Emancipation: For All Oppressed Peoples

THIS WEEKEND, people of African descent all over the Caribbean will begin a month of reflection and celebration as we commemorate Emancipation Day of 1838 and what it means, and should mean, to freed exslaves. In what was called the British West Indian colonies, August 1 is our signal day, marking the coming into effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. The dates for ending this inhuman bondage differed from region to region but underlying it all is a recognition that human slavery is not a condition that humans should ever endure and must NEVER, EVER BE TOLERATED.

So, we had August 1 in the British Empire, which was supposed to be so BIG that the sun could never set on it -wherever one roamed there would always be a colony of Britain. In the USA however, it took a call to arms and the American civil war to get what is called “Juneteenth” today, the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865. Various armed uprisings also weakened the colonial (Spanish) Empire leading to the end to slavery, Brazil being the last in Latin America in 1888. The dates varied but not the inhuman nature of human slavery, especially when it was linked to racism.

Our colonial HIS-story tried to paint a picture of some cruel, some “benevolent” slave owners, some of whom were so “kind” and concerned about our welfare that they helped to convert us to Christianity but history is there with all its brutal landmarks to let us understand the horrible journey that our forefathers and mothers had to endure. There are some countries, primarily in Latin America, where the indigenous people fought for their freedom and the repression, in Mexico, Colombia etc was very brutal.

In our case in tiny Yurumein, the Garifuna and Kalinago fought too, and were brutally punished for it. Indeed, in this little homeland of ours, the resistance of the indigenous people held up the fullscale institution of slavery, for it was not until superior arms gave the British the upper hand, that plantation slavery triumphed. In trying to understand our history, that fundamental fact must be grasped. The so-called big-wigs of the British army and navy had to be called in to subdue the Kalingo and Garifuna.

National liberation and the dismantling of colonialism were tasks that our liberation fighters did not shirk. We paid a heavy price

for it but such is the cost of freedom. Those of us who thought that we were “conscious” by the fifties, could afford to engage in fruitless debates about whether emancipation was real. We had no chains on wrists and ankles. No whips on our backs, did not have to put up with the abuse of our women and children by the white oppressors. I wonder how many of us, shackles removed, would have questioned emancipation in 1838.

Wars of national liberation have a terrible cost.

In addition, the colonisers painted a picture of liberation fighters as being “savage”, not human. This in turn gave them an excuse for their own cruelty and brutality. We can take as a fine example, the Israeli brute Netenyahu who described the Hamas fighters who attacked Israel in October 2023 as “savages” and “beasts”. What description can we give to the mass muderers now?

Dehumanisation is their way of covering up their inherent brutality. Worse, they attempt to use the “Holy Books” to cover up their crime. Mass murder and genocide are what the whole world is witnessing courtesy of modern technology. If the technology had been available in 1700 or 1800, we would have been able to see for ourselves. Can’t we then, in the spirit of Emancipation say a collective prayer for the Palestinian people, for their Children, for those who pass under Samson’s gate of Gaza. Emancipation is a collective experience.

_ Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.