ESC chair: Emancipation celebrations can earn big money

Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada, chair of the Emancipation Support Committee of TT said it was the duty of citizens, the corporate sector and the government to contribute more to the Pan African Festival TT.

At the launch of the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain on July 27, she said TT declared August 1, a public holiday to commemorate the end of African slavey in 1984, and the proclamation was realised the next year. It was the first independent nation to do so.

Wadada said the committee worked and fought hard and made many sacrifices for the festival, a national heritage event, to be what it was today.

“It is not an Emancipation Support Committee event. We made ourselves the instrument to build it, to grow it, and to make it into what is now called the greatest celebration of Africa outside of Africa.

“We need, as a population, as a people, as a government to understand what we have done. To understand what this festival means and can mean for TT.”

She said in November 2022 Miami-Dade County in Florida passed a resolution recognising August 1 as TT Emancipation Day and this year Washington DC did the same. She believed the festival could generate a lot of income for the country if promoted well and if the state appreciated its value and invested in it well.

Port of Spain mayor Chinua Alleyne said the city was formally collaborating with the committee, and noted it was the first time the country would be celebrating African Emancipation Day as the holiday was previously known as Emancipation Day.

He said in 1914, when the Council was re-established as a city, attorney Emmanuel "M'zumbo" Lazare, who made the first call for the celebration of Emancipation in 1887, took office as a councillor in the first City Council of Port of Spain.

“I say all of that to say that the history of emancipation celebrations here in TT, the history of this festival, and the history of Port of Spain and the city council of Port of Spain are inextricable linked.”

He said the council was proud of the role its forefathers played in supporting the emancipation effort.