A people without the knowledge of
their past history,origin and culture is
like a tree without roots. ~ Marcus Garvey
The history of the New World since Columbus
re-discovered it is one of conquest, pillage, exploitation and forced migration
of a people. For more than three centuries millions of people were forcibly
transported from their homes in Africa, across the perilous Atlantic Ocean to
the New World, where they were forced to labour on sugar plantations for the
rest of their lives.
This enslavement of a people continued until
events in Europe changed the fortunes of the West Indian and North American
colonies. Humanitarians started questioning the validity of slavery, there was
competition from beet sugar producers in Europe, and the advent of the
Industrial Revolution spawned the rise of a new group of influential men in the
British Parliament who believed that slavery was no longer economically viable.
In 1833 Thomas Buxton presented The Emancipation
Bill in Parliament. The Act was passed and came into effect on 1 August 1834.
On that day, thousands of slaves in the British West Indies became free men and
women. On 1 August 1838, enslaved Africans in the
British Empire won their emancipation from slavery. Emancipation Day is now
commemorated throughout the Anglophone Caribbean as a public holiday or
national observance.
One hundred and sixty four years later, on 1 August
1998 the government of St Lucia declared Emancipation Day a national holiday to
commemorate the abolition of slavery.
Emancipation
was not a gift from Britain or White abolitionists. It came from the
accumulated covert and overt acts of resistance by enslaved Africans.
Emancipation Day sends a clear message to the St Lucian labouring classes that capitalism exploited their ancestors’ labour under
chattel slavery and is doing the same to theirs under wage slavery.
Emancipation Day is a continued reminder of the
need for British imperialism to pay reparations for the enslavement of Africans
and colonial exploitation.
Emancipation Day is a mocking memo to the African
labouring classes that they live in societies in which they do not exercise
political power over economic and social policies that impact their lives.
Emancipation Day is a painful reminder that
working-class African women are still being clobbered by the (un)holy trinity
of patriarchy, capitalism and racism. Slavery was a brutal regime of
exploitation for enslaved African women.
Emancipation Day is communicating to the masses
that they must organize to give birth to the Second Emancipation. This phase of
emancipation calls for the elimination of racism, patriarchy, capitalism and
other systems of oppression that affect the people’s lives. It also demands the
self-organization of the masses.
While it is great for the people to commemorate
Emancipation Day, this day must also be used to reflect, critique, assess,
deliberate and plan for the next year of struggle.
August 1, 1838 or Emancipation Day tells us that
humanity’s quest for freedom cannot be smothered by oppression.
(First piblished in 2018)
