Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and Watchdog Group
“The same way no Jews will overlook the atrocities inflicted by the Nazis, Barbadians must never overlook the significance of Emancipation Day. Indeed, for us it must be seen as even more important than the observance of political independence.” Daily Nation (Barbados) Friday August 1st. 2014
Sometimes words are just words. The editorial quoted above justifies this position. While the nation newspaper was lamenting the fact that Barbadians were generally ignoring the advent of Emancipation Day, the Barbados Today online journal, was wondering aloud, if the day really had any significance. Barbados Today predicted that unless the national conscience is lifted the celebration of the day will fade away. We concur.
It is time to call a spade a spade: Barbadians have never been pro-African and this has its historical roots in being almost ruled or enslaved exclusively by the British slave/colonial masters. To be crude, we are all Anglo Saxon, in one way or another. The powers that be, the black political managerial class, have done little to educate the citizens about slavery, emancipation and the Black struggle, to any significant degree.
The Jews will never allow themselves to forget the holocaust because they see it as an atrocity that cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Hence they will hunt down all those connected to the crime. They have been taught and educated to REMEMBER it. On the other hand we have been taught and educated to FORGET slavery. A few years ago a lawyer/columnist in the Advocate news referred to slavery as an “intermission” (Guyston Mayers /A Guy’s View). That one description demonstrates an unbelievable ignorance of what slavery really is or was.
Throughout the late 60’s and 70’s Barbados was the least receptive Caribbean island to the Black power movement. In more recent times both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party , have been scared to move to Republic status because of the opposition of the powerful white corporate minority and Blacks who cannot mentally make the break from de queen.
To now lament events that geared toward the importance of Emancipation Day are not gathering any momentum, is nothing more than journalistic hypocrisy and crocodile tears. The Festival of the Flesh, otherwise known as Crop Over has taken precedence over reflection of our journey from Africa to the Caribbean because that is where we have collectively chosen to prioritize in our national consciousness.
Children live what they learn. All of the naked revelry and drunken teenagers fallen by the Streets 9 (Rev. Morris/Nation News) is a very real reflection of our current value system. Unfortunately when all the nudity and drunkenness is over, we realize that the Crop of denial and running from our history is not!
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