The Big Issues

What Does Emancipation Mean? What Have We Made of It?

Listen Later

Marcus Garvey once said to an audience in New York, "Go to work! Go to work in the morn of a new creation… until you have reached the height of self-progress, and from that pinnacle bestow upon the world a civilization of your own." It was August 1st, 1924. It would have been Emancipation Day, nearly 100 years ago. In his speech, Garvey, as he had done for much of his life, was advocating for Black people to redress the condition in which racism, enslavement, and colonialism had placed them, and create nations of their own, set apart from those of Europe and North America. 

Today is Emancipation Day. It's 2021. On this episode we reflect on the emancipation of African people from enslavement in the British West Indies in the 1830s. We discuss the freedoms gained then, and the how Caribbean freedom is manifested today. We ask whether the psychology (anti-Black) and economy (repressively classist) of plantation society has been eliminated in the Caribbean, or whether it lingers, and in what ways.

The host is Kieron Murdoch. The guests are:

  1. Dr. Allison Ramsay, PhD, a Lecturer in Cultural and Heritage Studies in the Department of History at the University of the West Indies (UW) St. Augustine. She teaches courses in Caribbean history and heritage studies and her research interests relate to these areas. One of her recent publications is: “Jamettes, Mas, and Bacchanal: A Culture of Resistance in Trinidad and Tobago,” which appeared in The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories: Across the Diaspora, From Ancient Times to the Present, which was published in 2021.
  2. Dr. David Muhammad, PhD, holds a sociology PhD and a double major bachelor’s degree from the University of the West Indies in sociology and education. He is the author of BLACK STUDIES, published in 2015. Dr. Muhammad is the founder and director of both the Black Agenda Project Organization and the Kwame Ture Education Centre. He also operates the online radio station Black Agenda Project Radio. He is the Trinidad and Eastern Caribbean Representative of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

    3. This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on August 1st, 2021. Get the latest news from Antigua and Barbuda at the Antigua Observer online.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    The Big IssuesBy The Big Issues Production Team