Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go

(ES­CTT)

Eman­ci­pa­tion marked the end of an era when hu­man be­ings could be legal­ly traf­ficked and en­slaved, a pe­ri­od when per­sons could be whipped and worked till death for the ben­e­fit of oth­ers, sold, ex­changed, and in­her­it­ed like ‘chat­tel’, an­i­mals or fam­i­ly sil­ver and oth­er heir­looms.

Those per­sons, women and men, who strug­gled to break that world or­der and to bring a new world in­to be­ing where peo­ple by law are free and equal, are re­mem­bered and cel­e­brat­ed dur­ing the pe­ri­od of eman­ci­pa­tion each year and sym­bol­ized.

The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ES­CTT) has pro­claimed that the Kam­bule Street Pro­ces­sion, as part of the 2022 Pan African Fes­ti­val TT, will take place this year Af­ter a 2-year hia­tus from a phys­i­cal pa­rade, the Com­mit­tee is ex­cit­ed to fa­cil­i­tate this grand cel­e­bra­tion of Eman­ci­pa­tion for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go who have been ea­ger­ly await­ing this event.

The Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage Opens

The Lidj Ya­su Omowale Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage at Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah has earned the rep­u­ta­tion as hav­ing the largest col­lec­tion of African-in­spired art, craft, jew­el­ry, cloth­ing, and food. This year will be no ex­cep­tion, pa­trons are wel­comed to vis­it when the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage was of­fi­cial­ly opened on Ju­ly 29. On Ju­ly 30, the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage placed the spot­light on some of T&T’s tal­ent­ed per­form­ers. The Rhythm and Voic­es of Africa along with mem­bers of the Rap­so com­mu­ni­ty came to­geth­er to re­mem­ber and pay trib­ute to Broth­er Re­sis­tance. Every day at the Vil­lage there will be Capoeira demon­stra­tions from 3–5pm and oth­er in­ter­est­ing ac­tiv­i­ties for young per­sons.

The Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage is open every day from Fri­day Ju­ly 29 to Au­gust 1st from 10am.

On Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, the cel­e­bra­tions shift in­to full gear start­ing at 4am, at the All Stars Pan Yard from where a pro­ces­sion will head to the Yoru­ba Vil­lage Mon­u­ment and then to the Arise Mon­u­ment in front of the Trea­sury Build­ing. At 8 am, Yedaase: A Trib­ute to Our An­ces­tors will take place in front of the Trea­sury Build­ing on In­de­pen­dence Square, Port of Spain. Ex­pect mov­ing mo­ments of re­flec­tion as peo­ple gath­er from all parts of the Coun­try, the re­gion and the Di­as­po­ra.

Kam­bule, the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed pro­ces­sion through the streets of Port of Spain, is sched­uled to be­gin at 9am from the Trea­sury Build­ing, in front of the na­tion­al mon­u­ment to the African spir­it of re­sis­tance, Arise.

At the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage, ex­pect non­stop cul­tur­al per­for­mances as groups pa­rade across the Vil­lage stage. At 3pm the fi­nal ses­sion of Rhythm and Voic­es of Africa will be pre­sent­ed. To close this year’s cel­e­bra­tions, you will be in­vit­ed to join the Flam­beau Pro­ces­sion at 7p which will end at Massy All Stars Pan yard at East Dry Riv­er.

Pay­ing Trib­ute to the An­ces­tors

Af­ter 30 years, the ES­CTT re­mains com­mit­ted to en­sure the con­tin­u­a­tion of the fes­ti­val in a man­ner that is ap­pro­pri­ate to what it rep­re­sents. It is cel­e­bra­to­ry and pos­i­tive­ly in­spir­ing. It is al­so sa­cred.

The fes­ti­val is a trib­ute to African an­ces­tors who built mankind’s ear­li­est ma­jor civ­i­liza­tions in the val­ley of the Nile, leav­ing be­hind the Great Pyra­mid among oth­er struc­tures that still in­voke won­der. It is a trib­ute to those who pro­duced the first writ­ten scripts which in­clud­ed con­cepts of de­ity. It is a trib­ute to an­ces­tors who spread their knowl­edge and unique build­ing tech­niques to South and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca in times be­fore record­ed his­to­ry. It is a trib­ute to an­ces­tors whose civ­i­liza­tions even­tu­al­ly fell to con­querors from so­ci­eties that were far less de­vel­oped but ruth­less in their pur­suits of wealth and pow­er.

For more in­for­ma­tion:

https://www.eman­ci­pa­tiontt.com/