Tag Archives: Africa

Africa, General T&T, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Trinbagonian versus African Descent

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Emancipation Day Special: Part 1

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
July 19, 2011

As T&T celebrates the United Nations-sponsored “International Year for People of African Descent,” it is a sine qua non to analyze/investigate the crucial reality of being Trinbagonian versus, albeit compared to, being of African descent in this Euro-centric environment.

The stark reality is that the ordinary Trinbagonian of African descent does not regard himself or herself as African. He/she is Trinbagonian, period.
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Africa, Books, Education, General T&T, Race and Identity

The Souls of Black Folk

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 04, 2011

Part 2 – Part 1

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeJoseph Winthrop Holley, the founder of Albany State University and the son of a former slave, was born in Albany, Georgia, which explains why he wanted to build a school in his native town. He attended Revere Lay College in Revere, Massachusetts which changed its name to the Boston Evangelical Institute before it merged with another school to form Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary that my former wife attended. During the latter part of the 1980s I visited that seminary often.
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Africa, General T&T, International

Africa’s Global Importance

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 27, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt is true generally that citizens of nation states are emboldened by the relative power their original homelands enjoy in the world’s council of governance. Jews all over the world are emboldened and strengthened by Israel’s power as Indians all over the world are strengthened and empowered by the growing international importance of India which is why not one East Indian demurred when India offered citizenship to Indians in its diaspora after our government allowed Indian and Russian business people to enter Trinidad and Tobago without a visa.
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Africa, International, Race and Identity

Cote d’Ivoire

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 25, 2011

EmancipationProfessor Kwesi Jonah is the chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana at Legon. He is an expert in African politics and specializes in political economy and good governance. In 2005-06 he acted as the coordinator of West African Political Parties Programme (WAPPP), a project of the Institute of Economic Affairs located in Accra.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Race and Identity

Emancipation: some creation myths

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By Selwyn Ryan
August 15, 2010

EmancipationI overheard someone complaining on a call-in programme during Emancipation week that people of African origin in Trinidad were a different breed from those in other islands of the Caribbean.

It was not clear whether the caller meant to say that the Trinis were a worse or a better breed. I think he meant that they were an inferior breed, since, like Prof Courtenay Bartholomew (Express, August 11) he had some critical things to say about us blacks here in Trinidad. The caller was however quite correct about Trinidad blacks being different from their Caribbean counterparts. Culture and cojuncture and not genetics were however responsible for the differences.
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, International, Letters, Race and Identity

Emancipation Celebration?

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EmancipationTHE EDITOR: After four hundred years of shackle slavery, and the worst kind of atrocities ever inflicted on any race of people bar none, all because of their melanin and without any apology and compensation, and therapy for Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, I am totally puzzled and confused with the reason for the celebration of Emancipation.
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Culture, Features, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

A Society in Transition: A Community at the Crossroads

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Emancipation Lecture 2010

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Posted: August 04, 2010

EmancipationThis lecture was delivered on July 31, 2010 at the Center of Excellence, Macoya, Trinidad

This evening we are pleased that Professor Maxwell Richards, the president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and his wife Ms. Jean Ramjohn Richards, newly elected prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and her worthy colleague Mr. Jack Warner have consented to join us this evening at our tenth annual Emancipation Day Dinner. We are also pleased that Mr. Keith Rowley and his wife have been able to share this important day with us. I especially want to welcome Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to congratulate her on her victory and to say to her that we at the National Association for the Empowerment of African People and most African people in this society genuinely compliment you on your elevation as the first woman prime minister of our land. We share in the sentiments of Indo-Mauritian author Leel Gujadhu Sarup who observed: “I feel good about her victory. As someone who has researched indentureship, this result bring tears to my eyes. There are no limits for an Indian woman to prove her worth.”
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Protest, Race and Identity, USA

Emancipation: When Freedom Come

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Head of the Emancipation Support Committee Kafra Kambon, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters
Head of the Emancipation Support Committee Kafra Kambon, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters
Emancipation Day Celebrations 2010 in pictures

Kamla: Emancipation about struggle, triumph
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday urged the nation to not only see Emancipation Day as merely a public holiday but rather to reflect on the struggles of the ancestors of Afro-Trinbagonians who rose up from the chattel of slavery to take their rightful place in a free society.
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Africa, Culture, Race and Identity, Religion

Identifying with Ancestral Home

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Emancipation Celebration
Emancipation Celebration
July 22, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

Emancipation celebrations this year, I suppose, will have added significance for those of the African diaspora who consider that their spiritual navel strings are buried on the continent of Africa, especially as the World Cup venture was a spectacular international success. Incidentally, the football extravaganza was conceivably Mandela’s parting gift to Africa as well as Africa’s final tribute to him.
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Africa, Features, General T&T, International, Race and Identity, Sports

Africa’s Decade

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World Cup Excitement in South Africa
World Cup Excitement in South Africa
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 01, 2010

I don’t know who you are supporting for the World Cup but I have picked Brazil although Joel Villafana and some of the Wakka Wakka boys on Channel 6 are rooting for Argentina. When Trinidad and Tobago participated in the last World Cup my second pick was Brazil. Now that we are not there I have no qualms about supporting the samba magicians. As I marvel at the grandeur of the game and its international reach, I also rejoice at the marvelous job South Africans are doing to pull off this world event.
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