by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
On Saturday August 1, TT will once again observe Emancipation Day. On this day in 1985, TT’s Government declared Emancipation Day a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834.
We recall that although The Abolition of Slavery Act was passed in August 1833 and came into effect on August 1, 1834, slavery was not really abolished in the British Caribbean until 1838. After 1834 a “new raft of law-and-order measures” came into effect. “Under the new ‘apprenticeships’, newly ‘freed’ people were still expected to remain on the plantations and put in 10-hour days. Absenteeism would result in imprisonment in one of the many new jails (equipped with treadmills) that were being built to contain recalcitrant workers. Additional tiers of ‘special officers’ and stipendiary magistrates were created to police the changes. ‘Apprentices’ could still be flogged without redress; females included…The effects of emancipation in the British West Indies varied from island to island. The apprenticeship scheme would come to an end only in 1838” (www.understandingslavery.com).
I wonder how many of our educational institutions teach our children about their history and about the many struggles/rebellions/uprisings by enslaved African peoples to achieve their freedom?
As someone who has African blood running through my veins, my heart bleeds for our people. What does Emancipation mean to people of African origin in TT today? TT has gained Independence and Republican status; we are in the throes of election campaigning, and I am yet to hear how we plan to make equality and equity in our beloved country a reality.
It was Gandhi who said: “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
Our streets continue to be stained with the blood of our people and unless statistics prove me wrong, most of those who die from violence are of African origin, particularly our black youths. Check the ethnicity of those in our orphan homes and those who eke out a living on the streets. Has Emancipation brought justice for the African?
Having applied Catholic Social Teaching to the concrete reality of life in TT, I dare anyone to try to convince me that our democracy is working for all our people! As we strive to create infrastructure to facilitate innovation and creativity, do we care about those who will be left behind?
The Vatican II document: Gaudium et Spes, reminds us that: “A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the transcendent dignity of the human person…Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person, since the order of things is to be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.”
In December 2014, in his response to the epidemic of violence in the USA, Deacon Keith Fournier, Editor in Chief at Catholic Online, stated that the violence is not caused by guns or knives. His words are pertinent to us also in TT. He said: “We have lost our true north as a nation. Finding true north is indispensable for navigating on land, sea or air. That is why the expression is a metaphor. It is often used in self-improvement books or books on spirituality which seek to help the reader find meaning, purpose and direction in life. We must again find our true north as a nation if we want to find the path to take us out of this present darkness. That will require us to once again embrace the core conviction that every single human life has dignity. Human persons are created in the image of God. They have an inherent dignity precisely because of that fact – at every age and stage of their lives.”
As we prepare to observe another Independence Day on August 31, let us pledge to build inclusive communities. Listen to the wise words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
Catholics, now is the time to heed the words of Pope Francis, who, in his recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, calls us to embrace and promote an integral ecology. We must “integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
