The Emancipation Support Committee is suggesting to government the immediate re-establishment and operationalization of the National Reparations Committee.
The Committee said it is responding to the call of the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project to establish a national committee to “identify, destroy, re-purpose or reconstitute any monuments, memorials, emblems, signs, symbols or the like that celebrate, commemorate and glorify racism and white supremacy.’
In a media release on Wednesday the committee said it is also urging the government to formally acknowledge the International Decade for People of African Descent (despite being in its eighth year) and begin implementation of selected actions from the Programme of Activities as they apply to Trinidad and Tobago, especially those which speak to education and calls on Governments.
The committee is also interested in the promotion of greater knowledge and recognition of and respect for the culture, history and heritage of people of African descent, including through research and education and promote full and accurate inclusion of history and the contribution of people of African descent in educational curricula.
It also wants to ensure that textbooks and other educational material reflect historical facts accurately as they relate to past tragedies and atrocities, in particular slavery, the slave trade, the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism so as to avoid stereotypes and the distortion or fabrication of these historic facts which may lead to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
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