UNIA president urges deeper understanding of Emancipation Day

Steven Golding, president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), is urging Jamaicans to deepen their understanding of the fight for emancipation from slavery in order to fully grasp the significance of Emancipation Day.

Golding expressed concern that the historic day is often diluted when it is informally merged with Independence Day celebrations. He argued that such conflation reduces the impact of Emancipation Day and undermines its historical importance.

“Emancipation was achieved not out of the kind heart or the humanity of the British parliamentarians. It was achieved because of the resistance of our ancestors, because of the war they fought against enslavement, against the trafficking, against the brutality, and it is a war that we fought for over 300 years that made the system untenable for the British,” he told The Gleaner.

He lamented that many Jamaicans still view emancipation through a “colonial narrative”, attributing the abolition of slavery to the benevolence of the British rather than the relentless struggle of the enslaved. He identified this as a failure of the education system.

Golding highlighted the role of Jamaican-born Dutty Boukman in sparking the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which he described as a turning point that frightened colonial powers into abolishing slavery as “they did not want another Haiti in Jamaica or Barbados”.

He also referenced the historical significance of Sabina Park – now a major cricket ground in Kingston – which was named after an enslaved woman executed for killing her four-year-old child to spare him the horrors of slavery. She was buried on the property.

“Our history is not taught to us that way. Our history is taught to us that these white people finally found a heart and gave us freedom,” he told The Gleaner.

Discontinued in 1962

Emancipation Day, celebrated in Jamaica on August 1 each year, marks the 1834 abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean. While the date became an official public holiday in 1893, celebrations had been occurring since the 1880s through church services, picnics, and community events. However, the holiday was discontinued in 1962 following Independence, only to be reinstated in 1997.

Golding suggested that the discontinuation of Emancipation Day post-independence reflected how little priority was given to the legacy of emancipation by Jamaica’s leaders at the time.

He also criticised the lack of regional acknowledgment of the United Nations-designated International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, observed annually on March 25. Established in 2007, the day honours those who suffered and died during the slave trade.

“Jamaica and the rest of Parliament needs to give some recognition, too, because every year in November, the world leaders come together to recognise the Jewish holocaust, and we all even as black people wear poppies in recognition of World War II and the sacrifices to end that holocaust, but where is the recognition of the struggles of our own blood ancestors who fought to end our holocaust?” he said.

“Does the flag come down halfway on March 25 and August 1st to recognise those who gave their lives in this war against slavery?” he asked.

Reverend Dr Devon Dick, also speaking on the significance of the day, called Jamaica’s struggle for emancipation a global model of resistance. He praised National Hero Samuel Sharpe for his leadership in what he described as a blueprint for passive revolution.

“We need public education, and probably, we can have more essay competitions that highlight the progress – essay and quiz competitions – as it relates directly to the event. Civil societies have their role. I know some groups and churches have lectures at this time, they have their vigils,” he said. “And also the media covering these events and publicise it just as how it covers these festivals and stage shows.”

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com