This is the column I always wanted to write but never felt entitled to do so. Now that Emancipation Day falls on my Monday watch, I will attempt to say all that I ponder on this momentous holiday. For me, Emancipation Day is not merely a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery. I do not have ancestors who were once slaves. At least I don't think this is the case. Granted, we sometimes forget that the West Indies has had a long history of slavery that included Amerindians and even "whites." The narrative of slavery has been symbolised most effectively by African slaves making that treacherous journey across the Middle Passage. It is strange that I feel clumsy and awkward writing about Emancipation Day because I try to find the common ground for every holiday, no matter how much a holiday seems geared to one specific religion or one specific ethnic group.
If this day provides some discomfort for me-and it does-it could possibly be contributed to those fossil memories that are so eloquently described by Guyanese writer Wilson Harris, who says that we all possess long, lost memories of a bygone age that we cannot remember. Wilson says memories, like physical characteristics, are imbedded in our DNA. Perhaps because I am a WASP (a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) I can most identify with and feel the guilt-ridden crimes of slave masters (at least I hope there was some feeling of guilt somewhere). But, as I said, if national holidays are to have any meaning, they must symbolise something beyond the concrete and obvious. There must be an underlying symbolism that connects us all together in a spiritual way. They must unite us and make us feel that we are learning something of our past, and that is why, for me, emancipation always conjures up images of two people: Bob Marley and Toni Morrison.
Just the thought of Emancipation Day makes me think of the great Jamaican singer's lyrics, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery." It could take a lifetime to interpret those lyrics, but I think it's important to take some time on Emancipation Day to think about what Marley meant. That is impossible unless we consider the work of Afro-American writer Toni Morrison, a Nobel laureate in literature. There have been very many great Afro-American writers: James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker-to name a few of my favourites-but Morrison stands out in my mind because of what she once said in an interview. Morrison said most authors write about slavery, its horrors and pain; inhumanity and cruelty. This is not to be taken lightly or belittled in any way, but Morrison's work, which includes Beloved, one of the greatest works of magical realism ever written, does not dwell on slavery's dark sentiments. Instead, she said, what fascinated her was how Africans survived slavery. That resilience and heart-warming soulfulness is what she writes about.
If we can understand Morrison's viewpoint then we can understand how great Morrison's Beloved is and we would stop being perplexed by the strange happenings of the ghost that haunts the slave mother. We would realise that Morrison's great achievement in Beloved is that knowledge that the spirit cannot be destroyed. This is what the mother learns from Beloved, the child she killed because she did not want her to be a slave. Those who can connect to that level of spirituality-the unshakeable belief that no one can destroy you or own your soul-know that an arbitrary date set by the British does not truly make an Emancipation Day. African people have always kept the concept of freedom alive in their hearts and expressed it through dance, music and their oral history, even during slavery. African slaves did not allow slavery to destroy them. They survived.
And that is where Marley comes in and demands, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery." It is a sentiment that applies to all of us on a momentous day when we take the opportunity to collectively reflect on what slavery has meant to our history. Slavery is a survival story. It is right that we commemorate this day because it is good to channel collective energy into understanding and remembering our past-even if those memories are frightening and horrible. But it must also give us the opportunity to gather our strength to move on in new directions. It must remind us to "emancipate ourselves from mental slavery." History provides a path for us to take so that we can learn more about ourselves and grow into a more determined, free-spirited people determined to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. History belongs to all of us. It lays everything on the line. History is not about dates and a bunch of dead people.
It is a living, breathing story of the decisions people have taken in the past while they created a long, continuous path to the present. It is a journey we all embark on, a journey we share with everyone.
That is why Emancipation Day belongs to all of us.
I wish you all a very heart-filled Emancipation Day.
THOUGHTS
•Just the thought of Emancipation Day makes me think of the great Jamaican singer's lyrics, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery."
• It could take a lifetime to interpret those lyrics, but I think it's important to take some time on Emancipation Day to think about what Marley meant.
• That is impossible unless we consider the work of Afro-American writer Toni Morrison, a Nobel laureate in literature.