Emancipation Committee head: Remove, rename colonial monuments

As the country prepares to celebrate Emancipation Day, chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada renewed her call for the Columbus statue to be removed and Oxford Street in Port of Spain renamed Kwame Ture Street

The statue is in Columbus Square, Port of Spain, on the corner of Independence Square and Duncan Street.

Ture, a political activist formerlly known as Stokely Carmichael, was born on Oxford Street, Trinidad in 1941 and grew up in America. He was heavily involved in the civil rights movement in the US and is associated with the Black Power movement.

Uzoma-Wadada, speaking at the Port of Spain City Corporation council’s monthly statutory meeting at City Hall on Friday, said Emancipation must be seen as an ongoing process. And part of this process includes dismantling Trinidad and Tobago's colonial legacy.

In a subsequent interview with Newsday she said,“Emancipation is a process and we are hoping to make steps towards the full emancipation of Africans. It did not only involve self-repair – trying to heal from the trauma – it also speaks to reparative justice, with efforts being made on the powers that be to ensure that Africans are compensated and the different ways they can be compensated.

“Also we have to decolonise and remove the colonial legacy. If we continue to think with the colonial mentality and maintain laws and attitudes that are typical of the colonial master, then we are not helping the process of Emancipation.

"That’s why the removal of the Columbus statue will help carry forward the process. We can’t say we are free when we walk and all around us there is representation, not of myself, in which I can be proud and strong, but there is a representation of the master. Every street name, infrastructure, government system, images, statues, represent him.”

Uzoma-Wadada said Emancipation must transition away from a celebration of freedom “to a celebration of oneself.

“At that time those people wanted to create a society that was a reflection of themselves…We have to start to recreate our own society.”

In 1985, TT declared August 1 Emancipation Day to mark the 1834 declaration of the Abolition of Slavery Act.

Last year the Prime Minister, along with former minister of community development, culture, and the arts Nyan Gasby-Dolly, unveiled the Emancipation Monument to commemorate Emancipation celebrations.

The monument hangs in front of the old Treasury Building, Port of Spain where the annual Emancipation Day commemorative procession usually begins. Uzoma-Wadada said this move was a big leap, but the progress must not become stagnant.

“We have the power to make the changes we want. Just as Charlotte Street was renamed China Town, Port of Spain has the power to make this change.”

Mayor Joel Martinez said the corporation will continue to encourage any development that would reflect the people of Port of Spain and by extension the country.

For 2021, Emancipation celebrations will be hosted virtually. There will be entertainment and a feature address by Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchel.

Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds will deliver remarks on behalf of the prime minister.

The virtual event can be viewed on the committee’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.