Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says today is an occasion to reflect on the profound, inspiring contributions of our African ancestors to the cause of global human freedom and the overall progressive development of the human race.

She adds that citizens should embrace the great legacies of those who through persevered and triumphed until they won their freedom.

Today, T&T commemorates African Emancipation Day.

Read the Opposition Leader’s full message:

Today, as our nation celebrates the 186th anniversary of African Emancipation, I extend my very best wishes to all citizens for a very safe, enjoyable, and successful celebrations.

Trinidad and Tobago was the first independent country in the world to recognize this historic national holiday on August 1, 1985. This inspired many other countries throughout the world to follow our example, including Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Belize and the majority of our other Caricom neighbours, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe,  Canada, South Africa, and several states in the United States of America.

African Emancipation Day memorializes the abolition of enslavement of Africans after four centuries of the truly abhorrent Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which represents one of the most inhumane and atrocious periods in the history of humankind.

Yet, even as we recall this truly agonizing past, we also embrace the great legacies of these courageous and heroic African ancestors, who, through unshakable faith, remarkable strength, and inimitable endurance, persevered and triumphed until they won their freedom.

Further, just as their fore-parents played a major role in creating the economic, social, and cultural foundations upon which the Western Hemisphere’s societies were built and progressed, the descendants of these courageous Africans have also made, and continue to make, significant contributions to every cherished sphere of our national, regional and global development.

From sports to academia, law, business, medicine, politics, science and technology, literature, journalism, cuisine culture, music, dance, theatre, painting, and social and political activism—there is truly no area of our progressive development as a nation, region and world that has not been gifted with the immense talents and innovation of our great African ancestors and their descendants.

African Emancipation Day therefore gives us an occasion to reflect with deep appreciation and gratitude on the profound, inspiring contributions of our heroic African ancestors to the cause of global human freedom and the overall progressive development of the human race.

Happy African Emancipation Day to all!