Column: Famous On Emancipation & More
[Opinion column written by Christopher Famous]
Post Columbus’ genocidal tour of the West Indies, the countries of the Atlantic and Caribbean region were built off of the free labour of enslaved indigenous people and persons brutally transported from Africa. They were now the “property” of the European nations of; Britain, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Portugal & Spain.
For hundreds of years, untold millions of our ancestors plowed the fields, grew the crops, built the buildings, sailed the ships, mined the gold, raked the salt of those Europeans and their descendants who would maim, rape and kill those they deemed less than human. As Bob Marley sang “Didn’t my people before me slave for this country?”
This week, around the region, we acknowledge the August 1834 date that the British “semi”-ended slavery. In different islands we will celebrate our Emancipation in different ways. However we do it, remember for our enslaved ancestors, we are their “Redemption Song.”
- Thomas Christopher Famous
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