The Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage is now open to the pub­lic.

With three days to go un­til Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee (ES­CTT) of­fi­cial­ly opened the Lidj Ya­su Omowale Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, yes­ter­day.

From re-en­act­ments of slav­ery to African de­vo­tion­al dances, the open­ing was noth­ing short of grand.

But be­yond the fes­tiv­i­ties, the com­mit­tee said Eman­ci­pa­tion Day was an im­por­tant part of the coun­try’s his­to­ry and should be in­clud­ed in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the vil­lage yes­ter­day, ES­CTT’s di­rec­tor Khafra Kam­bon said, “I think an Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, just like an In­de­pen­dence Day and oth­er spe­cial days are im­por­tant be­cause then you bring a na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al fo­cus on an event of par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance.

“But, in or­der for the full mes­sage of it to hap­pen, it now has to be in­sti­tu­tion­alised. It should not be out­side of the for­mal ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.”

He said over a decade ago, the com­mit­tee in­tro­duced an an­nu­al African his­to­ry quiz to sec­ondary schools. How­ev­er, schools’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in the pro­gramme was on­ly vol­un­tary.

Kam­bon was al­so ho­n­oured for his con­tri­bu­tions to cul­ture yes­ter­day.

Busi­ness and

his­to­ry en­twined

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the vil­lage, there were dozens of booths set up with both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al ven­dors.

This year the vil­lage is host­ing 180 en­tre­pre­neurs in­clud­ing ar­ti­sans, cloth­ing de­sign­ers, painters and many more.

The King of the As­ante King­dom, Otum­fuo Os­ei Tu­tu II is al­so ex­pect­ed to vis­it the vil­lage.

He was in­vit­ed to T&T as a guest of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

He ar­rives in Trinidad to­mor­row.

Mean­while, many peo­ple that Guardian Me­dia spoke with at the vil­lage said they were not on­ly ex­cit­ed to show­case their art to vis­i­tors but al­so to meet a king.

At her booth yes­ter­day, one cloth­ing store own­er from Ghana, Josephine Hay­ford said she has been vis­it­ing Trinidad for the past two decades.

This is the 23rd time she has come to Trinidad to be a part of Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions.

She said she be­lieved that Afro-Trin­bag­o­ni­ans should be proud of how far they have come as a peo­ple and cel­e­brate by wear­ing their African cloth­ing from Sun­day to Sun­day.

Hay­ford said, “I’m com­ing all the way from West Africa. I am so ex­cit­ed be­cause for you to find an As­an­te­hene in Trinidad, this coun­try is blessed.”

Al­so join­ing in the fes­tiv­i­ties was Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Adri­an Leonce as well as am­bas­sadors of Mex­i­co, Chi­na, Pana­ma, Japan, Cana­da and Venezuela.

The com­mit­tee has in­vit­ed the pub­lic to come to shop, eat and learn more about the coun­try’s his­to­ry.