Emancipation Day Op-Ed: Are We Truly Emancipated?
August 1st is Emancipation Day in almost every CARICOM Nation in recognition of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire on 1 August 1834. The official celebration began in 1985, when Trinidad and Tobago became the first independent country to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery, rightfully replacing Christopher Columbus Day. Soon other Caribbean islands followed. Emancipation celebrations acknowledge the resilience, liberation, culture and spirituality of our African ancestors that survived one of the worst horrors ever inflicted upon humans, chattel slavery. As the saying goes, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
While many colonial, white supremacist apologists and slavery revisionists, particularly Trump supporting Republicans and conservatives in the Americas, UK and Europe, try to equivocate all the various forms of slavery throughout history, with the specific race-based chattel slavery Europeans did to African people, the historical facts show there is no comparison. Chattel slavery is a psychopathic extreme never before seen in history. Not even the slavery conducted in the Kingdon of Benin, Igboland, Ghanian and Mali empires prior to the European colonials could compare. For while inter-tribal enslavement of prisoners of war and of hardened criminals took place in Africa, as well as the selling of slaves to Arabic empire, there were far more humane laws regulating the practice.
One of the huge distinctions between chattel enslavement by Europeans and the slavery practiced in Africa was the absence of the concept of all those with black skin being sub-human and born to be nothing more than a slave. African empires and tribes emphasized culture and religion, not skin color. When one tribe conquered another, the prisoners of war became what is closest to indentured servants of the winning tribe. Their servitude was not in perpetuity nor was it generational. They were allowed to marry and keep their families intact. They could own property. There were laws forbidding inhumane treatment. Similarly, Arabic slavery was also not based on race but religion. Muslim slave traders would purchase slaves from not just African people but Europeans and Asians as well. However, it is illegal in Islam for one Muslim to enslave another Muslim. Freedom was granted to any slave who converted to Islam and many enslaved Africans became free through adoption of Islam.
No similar reprieve existed for Africans enslaved by Christian Europeans. Not only did the European Christan try (unsuccessfully) to strip the African of all their language, culture, spirituality and make them ashamed and fearful of it, they refused to reward the most fervent African converts to Christianity with freedom. Becoming a “brother or sister” in Christ did not spare a slave or his or her children, for the European had invented the concept of “Whiteness” to rank those with a lot of melanin, and Afro-ethnic features, as non-human and inherently disqualified from any of the emerging enlightened views on the equality of all mankind. Biblical verses were to justify why it was God’s will. They created the Slave Codes, which codified white supremacy and made even the poorest, most illiterate, criminal and craven indentured European socially and legally superior to even the most successful, educated, ethical Afro-ethnic person. Passing as “white” became essential to access any kind of power within the system. This level of inhumanity and the epigenetic, generational, emotional, intellectual and spiritual traumas that ensued still grip the descendants to this day. It is vitally important we ask ourselves, “Are we truly emancipated?”, especially from the following:
Slave master-Inspired Parenting
Great strides have been made in the understanding of Childhood Development with entire resources available built on generational research and peer review. In 2023, it is understood that emotional self-regulation, perspective, empathy, problem solving, trust and respect of authority are not things children are born with, they need to be taught, primarily by the example set by the parent, particularly within the first five years of the child’s life as it is the time of rapid brain development and the foundational laying of their personality. An angry and impatient parent cannot expect different behavior from their child. Beating the behavior into them causes more harm than good. While “Gentle Parenting” is now a buzzword and deeper insights into things like childhood trauma, neurodivergence exist, Caribbean, African American and the Afro-Diaspora continues to rely upon the abusive and authoritarian parenting inherited from their oppressed ancestors. Misappropriated and misunderstood Bible verses about the “rod of discipline” (Proverbs uses metaphor and Jewish scholars do not take such verses to mean beating children with a literal rod) are often used to justify beating children who display valid human reactions to disappointment, frustration, hurt, sadness, fear, anxiety or even hunger. As a result, our society is one of the most violent, insensitive, and abusive societies because we are not taught the correct response to feeling difficult feelings is to hit the person who caused it. Afro-ethnic Millennial parents are thankfully moving away from this form of parenting and sharing their Gentle Parenting, enlightened approaches on platforms such as TikTok.
Body Dysmorphia & Hair Discrimination
Skin bleaching to remove perfectly healthy, UV protecting, age-defying, melanin from the skin as well as hatred of the 3C to 4C curl structure of our hair follicles and persecution of those who do not believe in “correcting” or “hiding” their natural hair texture, are signs of white supremacist, post-slavery and post-colonial trauma. As recently as this year, prominent institutions of learning were still engaged in this backward hair discrimination even as other nations pass Anti-Hair Discrimination Laws. Thankfully, many Caribbean nations are fighting to reverse this trauma by having National Afro Days at schools where students are encouraged to celebrate their natural 3C to 4C hair and the 15th of September is World Afro Day which further tries to erase this stigma.
European Patriarchal Misogyny and Sexual Prudery
In the majority of pre-colonial cultures of our ancestors, there was a far more advanced understanding of the equal dignity, value, of the genders. We came from cultures that revered not just a Divine Masculine but Divine Feminine, with many Goddesses as well. Women held positions of leadership in governance and the military. They also had intellectual and spiritual authority as priestesses and healers with full ownership of all women’s health matters. Women owned land and had matrilineal inheritance. At the time the European arrived in Africa with the intent to plunder, they were far behind us when it came to gender relations. European women were under an oppressive patriarchal system that rendered them nothing more than ornamental broodmares, inferior to men, in need of guardianship and incapable of having any status of their own. They were influenced by misogynistic Church fathers whose disgusting views about women can be found here. Sadly, our African ancestors began to adopt backward European views on women, just as they did those of the Arab before. Today, we still grapple with the fallout of this in a post-women’s liberation age. Keeping the black woman underfoot still is a self-esteem requirement for black men and the abuse and assault of women and girls is rampant in our societies.
On this note, our societies are deeply damaged by sexual trauma and sexual ignorance due to a loss of the mentorship that used to occur in our traditional African societies which provided sex education to young people. Male elders would instruct young boys and female elders would instruct young girls on what to expect. Today, toxic porn culture and unhealthy purity culture provides the sex education for our youth and the results have been disastrous. Our communities are plagued with child sex abuse, teenage pregnancy and sexual harassment. Centuries after emancipation and our women cannot walk the street in safety and peace of mind, an issue with disastrous repercussions if we wish to attract young female digital nomads and long-stay visitors.
Low Cultural Self Esteem
The Caribbean continues to suffer from brain drain, professional stagnation and increasing frustration among talented youth who see few opportunities in their country. DR Justin Ram, Director of the Economics Department at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), said, “When we look at the data, many of the countries [in the region] have lost as much as 70 per cent of their labor force with more than 12 years of schooling.” Our loss is the USA, UK and Canada’s gain as our nationals excel when transplanted in foreign soil. Why is our local soul so poor? We have inherited an education system from the British that was never designed to produce innovative, critical thinking, truly intelligent people but compliant workers, regurgitating what they are taught. The Caribbean also inherited the British seniority problem, where aged statesmen, who should long be retired, clog up positions and prevent young minds and fresh ideas from blooming. We will never truly be free unless we can retain young talent and develop the industries of the 21st Century on our shores instead of doing new versions of the old plantocracy and more neocolonialism of enabling multi-national corporations’ exploitation, ecocide and worker abuse.
As we observe Emancipation celebrations this year, let us examine all the areas where decolonization and intellectual liberation are required. For while reparations are indeed a valid ask, we will never be able to make good use of any recompense by former colonial powers if we have not overcome these setbacks.
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