Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo has chal­lenged cit­i­zens to “con­front the in­jus­tices and in­equal­i­ties” that per­sist in so­ci­ety in her African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day mes­sage. Kan­ga­loo al­so called on the pop­u­la­tion to “ex­am­ine our own roles in ei­ther per­pet­u­at­ing or chal­leng­ing these wrongs.”

She re­mem­bered the sys­tem of slav­ery, which she said was bru­tal and de­hu­man­is­ing. How­ev­er, Kan­ga­loo added, “There can be no greater tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of the hu­man spir­it that, even in chains, the en­slaved nev­er ful­ly sur­ren­dered.”

As the con­ver­sa­tions sur­round­ing repa­ra­tions con­tin­ue around the Caribbean and the world, Kan­ga­loo added that it is not on­ly about fi­nan­cial re­dress. She ex­plained, “Repara­to­ry jus­tice ac­knowl­edges the long-term ef­fects of slav­ery and colo­nial­ism, and seeks ap­pro­pri­ate re­dress. It is not lim­it­ed to fi­nan­cial com­pen­sa­tion, but in­cludes in­sti­tu­tion­al re­form, in­vest­ment in ed­u­ca­tion and de­vel­op­ment, cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal restora­tion and pub­lic recog­ni­tion of past in­jus­tices. It is a holis­tic frame­work aimed at re­pair­ing his­tor­i­cal harm and ad­dress­ing its con­se­quences.”

Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so re­called how Africans were stripped of their lib­er­ty and dig­ni­ty in the trans-At­lantic slave trade. How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar hailed the re­silience of the African an­ces­tors, say­ing, “Yet, through faith, strength, and col­lec­tive will, they rose against in­jus­tice and reaf­firmed their right­ful dig­ni­ty as hu­man be­ings, lay­ing the moral foun­da­tion for the free­doms we en­joy to­day.”

The Prime Min­is­ter re­called that in 1985, T&T be­came the first na­tion to de­clare African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day a pub­lic hol­i­day, in­spir­ing coun­tries such as Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, Suri­name, Be­lize, the British Vir­gin Is­lands, Mar­tinique, Guade­loupe, Cana­da, South Africa, and sev­er­al US states to fol­low suit.

“African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day is not on­ly a re­mem­brance of suf­fer­ing over­come, but a cel­e­bra­tion of what has been built. The con­tri­bu­tions of African de­scen­dants con­tin­ue to shape our so­ci­ety, from na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and cul­tur­al ex­pres­sions to aca­d­e­m­ic, po­lit­i­cal, and glob­al lead­er­ship,” she added.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Eman­ci­pa­tion is not con­fined to his­to­ry but is a liv­ing call to jus­tice, dig­ni­ty, and in­clu­sion.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, in her mes­sage, said African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day is not just for the African com­mu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate alone. She said in a state­ment, “The atroc­i­ties in­flict­ed up­on hu­man­i­ty un­der­score that when we com­mem­o­rate Eman­ci­pa­tion, we do so not sole­ly for peo­ple of African de­scent but for all of hu­mankind, af­firm­ing that there shall nev­er again be a re­turn to en­slave­ment.”

Beck­les added, “Pro­gres­sive lib­er­ty is the essence of the en­nobling and en­abling of our so­ci­ety, and even world civ­i­liza­tion. As we com­mem­o­rate African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day 2025, let us re­mind our­selves that the price of hu­man free­dom is eter­nal vig­i­lance. In so do­ing, to­day we recog­nise that repa­ra­tions are firm­ly root­ed in in­ter­na­tion­al law, not swayed by emo­tions or po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­di­ence.”