Emancipation plaque for Treasury building

After hearing of a request by the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) for a plaque to be placed at the Treasury building to commemorate the proclamation of Emancipation, the Prime Minister said it would be done in time for next year.

Addressing hundreds gathered outside the building at the start of the Emancipation parade yesterday, Dr Rowley said, “You say we meet here every year for this occasion. You say you want a plaque to on this building. The plaque is to say this was the place where the proclamation was read and that makes this place special and important. I say we must do that!”

The people applauded.

Before that, Rowley thanked Khafra Kambon, ESC chairman, “for keeping us on track, looking firmly ahead with no intention of turning back., instilling in us that requirement, first and foremost, to know who we are.

“It is important that we recognise that we need to know who we are, for fear that we may disconnect ourselves from our legacy, one of pain and suffering, but one of great promise, one that ended with the freedom to be had and an emancipation to be gained.”

Rowley told the gathering symbols are important, holidays too, for reflection, busts and statues because they reach out to a people and draw them to remember, because they can so easily forget.

“If we have not been properly educated on the facts of our circumstance, if we forget, we can lose our way in a very competitive society and world. We can also find ourselves victims of self-loathing, self-flagellation, accepting instances or periods of low self-esteem.

“All of these are to be rejected out of hand, because we are equal to any, better than none, but equal to any and inferior to none.”

He said it is important for children know where they come from, what can country has done, who they are and what they can and must be.

He then spoke of the recently launched government-sponsored history textbook, which he said would be available to primary and secondary children, those in universities and in the bookshops.

“Education is the key, knowledge is the power,” he said.

Earlier in the morning, scenes leading up the proclamation of emancipation were re-enacted outside the Treasury building before a handful of people.