Looking back at NJAC's 50 years

Embau Moheni, left, Kwasi Mutema, centre and one of NJAC's founding members, Aiyegoro Ome, right.
Embau Moheni, left, Kwasi Mutema, centre and one of NJAC's founding members, Aiyegoro Ome, right.

TT became the first country to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery in 1834. Emancipation Day was first celebrated in TT on August 1, 1985. It replaced what was known as Discovery Day -- which celebrated the arrival of European explorer Christopher Columbus to these shores in 1498.

The observance of Emancipation Day was precipitated by several factors, chief among them, the 1970 Black Power Movement. One of the leading groups of that movement was the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC).

The Emancipation Support Committee’s website says although, after 1838 (when slaves were actually freed following four years of apprenticeship), there were always unofficial celebrations to mark the commemoration of emancipation but “by the end of the 1950’s the emancipation commemoration had declined considerably. Significantly, however, it was kept alive in small pockets by some elders who felt deeply committed to this sacred memory. A few nationally prominent stalwarts like George Weekes consistently advocated its revival. This was eventually accomplished by the National Joint Action Committee in the early 1970’s.” (ww.emancipationtt.com)

NJAC celebrated its 50th anniversary in February. In this series Newsday looks at NJAC, how the organisation started and its relevance to today’s TT.

A young Makandal Daaga featured in an article at UWI in 1969.

How did NJAC start?

NJAC, formed in 1969, is most known for leading TT’s only revolution: the Black Power Revolution. While the organisation celebrates its 50th anniversary and the revolution’s 49th, some might say the celebrations surrounding the milestone were rather muted. NJAC was jointly founded by the late Makandal Daaga (then Geddes Granger) and others.

Its 50th anniversary on February 26 was commemorated by an interfaith service at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Daaga Auditorium, its new political leader Kwasi Mutema said. This was so for two reasons, he added. One: It fell during the Carnival period. Secondly, the organisation felt an event of a particular type was needed, where thanks could be given “both for those who would have made their contribution and many of whom have passed on.”

Even though NJAC has never won an election nor an electoral seat, its effect on TT and the wider region is undeniable.

NJAC was initially formed as a “as a federation of organisations,” its website says. NJAC’s story begins when on February 26, 1969, in response to a student uprising at the then Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Canada, students of the University of the West Indies (UWI) blocked then Canadian governor-general Roland Michener from entering the UWI campus. The Canadian student uprising happened when complaints were filed against a racist professor who failed black students in his courses. At the time the UWI’s student guild was led by Daaga.

A journal article by Jerome Teelucksingh called The Black Power Movement in Trinidad and Tobago and published in the 2014 Black Diaspora Review said on January 2 1969 “complainants and approximately 200 other students protested by occupying the computer lab at the university.”

Audience at the interfaith service to commemorate NJAC's 50th anniversary at the University of the West Indies' Daaga Hall, St Augustine, on February 26.

It further said the “sit-in” continued until February 10, prompting negotiations which failed and then students rebelled. “The lab was set ablaze when students were attacked by the police,” it added. Teelucksingh’s article then said this uprising was the “beginning of the Black Power Movement in Canada and influenced the movement in Trinidad and Tobago.”

This resulted in the UWI students blocking Michener from entering the university when he visited. The then UWI administration was embarrassed by the student’s action and so considered expelling Daaga, Kambon and Augustus Ramrekersingh but “abandoned the idea, probably fearing more protests.”

Teelucksingh’s article says, prior to NJAC’s formation and the sit-in at the Sir George Williams University, “as early as 1965 the fuse had been lit, which would eventually end with the explosion of the Black Power uprising of 1970 in Trinidad and Tobago.”

During that time period, his article said, in TT there were trade union disputes and in a speech in 1967 former president general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) George Weekes “compared the struggle in North America to the racism faced in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The article added, “The involvement of Caribbean-born blacks in black power in North America and England increased the movement’s appeal among the working class in the West Indies.” The 1969 bus strike, in which the then Transport and Industrial Workers’ Union (TIWU) and OWTU with more than 650 workers took action against the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC), was credited by both Teelucksingh and Kambon as playing a role in the start of NJAC and the Black Power movement. In that attempted strike, the article said, “many union members were fined $10 or sentenced to 14 days imprisonment” and “this treatment of the trade unionists further antagonized their relationship with the government.”

Kambon in an interview with Newsday said NJAC came about during what he described as UWI’s “hot years,” when Daaga became UWI’s guild president.

During those years, Kambon said, “students involved in going out into the communities and talking to people.”

It was also a period of radical thought, he said. During this period global movements like the US’ Black Power Movement were simultaneously occurring. He added that this was the most powerful single influence on TT’s movement.

The February 26, 1969 meeting, which gave birth to NJAC, was originally simply about working together on behalf of the students in Canada, as they faced jail time.

“The thinking was to have a public campaign to push the TT government to get lawyers for them and do something on their behalf,” Kambon said.

He added that a lot of people in the society reacted very strongly against the students blocking a representative of the queen (Michener). “You were seeing some things in the press...to hang us,” Kambon said.

While the meeting on February 26 gave birth to NJAC it was officially some time later that it became a formal organisation, with retired trade unionist James Lynch giving it its name.

“We were a collection of groups that were jointly going to undertake a particular thing.”

The group then started becoming more involved in other national issues. The philosophy then of the university’s student body was that they would be a part of the community and not apart from it.

Kambon recalled that the guild would invite leaders of those community groups (civil society organisation, trade unions etc) to come and talk to students.

He also felt that other global and regional happenings like the March 19, 1969 British invasion of Anguilla, then called Operation Sheepskin contributed to the period’s ideas and fervour.

This operation was intended to put down a two-year rebellion that was brewing. This, however, became a public relations disaster for the British and was later called The ‘Bay of Piglets’ by the world’s press. At the time, the students also protested against this.

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