Salutations

It is my pleasure to deliver this message on behalf of the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Edwin Carrington, who has asked me to convey sincere regrets that he is unable to be with us today owing to other commitments in the Community.

The CARICOM Secretariat is very pleased to collaborate with the Government of Guyana in this Special Ceremony to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Two hundred years ago, the British Parliament passed an Act to abolish the nefarious activities of the slave trade, which had been in operation for nearly 200 hundred years by then, between Europe, Africa and the Americas, affecting over 25 million Africans.

We have come here today to observe a minute of silence to honour those who died as a result of raids and warfare in Africa; the journey in shackles to the coast; the trauma of the Middle Passage; and those who were executed or killed in combat, in resistance to slavery.

Most were never accorded proper funeral rights as their bodies were either thrown into the sea, into mass graves or into the bushes. We have come here today to remember them, to pay tribute to them and to restore their dignity.

As many of you already know, it is appropriate that we have assembled here at Guyana’s Parliament Buildings, where the past and the present converge in a very significant way. This place bears the burden of the history of pain and suffering of many Africans, who met an untimely and brutal death in this very place, for their refusal to accept the dehumanising status of “chattel” that could be bought and sold; and for refusing to accept the denial of their freedom and the life-long exploitation of their labour.

What makes today special is that we are united with other Member States of CARICOM, in observing a minute of silence at 12 noon across the Region in churches, at special ceremonies and in our homes. Our Heads of Government felt that the Region should make its own statement through this show of solidarity and unity, and very clearly signal our position that we view slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity which has not yet been adequately addressed by the international community.

The adoption of the resolution by the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations, which was co-sponsored by CARICOM Member States and which designated 25 March as the International Day to mark the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, is one positive step towards reconciliation and healing. UNESCO launched the Slave Route Project in 1994, and proclaimed 23 August the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition, coinciding with the anniversary of the great Saint-Dominque Revolt of 22-23 August in 1791. But there is still much more work to be done. And there are many lessons to be learned.

Racism and discrimination are among the contemptible legacies of the period, against which we must continue to take a firm stand. We must rise above the self-loathing that the ideology of slavery cultivated, and affirm our people as beautiful, intelligent, hard-working and creative.

Remembering that the enslaved were forbidden to learn to read and write, we must ensure that we always instill in our children the desire for knowledge and a sound education.

The knowledge that, through enslavement, Africans were stripped of their language, religion and identity, must fuel our quest to research, engage and reconnect with our roots.

An understanding of the colonial policy of divide and rule, that pitted races against each other and isolated countries in the region, should strengthen our resolve to rise above racial and ethnic division in our countries, and deepen our Caribbean integration within CARICOM and across language groups in the region.

CARICOM is observing the Bicentennial under the theme: CARICOM Reflects………Never Forget. And so we remember the injustice, the cruelty and the suffering of the past, so that we can make sense of our present condition and move forward with confidence as Caribbean people, and continue to build this great region we know as home.

Our inspiration is the heroism, the bravery and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit over great adversity that is the hallmark of this period of our history.

I leave you with the words of that great Pan-Africanist, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914, National Hero of Jamaica, and ardent advocate of black racial pride, who said:

“God and Nature first made us what we are, and then, out of our own created genius, we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.

“Up, up, you Mighty Race! You can accomplish what you will.”

Thank you.