The con­tin­u­a­tion of an­nu­al Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions will re­quire much greater sup­port than there has been in the past, says Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee (ESC) chair­man Khafra Kam­bon. He is call­ing for "fi­nan­cial sup­port, as well as the com­mit­ment of time and en­er­gy" for the event to sur­vive. Kham­bon, who was in South Africa, had that mes­sage read on his be­half at the launch of the ESC's 20th An­niver­sary of of Eman­ci­pa­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go last Fri­day at City Hall, Port-of-Spain. The theme for this year's cel­e­bra­tion is "For­ev­er For­ward: Re­flec­tion, Re­sis­tance, Re­new­al."

He said in a bid to keep cel­e­bra­tions go­ing, the ESC has launched a "20 for 20" fund-rais­ing cam­paign and ask­ing sup­port­ers and well-wish­ers to each do­nate $20 to sup­port the 20th An­niver­sary. In his speech, which was read by ESC ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Za­kiya Uzoma-Wada­da, Kham­bon said: "Over the years the ESC has grown be­yond an iden­ti­ty build­ing or­gan­i­sa­tion to it­self stim­u­lat­ing many as­pects of de­vel­op­ment at com­mu­ni­ty, na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al lev­els, while main­tain­ing its core of con­scious­ness rais­ing. "Both with­in and with­out the pe­ri­od of our com­mem­o­ra­tion we car­ry on the work-we con­tin­ue to go For­ev­er For­ward." Fea­ture speak­er, Lester Efebo Wilkin­son kept the 20th An­niver­sary theme in fo­cus, con­grat­u­lat­ing the ESC on stay­ing the course and keep­ing the "Eman­ci­pa­tion project" go­ing even when times were tough. He said: "You must em­brace your broth­er and learn to be his keep­er, it is your du­ty, right and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty-be­cause there is noth­ing so wrong that we can­not fix our­selves, our fa­thers our moth­ers, we must fix our­selves and take the lead across the eth­nic di­vide-For­ev­er For­ward".

Al­so bring­ing greet­ings and con­grat­u­la­tions were Damien Richard­son, of the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, and Niger­ian High Com­mis­sion rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nasiru Wa­je. Among the ac­tiv­i­ties planned this year is the Stars of Eman­ci­pa­tion cam­paign to cel­e­brate young Africans from "hot spot" ar­eas who are work­ing hard to bet­ter them­selves and their com­mu­ni­ties. The next ma­jor event will be the launch of the Kwame Ture Memo­r­i­al Lec­ture se­ries on June 10 at Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um; then the Yoru­ba Drum Fes­ti­val on June 16 where more than 100 drum­mers will as­sem­ble to beat the drum. On Sun­day, Ju­ly 22, the fes­ti­val's Lidj Ya­su Omowale Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage (Queen's Park Sa­van­nah) will be blessed and the week-long fes­ti­val will start. High­lights will in­clude a spe­cial pan-African con­cert, the ever pop­u­lar Steel­band Night, ed­u­ca­tion­al and artis­tic dis­plays, youth days and cul­mi­nat­ing in an Eman­ci­pa­tion Day pa­rade. Mon­e­tary con­tri­bu­tions for the ECS's "20 for 20 Cam­paign" can be de­posit­ed in­to Re­pub­lic Bank ac­count No 180471321701.