As Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community it gives me immense pleasure to extend a warm welcome to you all to this Special Lecture and to the headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat.

A very special welcome goes to our distinguished guest speaker at today’s lecture, Mrs. Cynthia McLeod, who is from Suriname, the Member State known as the “beating heart of the Amazon.” Suriname is known for its rich cultural diversity and a colonial history during which many people, voluntarily and involuntarily, came from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Together with the original indigenous inhabitants, they form a multicultural population.

Suriname is also known for its many languages, which include the Dutch – the Official language, Sranan - the lingua franca, Sarnami Hindi, Javanese and Chinese as well as the various Maroon and indigenous languages which have survived colonialism. This diversity has been very well showcased at regional and international fora, including at our many Regional Festival of the Arts - CARIFESTA. Those of us who were fortunate enough to have attended CARIFESTA VIII hosted by Suriname in August 2003, no doubt continue have wonderful memories that mega cultural arts festival.

Ladies and Gentlemen as you may be aware, the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted in November 2006 a Resolution, designating 25 March 2007, as the International Day for the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This Resolution was co-sponsored by CARICOM and won overwhelming support from a majority of Member States of the UN.

The Resolution calls on Member States to ensure that programmes to educate our future generations on the lessons, history and consequences of slavery and the slave trade, are developed. It also calls for the establishment of a UN outreach programme to commemorate the anniversary, including the holding of a Special Session of the UN General Assembly, held yesterday, 26 March 2007 in New York.

Last Sunday, 25 March 2007, CARICOM Member States joined in the activities taking place internationally to mark this bicentennial anniversary. The CARICOM Secretariat coordinated a synchronized minute of silence in honour of those who died in the Middle Passage, in resistance and revolt, and those who experienced a lifetime of slavery. The Chairman of CARICOM, Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, also issued a statement on behalf of the Community.

A series of other activities have been planned by several Member States, as well as by the CARICOM Caucus of Permanent Representatives at the United Nations, to observe this historic event. These include lectures, exhibitions, panel discussions, school programmes and special ceremonies of commemoration.

Under the theme, CARICOM Reflects…….Never Forget, the Secretariat collaborated with the Government of Guyana for a brief ceremony on the steps of the Parliament Buildings, to mark the day. We also participated in Guyana’s formal commemoration yesterday.

These ceremonies were also in keeping with a decision of the Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on 12-14 February 2007, “to commemorate this historic event with year-long national and regional activities.”

Against this background of educating our Caribbean people on the history, lessons and consequences of this unforgettable and horrendous crime against humanity, we have gathered here today for this Special Lecture, which launches a series of commemorative activities that will be organized by the Secretariat during the year.

It is a great honor to have Mrs. Cynthia McLeod here with us to deliver inaugural activity – a Special Lecture on Elisabeth Samson: The Role and Position of Women in the Caribbean during Slavery. This lecture is based on her famous historical novel The Free Negress Elisabeth – Prisoner of Color, which was published for the first time in 2000 in Dutch with an English version launched in July 2004 in Barbados.

Mrs. McLeod is a well-known writer in Suriname. She is the daughter of the Hon. Johan Ferrier, the first President of Suriname, and has apparently inherited his talents as an educator and story-teller. She traveled with her husband the Hon. Donald McLeod, who served as Ambassador of Suriname in Venezuela, the United States and Belgium during which last posting – in Belgium I had the good fortune to work with him and got to know Mrs McLeod. While in Europe Mrs. McLeod spent many years conducting historical research on the intriguing personality of Elisabeth Samson, who was a free black woman during slavery and who was envied for her enormous wealth, intelligence and beauty by the white colonizers.

Today we will learn about the period of slavery in Suriname, seen through the eyes of Elisabeth, who challenged the colonial masters on their views and laws on slaves and especially on black women, in a society dominated by white males and characterized by cruel oppression of Africans.

Let me therefore, not detain you any longer from this interesting historical journey that Cynthia McLeod after her formal introduction by Ms. Valerie Taylor will take us on for the rest of this afternoon.

Welcome once again to you Cynthia McLeod.

Thank you.