassador Comissiong said.

The Emancipation Day 2022 celebration was a colourful experience involving officials, pan africanists, members of the Spiritual Baptist Church, the Israel Lovell Foundation and others. There were lively performances which included drumming, praying, singing and acknowledging the presence of the ancestors.

Officials and members of the public also laid wreaths at the Bussa statue. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)