‘Not enough being done to promote Tobago heritage’

HISTORIAN Dr Rita Pemberton says she is concerned many young Tobagonians may not appreciate their heritage simply because not enough is being done to preserve it.

She was speaking recently at a lecture series hosted by the Tobago Writers' Guild and Tobago Library Services, Scarborough Library, Tobago.

"We have a Heritage Festival but I am not so sure what we are celebrating there," she told the gathering.

"I looked at last year's Heritage Festival, which ended on August 1. So, I asked, 'What is happening with Emancipation Day?'

"I was told sometimes Emancipation Day gets lost because of Heritage. I said, 'What kind of wrong side story is that?' Heritage was only possible because of Emancipation Day and so you are supposed to end your Heritage Festival on a high on Emancipation Day."

Pemberton added: "So, we are going to have a young population that has little consciousness of the significance of Emancipation Day in a place where Emancipation Day celebrations was one of the first to start in 1838."

Pemberton recalled while Trinidadians were pushing for the Government to institute Emancipation Day, in Tobago the people established it themselves "because they felt it was something to be celebrated."

The historian said not enough is being done to preserve historical sites in Tobago.

Using the site of the old market, uptown Scarborough, as an example, Pemberton said a memorial should be erected there to remember enslaved Africans who were killed and ridiculed.

"The area, now a car park, which adjoins the Tambrin Radio Station, it was the site where captive Africans were bought and sold and the site of human debasement and empowerment because people sold produce and earned something.

"It was also a point of information exchange and organising and maintenance of cultural traditions. It served multiple functions in the era of slavery. And, I think that is something that should never be lost on the population."

Pemberton added: "I am very pained to see the only memorial we have from the 19th century is a memorial of the Courlanders that they set down there. And our visitors go there to see that memorial. They remember with pride what they did here. We don't remember anything with pride apparently."

In her address, Pemberton also complained about the negative impact of people who migrate to Tobago with no fixed agenda.

"When you read a newspaper which tells you X person was apprehended for an attack on visitors and the person come from Arouca, Maloney or some other place, we have to look at how people with non-approved practices come into our space."

Pemberton also recalled trying to take a taxi to the Arthur NR Robinson International Airport.

"It was a PH taxi and the fella didn't seem to know where he was going. So, I said, 'How long yuh doing this?' He said, 'Oh, ah just come up.'

"So, we have people who just come up."

Pemberton said there appeared to be a trend of people coming to Tobago for long weekends "to make a quick change."

"So, when you have any festival and people would be around, yuh come up and run a little PH. We need to look at that.

"We have to have some kind of system where people are not allowed to come and spoil the reputation of the island."