Lee An­na Ma­haraj

Re­porter

leean­na.ma­haraj@guardian.co.tt

In T&T, the month of Au­gust stands out as an es­pe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant one.From the free­dom cel­e­brat­ed on African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day to the vi­brant rhythms and pride of Steel­pan Day and fi­nal­ly to the pa­tri­ot­ic cul­mi­na­tion of In­de­pen­dence Day, Au­gust is a time when na­tion­al iden­ti­ty takes cen­tre stage.

Pa­tri­ot­ic or not, every­one comes to­geth­er to recog­nise the day, both young and the not so young.

While every­one has an In­de­pen­dence Day mem­o­ry, few re­main who can re­count sto­ries from the very first one.

Guardian Me­dia took to the streets of Port-of-Spain to speak with mem­bers of our se­nior pop­u­la­tion about their sen­ti­ments on In­de­pen­dence.

C Gul­ly, 79, from Mal­oney, told Guardian Me­dia he was still at­tend­ing school at the time and vivid­ly re­calls the at­mos­phere in Port-of-Spain on the night be­fore In­de­pen­dence Day, Au­gust 30, 1962.

“I was there in the night, in the square. There was a crowd there, and peo­ple anx­ious­ly wait­ed for the dawn of In­de­pen­dence Day. They took down the Union Jack and put up our na­tion­al flag. The school chil­dren had a pa­rade at the Queen’s Park. Back then, we had a lot of to­geth­er­ness,” he rem­i­nisced.

Harold Ali, 71, who has lived his en­tire life in Laven­tille, re­called the pride he felt wit­ness­ing the na­tion­al flag be­ing raised for the first time.

“I still have my own flag stick up in my house, be­cause we are one peo­ple and I love T&T,” he shared.

The el­ders, how­ev­er, ac­knowl­edged that times have changed—and not al­ways for the bet­ter.

Gul­ly re­flect­ed, “I was look­ing for­ward to what­ev­er was go­ing to hap­pen, be­cause I had con­fi­dence in the gov­ern­ment at the time [be­fore In­de­pen­dence]. I think the coun­try, along the po­lit­i­cal lines, is more di­vid­ed than be­fore. ... I don’t think the coun­try was di­vid­ed po­lit­i­cal­ly as it is now.”

Ali echoed sim­i­lar con­cerns.

“Be­fore In­de­pen­dence, it had no set of crime; you could have gone by the neigh­bour, live as one, any­body could cor­rect you. But now, par­ents chas­tise you when you cor­rect their child. It was very en­cour­ag­ing to live in Trinidad. Al­though I have no re­grets liv­ing here, it just have cer­tain el­e­ments that does keep the peo­ple down,” he said.

Michael Beck­les, 77, al­so from Laven­tille, shared a sim­i­lar view­point.

“The dif­fer­ence be­tween In­de­pen­dence and now is that peo­ple got re­al­ly self­ish,” he not­ed.

Guardian Me­dia al­so spoke with 87-year-old Mar­aval res­i­dent Ken­neth Gabriel.

“Back then, you had plen­ty love with all. The tran­si­tion from colonised to in­de­pen­dent wasn’t as smooth as the world would say. So, I don’t think we lived up to the In­de­pen­dence Dream. I think this is be­cause the el­der heads are gone,” he said.

Ni­ta Gon­za­les, 70, al­so from Mar­aval, added her per­spec­tive.

“I find it was good [be­fore In­de­pen­dence]; now it ain’t so good. We have to look over our shoul­ders,” she said.

Still, Gon­za­les ac­knowl­edged the coun­try’s de­vel­op­ment over the decades and the grow­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties that now ex­ist.

“It have more de­vel­op­ment. It have plen­ty op­por­tu­ni­ties, be­cause in those days, if you were poor, you couldn’t go to school. But still, the crime rate go­ing up re­al­ly high,” she ob­served.

De­spite their con­cerns, the el­ders agreed that in­de­pen­dence was a nec­es­sary and pos­i­tive step and shared their hopes for the fu­ture of T&T.

Ali re­flect­ed on the cul­tur­al growth that came af­ter in­de­pen­dence.

“We would not have found our­selves. They [the British] kept hid­ing who we are. Now, let us be one peo­ple, and learn to sup­port the gov­ern­ment de­spite who is in pow­er,” he said.

Gon­za­les said she hoped to see a brighter fu­ture for the coun­try.

Gabriel told Guardian Me­dia, “I hop­ing that my broth­ers and them make plen­ty changes. We are sup­posed to live as one.”

C Gul­ly said he be­lieved that T&T has made eco­nom­ic progress by no longer be­ing fi­nan­cial­ly de­pen­dent on Britain. Though he recog­nis­es the coun­try’s im­per­fec­tions, he re­mains hope­ful.

“Whether we would have de­vel­oped more un­der colo­nial rule, I can’t say, but there have been a lot of changes. I look for­ward to see what progress we make to be more to­geth­er as a na­tion. Trinida­di­ans have to be more pur­pose­ful to achieve; every­one must work, and we must have in­put from all sec­tors,” he said.