Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has broken his silence on Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s ‘slave-master’ comment.
In a post on his Facebook page the Prime Minister included a link to a clip from the popular 1970s movie ‘Roots’, in which African slave Kunta Kinte was ordered whipped by a slave-master to force him to accept his new name, ‘Toby’.
The Prime Minister’s post was made with the words, “Susheila, that’s how we got the name!”
Persad-Bissessar had last week objected to Housing and Urban Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis calling her by her full name, “Kamla Sushilla Persad-Bissessar” at a public meeting in Arima.
At a UNC meeting last Thursday, Persad-Bissessar said that the Housing Minister’s name was that of a slave master.
The 1.45-minute clip posted by Dr Rowley, showed Gambian slave Kunta Kinte being beaten by another African slave for slave-master John Waller on a Virginia plantation.
The post appeared on Dr Rowley’s Facebook page around 6 pm, prior to the UNC’s weekly Monday Night Forum.
UNC Senator Anil Roberts referred to the post at the meeting, claiming that Rowley was adding fuel to the flames “instead of being a statement, calming the flames.”
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