Dear editor,
I am writing this letter/ article in response to the continued and troubling developments that have been taking place in our Government, specifically as it relates to the Canadian activities and the motion put forward by Lisa Hanna as were discussed on Conversations on June 17, 2024.
According to Brockell (2021) writing in the Washington Post, various research have shown that the junkanoo prancing and parading was in essence a time of merriment and gaiety for the slaves. However it was also used as a means to raise a ruckus so as to get gifts and money from those whom they approached. Additionally, the thought was that it was used as a means of mocking their slave masters; this I also learnt from my great grandparents.
But who is the laugh on now? Our leaders now dress up and parade at the behest of the new “Backra Massas”, in the international community. It is shameful how they go about with their hands held out to collect monies at the peril of prostituting and selling out the nation. We have lost our sense of pride and dignity as a people. When will our leaders stop believing the lie and move away from the house slave mentality.
I recently read a book in which the writer sought to fiction the tale of a slave girl, the author’s thought pattern was to paint a picture from the point of view of the enslaved and not the usual rhetoric of the ruling class.
As news of the abolition of slavery spread, the writer imagined the protagonist seated waiting patiently watching the clock and counting down time one, two, three, four etc, in 1838, anticipating it to strike 12 midnight, thus announcing her freedom from slavery. When it finally did, the protagonist move from where she was and stretched, her slave mistress (who thought she was her benefactor) enquired as to why she was no longer listening to her selfish rambling. Her response was “surely Missus, but me just be t’inking that me now free”.
After over 300 years and generations of slavery, the freed Africans refused to work by the dictates of their now “no longer slave masters”. Some starved and died as a result but they stuck to what they believed, I can imagine them saying “I would rather die, enough is enough.”
When will our leaders get it, they are not seen as being on equal grounds in the international community, if that was the case they would respect our sovereignty as they want us to do theirs.
They dangle their monies and ask you to abandon your; faith, moral beliefs, culture, put up your children as sacrifice to their gods, and among other things, put away the rights and culture of our people for theirs. So technically we are being sold over to them.
Who will be willing to declare that “I am thinking that I am free”.
I am,
An avid TBC listener- A. F.