Emancipation Day in T&T will now be known as African Emancipation Day.
This declaration came on Thursday from Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who told a post-cabinet news briefing, that some have been trying to co-opt the day.
Rowley said, “The time has come for us to make it quite clear what emancipation means; and who is being emancipated. ”
He said he noticed internationally, others were, ” attempting to climb onto the Emancipation bandwagon and attempting to add appendages to it. ”
He said since Trinidad and Tobago led the world in making Emancipation Day a holiday, he wanted to make it clear that “emancipation in Trinidad and Tobago is as a result of the emancipation of slaves. ”
“There’s no comparison between slavery and any other form of human indignation,” Rowley said. “We are descendants of slaves. We have a duty to preserve our history, or legacy and make our claim without apologies to anyone.”