PoS Corporation: Should Columbus be removed?

THE Port of Spain City Corporation wants to know if the Christopher Columbus statue should be removed. On Thursday, the corporation posted a poll on its Facebook account to generate responses from the public on whether the memorial statue should be removed.

The poll asks: Should the Christopher Columbus memorial in Columbus Square be removed? The options are: Yes, No or, I’m not sure. The message on the polls said petitions have been signed to remove the statue and asked if it should be removed. “An online petition has been signed by various sectors of our nation’s public, including some stakeholders for the removal of a memorial of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Square, PoS, in solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter movement. It said the memorial, on the corner of Independence Square and Duncan Street, was unveiled by Governor Young in 1881. A (painted)bronze statue “stands in the middle of a fountain in the Square as a tribute to Christopher Columbus who was credited with the rediscovery of TT in 1498.”

The statement pointed out that statues of figures with links to slavery and monuments and memorials that celebrate “racist history” have been toppled in the US and UK in recent days. “Therefore, calls are being re-ignited by citizens to remove the Christopher Columbus monument and the like,” the poll’s introduction said.

As of Friday, there were over 400 comments in the comment section on the post, with the majority in favour of removing the statue and replacing it with statues of men and women of honour or erecting a monument to honour the First Peoples’. Others admitted they were on the fence, since TT’s history cannot be erased. Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez said the council was open to discussions on the removal of the statue in the interest of TT. He said the discussion to came up two years ago. He also said the Warao Nation queen has also asked for its removal on behalf of the First People.

Martinez said he was happy to see the type of discussion taking place, adding that steps will be taken by the council to find out what needs to be done to remove it, if it comes to that, and the get the members’ votes before approaching the government.

“Maybe the time is now,” he said, but emphasised that the right choice needed to be made and he wanted a wide cross-section of views on the removal,” he said. Also on Thursday, queen of the Warao Nation Donna Bermudez Bovell called on Mayor Martinez for an urgent meeting to discuss the removal of the statue.

“Archaeological evidence shows that the indigenous people of this country have been here for at least 7,500 years and that Port of Spain was an important indigenous settlement,” Bermudez Bovell said, and lamented that this was not reflected in the built environment of the city, which prefers, “even now, to celebrate the architect of native genocide.”