RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A call for uni­ty across racial, re­li­gious and cul­tur­al lines res­onat­ed through Hin­dus­tan, Princes Town, on African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day as wor­ship­pers marched through the com­mu­ni­ty to the rhyth­mic beat of bon­go drums, urg­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to move be­yond di­vi­sion and work to­geth­er for a bet­ter fu­ture.

The march, or­gan­ised by the In­de­pen­dent Bap­tist Union, formed part of its an­nu­al Eman­ci­pa­tion Day ob­ser­vances, with par­tic­i­pants singing, pray­ing and car­ry­ing mes­sages of hope and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.

Rev­erend Kelvin Jack­son said while eman­ci­pa­tion marked the end of slav­ery, the strug­gle for true lib­er­a­tion con­tin­ues.

“As we re­ceive eman­ci­pa­tion, we must now com­mence with the lib­er­a­tion of our peo­ple,” he said.

Jack­son said free­dom was about more than his­to­ry, not­ing that each gen­er­a­tion has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to con­tin­ue the work be­gun by their an­ces­tors.

“Our par­ents fought for our free­dom and for our bet­ter­ment in life so that we could have land, busi­ness­es and op­por­tu­ni­ties that they nev­er had. We now have to con­tin­ue that strug­gle to en­sure our chil­dren have those same op­por­tu­ni­ties,” he said.

He lament­ed what he de­scribed as grow­ing di­vi­sions with­in so­ci­ety, say­ing the coun­try could on­ly move for­ward if cit­i­zens worked to­geth­er.

“It is not you against me or I against you. It is us com­ing to­geth­er to own our space. If we join hand in hand, we can ac­com­plish what we set out to do,” Jack­son said.

Eliz­a­beth Beck­er, a res­i­dent of Main­got Road and mem­ber of the St George’s In­de­pen­dent Bap­tist Union, said her Eman­ci­pa­tion Day wish was for peo­ple to free them­selves from ha­tred and em­brace uni­ty.

“My wish is that we have uni­ty, that we eman­ci­pate our­selves freely, that we will be able to think, act and do what we re­al­ly need to do. Free­dom of speech, free­dom in Christ and free­dom in every as­pect of our lives,” she said.

Roseanne Bolan al­so ap­pealed for cit­i­zens to put aside jeal­ousy and em­brace love and kind­ness.

“I want to thank God for love, uni­ty, kind­ness and good­ness. Every­body has to come to­geth­er as one. There should be no jeal­ousy. Let us bind to­geth­er in love,” she said.

Dea­con Roland Smith said the ob­ser­vance, which co­in­cid­ed with his birth­day, was a re­minder that T&T’s great­est strength lies in its di­ver­si­ty.

“I want to see us as a peo­ple—not on­ly Africans but all the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go—come to­geth­er as one so we can move this coun­try for­ward in love and uni­ty,” he said.

Smith said one of the coun­try’s great­est chal­lenges was over­com­ing racial di­vi­sion.

“We have to stop look­ing at race. When we go to a foot­ball match or crick­et game, every­body cel­e­brates to­geth­er re­gard­less of who they are. We hug strangers when a six is hit. Why can’t we show that same love and re­spect every day?” he asked.

He said build­ing a stronger na­tion be­gins with mu­tu­al re­spect and com­pas­sion.

“If we are se­ri­ous about tak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go for­ward, love is where it be­gins,” Smith said.