The blogmaster is sure the significance of Emancipation Day is lost on the majority of Barbadians. In recent days the commentary swirling in the spaces frequented by the blogmaster centred on the cancellation of Crop Over for a second year running, a break from going to work or attending to an activity unrelated to the purpose of Emancipation Day. A key ceremony to celebrate the day at Bussa statue will muster the usual suspects.
On a day that should have deep significance for a majority Black country, one which played a leading role perfecting the slave society model, raises the question – why are a majority of Barbadians numbed to our past? The chorus of Redemption Song by the great Robert Nesta Marley should be recommended listening for all Barbadians
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
‘Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Some say it’s just a part of it
We’ve got to fulfill the book
Bob Marley’s Redemption Song
It is instructive that at this juncture in our history the economy has stalled and we are country saddled with one of the highest debt to GDP in the world. A generation unborn will be subjected to the responsibility of servicing (not repaying) the debt.
A 21×14 country with too many motor vehicles of all engine sizes and makes on the road causing gridlock all hours of the day.
Our supermarkets stocked with too many brands of the same product to appease our taste for foreign.
We are blessed with a large middleclass whose definition of personal achievement is at minimum a 800k mortgage, 2 cars in the driveway and an annual vacation to North America or Europe. The biggest irony occurred in 2018 when the government administered a ‘haircut’ to investments held by many of the middleclass – “Oh what a tangled web we weave…”
The consumption behaviour translates to an oil and food import bill north of 1 billion dollars. This contrast starkly with an agricultural sector that accounts for less than 4% of GDP. “A country that cannot feed itself cannot have self pride….”
Our best large companies are owned by non Barbadians. What is the identity of a Barbadian if we are unable to puff our chest that comes from the confidence of being ‘strict guardians of our heritage, firm craftsmen of our fate’. Is it a surprise we are unable to connect to what Emancipation Day means?
How will we be able to change it? How will we be able to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery? A relevant program of education (indoctrination?) must start in our schools, youth groups, civic organizations, churches etc. In the words of the great poet Maya Angelou – “… if you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centred at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place”.
How do we educate our people to see the benefit of threading our past with the present to be able to experience the best future?
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