MSJ's David Abdulah: Slavery continues today

MOVEMENT for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah said slavery continues today in different forms.

He made the statement in his Emancipation Day message to the nation.

He said the MSJ "deplores the fact that our education system is so deficient in the teaching of our real history – the history of the struggle “out of slavery, through indenture and up to freedom.”

Abdulah said, "We equally deplore the fact that in spite of having more media today – both traditional and social – than ever before, they are all failing to provide us with the information that would enable us to know where we came from, so that we may where we are now and where we have to go."

He claimed this reality is not accidental. "Those who control economic, social and political power, who were described by a great Caribbean thinker, Professor Rex Nettleford, as 'the historical plantocracy, the enduring commission agency class, and the newly arrived technocracy' – do not wish the masses to know their history."

Abdulah said this is why the MSJ continues to advocae for "a revolution of the mind". He paid tribute to cultural icons Singing Sandra, Winston “Joker” De Vignes. Brother Resistance and LeRoy Clarke, who all died recently.

He said these people "through their creative imagination, kept our African ancestry alive in our consciousness and imbued us with the spirit of struggle with which those ancestors overcame centuries of slavery and exploitation".