In Trinidad and Tobago, the nation will be celebrating Emancipation Day on August 1. I’ve never noticed that Emancipation Day is 4 days after the anniversary of the attempted coup in 1990.

This is an annual holiday that celebrates the liberation of slaves from physical captivity a long time ago (1498 I believe).

In recent times in TT there’s been a really strong Pan-African focus, in an attempt to fete the nation with African culture and such. There would be events focussing on Afro Consciousness (I smile at the ironic way that statement is written, like can you have a Conscious Afro?), where African and African-derived peoples people, to be quite honest, I never really feel it, like, I’m intrigued by African culture and all that, but I just don’t get the reason for the strong focus. I suppose in the back of my mind it’s not that relevant. Like, it’s great to see this or that person from Ghana or Ethiopia or some other West African state, but while their stories and life choices may be inspiring, i dont need them necessarily to moving on a path towards righteousness, success and so on…

So I read this article today in the newsday (http://newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,83380.html) by Marion O’Callaghan. She was talking about some guy named Aimé Cézaire. He was a Martiniquan who is credited at founding something called negritude.

She started off her article by making the point, that in 13 years, with oil on the drip in TT (by and large the nation depends on oil for export), those who sought to qualify with education would be in a better position to contribute and influence society than those who wouldn’t.

Out of the 100 SEA (Secondary Entrance Exams) top results, children from largely East Indian communities numbered 61. Twenty-two places went to children from mostly African communities. Having painted this backdrop, the asked the question, with all this Afro Consciousness going around, why wasn’t more concern being placed on African Intellectuals like Césaire and how they struggled and influenced their societies.

The article goes into more detail which I won’t continue to reproduce here, but this stood out to me, it impacted me as something I could work with, in terms of Emancipation and the places where emphasis can be placed. I’m not one to de-emphasize and discard culture, but maybe instead of touting Emancipation via African dancers and drummers and singers, we can do more, create more, by way of Avenues for helping African peoples in Trinidad and beyond, see themselves and make better choices.

13 years isn’t even long term.