Emancipation Day should not be about focusing on our differences.
This from Executive Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor Selwyn Cudjoe, ORTT.
“Criticisms which speak to our differences rather than our commonalities. I would think a day like this, Emancipation Day, should speak of our common sufferings that we all have been through. Both in terms of Emancipation and to some degree, indentureship. So it’s unfortunate that we had to go down that road.”
Professor Cudjoe noted that there was also a controversy over UTT’s Emancipation programme as it featured East Indian performances alongside African performances.
He noted that under the former Minister of Education, Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, a similar occurrence took place.
“On May 20, 2023 under her watch, according to recordings, it featured African drumming alongside East Indian, of course, instruments. So in a way that was a UTT function. So what we did was not particularly new but we are so consumed with some silly notions of racism that all of a sudden that became a problem.”
He noted that, as a national and educational institution, UTT needs to celebrate the entire cultural profile of Trinidad and Tobago.