 Good day to you wherever you are and welcome to today's broadcast on NTN, a special press conference slash discourse on the fact that we have embarked on as of the 1st of August or the 31st of July for that matter, the month of observance of emancipation activities in St. Lucia for 2022. Emancipation month 2022 which has been designated as the 1st of 3 months over 3 years. So for the entire month of August in 2022 as well as in 2023 and 2024 thanks to the government of St. Lucia having so designated last year, there will be emancipation months for each of the 3 years. And why an emancipation month and not just emancipation day like we have celebrated all our lives, we will hope to explain the background to that during today's discussion as well as putting emancipation within a proper or should we say as much as a historical context as we can from the standpoint that as we will know by now emancipation day was designated a holiday on the 1st of August for as long as all of us who are alive can remember. But the reasons for which it was declared a holiday would have had different meaning for those who declared it a holiday and those it was meant for, the enslavers and the enslaved. So these are issues that will allow us to look at over a one month period emancipation from all of the aspects. Look at all the varying narratives in so far as what it was meant to be, what it actually was, why it is still being observed, why St. Lucia and all of the Cary Common, all of the former British colonies are observing Emancipation Day which is observed on a different day in the former French territories including the current French colonies in the Caribbean by another name of overseas departments including the Dutch, the so called Dutch Antilles and Suriname as well as the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the US mainland itself where emancipation in Europe was at different dates than in the United States. So our panel today is going to look to reveal us of the opportunity to look at all of the above and to introduce our panelists we have most senior Dr. Patrick A. B. Antony and many people don't know what the A and the B is about. I cannot quite remember but what I will tell you is that the name Parba is not just a nickname, it is P. Patrick A. B. Antony. So it is not a nickname, it is actually his name and that's why he has no problem being called a Parba. So Mr. Antony is for all intents and purposes the founding father, no pun intended, the founding father of the folk research centre, others describe him as the patron, others describe him as the honorary chair, others describe him as a founding member but all of that is Parba who is going to be with us and earlier this month or towards the end of last month we celebrated a special day in his mission as a man of the cloth, as a priest, as a Monsignor and we will be looking at that as well but he will be looking mainly at the development of the folk research centre and the activities of the folk research centre within the context of what we are observing, St. Lucia's history. So we will be hearing from Monsignor Antony who will have to leave with us to undertake activities, a particular activity which is amassed at 12.30 so he will be leaving us before that time. Also with us is Madame Lily Ching Soto, she is the head of the National OAS office in St. Lucia and she is here because she will be able to share with us the fact that emancipation, reparations and all related activities are not only restrained to carry on and form of British colonies but it is something which is observed and has a relationship to Latin America and the Caribbean, South America and the Caribbean within the context of the organisation of Americans which unites all of those regions in one body and which has by itself undertaken in many different ways to observe the activities having to do with people of African descent and the fact that we need to always put slavery in its historical context and the OAS has been participating here ever since Madame Soto arrived and in fact August 1st Emancipation Day has some personal importance to her which I'm sure she will share with us. And our other presenter today is Drenia Frederick, the creative director of the Cultural Development Foundation which is playing the leading role in the organisation of activities having to do with emancipation month 2022 and therefore Drenia has really been going with it and at it for as long as the National Planning Committee of stakeholders has been meeting for quite some time so Drenia today will be able to share with us what has been and what the responses has been and to what extent her committee is encouraged or discouraged or both by the reaction so far bearing in mind that we are still on the only the third day of August and our activities will go to the end of August and end with a big bang on August 30th and if you don't know what August 30th is Drenia will be able to tell us so folks that is an outline and we will start with Monsignor Anthony and welcome Monsignor. Thank you. And we have invited you like I said for several reasons your preeminent founding role in the development of the Folk Research Centre now the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre and my basic first question will be from the standpoint that for decades after the establishment of the FRC could you tell us whether it has achieved its objective and within that context placing the experience of FRC in promoting quail with the experience that we are going through now in taking emancipation day from an annual holiday to go to the beach for a picnic to what has been happening ever since the first of August. So what do you Monsignor? Yes, thank you, welcome viewers and listeners. I think the parallel between the development of the Folk Research Centre and the emancipation process celebration that we are having now it's quite interesting because see when we started the Folk Research Centre we were going to talk about St. Lucian identity, St. Lucianness. We are going to talk about our African heritage and Amerindian and other St. Lucian elements that came from. People say what is this you are talking about? So it was something very novel, it was something for just a few people who were into it that prior to our systematic study of St. Lucian culture other person had been doing research into St. Lucian culture and this is why some people like Harold Simmons who we considered the spiritual father of St. Lucian culture had been doing research into St. Lucian culture. People like Eric Branford had been with him and so you had a number of persons involved primarily Elwyn, Joyce or Geest. Those persons were collecting St. Lucian when a little king, they were collecting data about St. Lucian culture, they were trying to do programs on it, you know, on radio and so forth, trying to involve the wider public in an understanding of the richness of the wealth that we had. I mean the Walcott brothers had to use the heritage, I mean you know Roddy Walcott with all of his plays, using the traditions, Harold, the Margarit and so forth to again bring it from little corner into the public domain. And what we did when I came back to St. Lucian was to take the work that Harold Simmons was doing in terms of research, you see, to a different level. Harry was really the first both were called scientific researcher who saw that the data must be not just collected but also analyzed and somehow publicized. And so when we came and started the study action group, Black Studies group and eventually the Folk Research Centre, our emphasis was on the whole idea of researching, scientific research so that we can document and we can share and we can critique and we can understand, so that was the role of the Folk Research Centre, that's why it's called Folk Research Centre, always on the research. So you get the material and you work with it. You do productions, you can do, you know, people are doing songs, you know, on this and those days and so forth. You produce stuff, you know, you can use it for plays and so you can write about it. So, but the research grounded in what have you discovered. And of course, what we're discovering was that we were who we were but we did not know who we were anymore. We don't know ourselves, you know. So we took it for granted. I mean, the older people had all this rich, rich, rich, rich resource of, you know, memory, you know, wisdom in our proverbs, in our stories, you know, the tremendous tradition of the Chateau, somehow being involved in society, trying to affect social behavior through the music. I mean, all of that stuff was happening. But it was never studied in a scientific way and used for research. And this is why the Focus Center decided that one mission, primary mission focus was to study solution culture as a tool for development. And we've always been strong on that. That culture must be an instrument for national development because the concept of development that people had in those days was purely economics. You know, money, trade, these kinds of things. And we're saying that this now. We're bringing a new understanding of development. That development was just about money, trade, and development was about people. It's about people. So if you're talking about development and you're talking about people, you have to know the people. And to know the people, you have to study them. That's where the question of language came in. You have to listen to people. But if you don't know their language, you don't understand what they're saying. And of course, all of that brought us into that process that today has become what we know as the Focus Center. And the paradox of the whole emancipation celebration process is that when we started with a small group, a group of students and teachers, two interested, and we began to do our work. We began to do our work, putting on radio, doing programs on radio and so forth, publishing the voice and the crusade and those things like that. But it's still small. We were touching people sort of tangentially on the margins and whatnot, but we had not become what we might call a mass movement. And that journey from a small group doing research to becoming a movement that is of national significance, that can impact a nation would only come decades later when we got into the whole question of Crayol and the use of Crayol and the establishment of Junior Crayol and realizing that somehow the people had to embrace the Crayolity, the Crayol identity as part of the St. Louis and less. And then we began to celebrate, celebrate it. And you know, it is remarkable when we had our first little Junior Crayol. It was a radio thing, you know. Then we tried to do something in Monropo with Sen and so forth. And people were, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People were talking about culture that was Crayol, language and whatnot. And today, look at that. The most massive single cultural event that is most inclusive in terms of participation. And you know, the thing about it is that it's a remarkable phenomenon. But when you think of in St. Lucia, if you're the carnival, they're whole set of students who haven't done the carnival. So it's not inclusive. You take Christmas. A whole set of people, we don't take Christmas after a religion don't, you know. But you take Junior Crayol. That everybody of every race, creed, religion that is involved, you know. And so that's over 40 years. It took a long time. So what we're starting this year when you see CDF and FRC and events and so forth coming. Starting, we just started. This can come mushroom. It will become a mass movement. And the same process that we are now trying to get people to move that. Crayol is not just a language. It is a way of life. It's a self-understanding. It is a development process. That must happen also too. And I'm confident it will happen with the concept of emancipation. Not just a word emancipation. Not just a holiday we're celebrating now. But now that we're going to begin to look into the research to our history. To understand our ancestors. Understand the whole question of reparation. The thing has potential, potential, potential. So CDF and Drain and I have developed a three-year plan. But it's going to be much more than three years. I mean women three years then you'll have to just eat. Because this thing has potential. Potential to really mushroom. And especially if you have policy makers, politicians who have the consciousness. That's the important thing. You have the consciousness and can put the resources, both finance and other resources, to facilitate the thing. It has its own dynamism. It's going to take off. When you have solutions who are always proud in the diaspora of speaking their creole as a way of giving them some sense of identity. When you hear now, something like La Rose de la Margarite. Seduction Commissions all over the world. Celebrating that. You know, when June O'Clock. Oh my gosh. All over the world. And the same thing for me. That's what's going to happen with emancipation. It's going to just take off and blossom and become a fantastic movement for social transformation and social re-engineering. I think it's definitely one of the tools that can help us to hook up some crime and so forth. You know? Only to understand that we were nurtured in the society of violence. You know, we were enculturated into becoming violent people. Violence was done to us. And therefore we became resistant to violence. I mean, the psychological, psychosocial things. I mean, there's so much. So much, so much. Thank you so much. I'm going to send you to Dr. Patrick Anthony who has been able to, as we were hoping, put the growth, development and consolidation of the folk research centre within the context, historical context. And as he has pointed out, the experience with the introduction of Cuiol and Juné Cuiol, and the need to appreciate Cuiol activities was a process that was galvanised as fast as people became to, started to understand the relationship. Thank you very much. But our next presenter, and of course in case you joined us late, this is a special press conference organised by the Solution National Reparations Committee, which has been working with the CDF as part of a committee of stakeholders that is driving the process under the leadership of the CDF, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries, on the basis of the contribution of the Government of St. Lucia and the designator of the Cabinet of Ministers of the month of August 2022 as the first Emancipation Month. And participating in our activities, not only now, but from as far back as March as far as I can remember during the observance of the week of activities against and in memory of the slave trade and in terms of letting us remember that slavery was not only the worst crime against humanity as designated by the United Nations in 2001, but also that slavery like the Holocaust should never happen again. And the Organization of American States participated in our activities here in March. In fact, one of them included a presentation by the principal of this Arthur Lewis Community College who made a stolen presentation on the origins of Carnival and the fact that Carnival is not just a jump-up matter, he put it in historical context. And that activity was blessed by a presentation by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, which had contributed to the activity and also present was Madame Lily Ching Soto, the head of the National OAS Office who is our next presenter and will tell us what the OAS is doing insofar as our recognition of Emancipation Month 2022. But perhaps Madame Ching, you could start off with... I understand that there's a... August 1st means more to you than just... I will take that bait, and I will share the fact that I did come to St. Lucia on August 1st, 2019. So it was my third-year anniversary two days ago in St. Lucia, and I have quite enjoyed it. Happy anniversary. Thank you very much. I must also tell you and I really... I'm really grateful for being here. Thank you for the invitation. I also should tell you that when I came here for some years, I started reading about St. Lucia on Saturdays. And when you were speaking about research, I was doing research about St. Lucia. But this year, I must tell you that I have been able to soak in St. Lucia's culture in a completely different way. So I think that I would like to start by saying that the events that CDF has been organizing have been the power that these initiatives have into expressing and transferring cultural heritage. It's amazing. And I am really proud of being part of it and to be able to support CDF and the governments of St. Lucia and, of course, to bring the organizational support into the events that we're carrying out this month. And I did, I hope, give justice to OAS's participation in the activities in March. Perhaps you could fill us in on anything I might have left out in terms of the extent of your participation, the contribution of your Secretary-General, and how you fit into, how your office fits into emancipation month this year. Well, let me start by saying that the OAS, the Organization of American States, is the world's oldest organization. And we work through different pillars, including development, democracy, human rights, security. So between the human... And I have a human rights background as well. So I was very interested in promoting equality, non-discrimination. And when we were celebrating in March the Inter-American Week for People of African Descent, we decided to do something that was going to go a little bit beyond the words and the discussions and the panels. We have so many panels in Washington. We have so many discussions. And from the diplomatic perspective, we thought that maybe it would be more effective to have a visual arts competition in which we could invite solutions to bring their art related to African descent. And not only to... And it was because we were celebrating... Well, we were commemorating anti-slavery trade. But we wanted to focus not only on the... on the bad part of the commemoration, but we wanted to focus on the strength and the resilience of persons of African descent. And also by doing that, and for me to be able to be a better bridge between Washington and St. Lucia. And I think that very early when we met, I told you, my intention is that St. Lucia feels always closer, that the always is present, that we're here. We're working more than trying to bring St. Lucia more to Washington, right? And the idea, to me, it's very exciting to think about being able to support all these cultural activities that would allow us to support the country, to support your cultural heritage. And that's why one day with Dr. Ners, we decided to speak, not only to have the visual arts competition, but also give it an academic component, which was to be able to speak about Carnival. And that lecture about Carnival, I am very proud of it. I think that Dr. Ners was able to bring to the table Dr. Keith Ners, the principal. Yes, Dr. Ners, the principal of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Because our activities have started in collaboration with Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. He was able to bring a lot of substance into the discussion. And it's, to me, was really valuable. Staff of the OES, in headquarters and the rest of the national offices were invited to participate to listen to this. And it's really valuable to bring San Lucia to the OES. Because understanding what Carnival is, and I must tell you that I went to all the events and I enjoyed them, but to understand what Carnival is from a completely different perspective, the perspective of knowing what doesn't mean, what is the cultural heritage, in addition to the feds and everything else, I think was wonderful. And we had the support from the highest level of authorities in Washington, which is the Secretary General, speaking about how the Carnivals do give voice to the marginalized and their space for freedom of expression. So we started with that this year. And I think that I must tell you that when you speak about the commemoration this month or when we speak about celebrations, I would really want to go beyond the month. And my idea and what we would like to do is to support San Lucia's government to be able to hold these conversations on a permanent basis. We take the opportunity of celebrate or commemorate, but I think that the discussions should be ongoing, that we should continue having these conversations on a regular basis. And in my particular case, my interest in making sure that the OES is effective and useful for San Lucia. Now, continuing with March, we brought the art competition all the way to April or May, even. And then we had an art exhibition. And I think it was wonderful. We still have some in the social media. We had a very strong participation of San Lucia artists. And I appreciated very much because I think we started a conversation, and I've said this before, a conversation beyond words. We started walking the talk via arts, via culture, via incentivizing young and not so young in representing the cultural heritage, which is very important to promote that nationalism. And I say that from the perspective of a multicultural, multilateral organization. But so with the art exhibition, then we decided that we should continue for emancipation because the topics are absolutely related. It's impossible not to think about one without the other. But to continue with emancipation and the best part of what we're doing now to me is that we shift the focus from slavery trade into a focus of positive Recklin consciousness into a different perspective. So I would say from a negative concept of slavery to a positive embrace of freedom and emancipation. And with that, we decided to collaborate with everybody who would be on board with the art exhibition and bring it to the South. So that we could not only be in Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, not only be in the North, but also to bring it to the South and be able to share some of this and try to engage people into participating in cultural events as well. So that's where we are now. If you want, we can talk about the future as well. But the idea is that we have this exhibition in Buford and also the OAS. Today I started my day by visiting the Human Resource Center. I think that's the name of it in Grosselia, where there is an art exhibition and we went and we supported it. We went to the Breadfruit and Breadnut Festival before we came here. So, you know, we are here. I want to be understood as part of the tribe. I want you to know that I am working to bring OAS closer to Senusha and that these initiatives have an immense power. And as I told you from my readings on Saturdays to leaving the experience of Carnival to the drum son and dance, even though it was 4 a.m., just experience, to see the capacity and the power that there is. It's very inspiring. Now, we have next week, you know, we started, and I'm not going to say that we're closing the loop because I really want to keep the line of continuity, but next week we have, and it's also part of the celebrations with Emancipation, we have August 9th as Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Persons Day. And we'll like to extend some of the celebrations to the week, you know, the OAS is celebrating the Inter-American Week for Indigenous Peoples. And I think that the topic was very well with some of the art exhibitions that we have. So, after this, I'll have to speak with Ms. Renia here. But the idea would be to also, you know, embrace that and to be able to continue the conversation. No, precisely. And we're glad that the OAS not only has assisted in contributing to the narrative on slavery, from slavery to emancipation, but also looking at World Indigenous Day and how it can be observed. Because, folks, the Karikom Reparations Commission, which was appointed by Karikom Heads of Government in 2013, and which gave rise to the establishment of national reparations committees in 12 Karikom countries, including St. Lucia, the mandate of the NRC in St. Lucia and all of the other 11 member states in Karikom is to ensure that the undertaking that was given by Heads of Government, when they adopted the call for joint pursuit of reparations for slavery and native genocide. We tend not to remember the native genocide part of it, and we will be discussing that during the Emancipation Month in August, because one of the things we are doing as part of the National Committee, the National Reparations Committee has a 100-day plan, independent of a separate 100-day plan that the CDF has, which our next presenter will bring us up to date with. But the activities that we are taking to the table are activities that are not necessarily on the national program as yet, but activities which will be taking place during that month, inescapable observances like, Madam Soto has just pointed out, the 9th of August next week Friday is going to be observed internationally as the International Day for Indigenous People. The 30th of August, Junior will tell you what is going to happen on the 30th of August, we will be closing the Emancipation Month, but the 31st of August is also recognized by the United Nations as International Day for People of African Descent, and one can see the CDF as well being willing and able to participate in the activity that NRC has organized for that day, which will include regional participation, including by hopefully the president of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous People who will put into context the intrinsic connection between the freedom fighters who resisted slavery earlier in our history, and the first people who the Europeans met and who also put up resistance to their lands being stolen because land title is one of the major issues affecting all Indigenous people, people of Indigenous descent across the world as manifested by the Pope's one-week visit to Canada last week, which he aptly described as a pilgrimage of penance. So our next presenter is Jenya Frederick. She is the Creative Director of the Cultural Development Foundation and in the driving seat in terms of implementation of the agreed program of activities, which like I said earlier didn't only start on the 1st of August, it started with the formal launching of the program in July and there was an activity on the last day of July, which many people saw as an appropriate introduction to August 1st. So to take us through where we have come from, where we are, and give us a glimpse on where we're heading with the rest of Emancipation Month 2022, Jenya Frederick. Good morning, everybody. It's really a pleasure to be here. And I think Parber said something that is significant, two things. This is a movement and this is about social change. And so far, well, this Emancipation process started months ago and when you were charged by the Prime Minister to come up with something and it took CDF a couple of months to really come up with those events. We were not looking at this in the perspective of person sale, another kind of large event, but how do you take an event and transmit a message? How do you take an event and reach your people? And how do you take an event and reach your people? And how do you take an event and reach your people? And how do you take an event and really enkindle the consciousness of conclusions and cause us to awake to the reality of our past, look at ourselves in the present, and look towards what is to come in the future. So the three-year plan is really working on that awareness and allowing people to come face to face with whether you want to call it or not the reality of a slave past, being enslaved, the reality of maybe the effects of it today and how we can change the trajectory for the future. And we started off with developing what we call iconizing a hero of emancipation and our hope is to have a hero from each district because slavery was spread around St. Lucia and there are many stories like that. So we started off in Dennery, iconizing Petrone. Now I first came across a name from, I heard it from Dr. Winston Filigens when I was looking for and researching for someone to iconize in Dennery and then subsequently to that I read Dr. Sumard's people, it's stiff back women and from since that point that story has really stuck out and is significant because most people don't realize that there was resistance before emancipation was officially announced by the British Empire and there was slave resistance in St. Lucia during that period and what is significant and interesting to notice that most of the resistance was led by women and this is an important point. This is an important focal point because it does say something about St. Lucia women and how to some extent they hold a society together. And for me Petrone and when we looked at her one person created that massive change and shift in terms of how people were treated and it's through almost the sacrifice of her death that certain things changed. So I mean the story of Petrone is simple Baron du Bocage said he didn't know what to do with her. I think she had gone through every single punishment and she died on her own terms. They stood a riot and the case brought to court an inquisition to declare that no woman should be put in a pillory and this is a woman from Denry, the valley and to have persons in that community come face to face with their history. We come face to face with their history so the type of metal that they are made of is quite a feat and significant. So Sunday we started off with a parade and I must say that the Rastafarian community has been very supportive. We all know that they had been leading and holding the charge of emancipation and they came out in large numbers, joined the parade and would like to thank Empress Dani for that in particular and her leadership in terms of how that was structured. I think she herself is a formidable woman and so we were accompanied by cultural groups in Denry, Montego based solo and of course this group called More Fire with those long French ones and drums and when we came to the area just in front of the schools and when I got there and we saw the crowd of people waiting to unveil this billboard and the whole process of really identifying what the history is, persons coming up and speak passionately and then having our officials, our government officials unveil this billboard and seen the reaction of persons in the community. I mean it was a moment in time of recognition that this is one of ours. This is somebody that is significantly ours. This is something with something in us that allows us to realize that we have the ability to make a statement, stand up for what is right and empower ourselves. So the billboard is really about empowerment. Empowering a community, empowering women, empowering sentolutions and moving to the concert area where people had this sense of jubilation, celebration and what we try to do is when you go into a community you don't enforce your ideology upon them. You take their ideas and what they want to do. Most of the performances and performers were from Denry, the community and they were even remastered. People say all of this talent in this one area used persons in the community to help in the setup of the area. So it was really about us working with the community, both the Denry North and South Council working through those relationships. I can't say that it has been easy all the time. We have disagreements but just working towards that common goal and setting it up. I have to say thank you to Chris Sender, Wilfred, Micah, Landers, Arlene Rages for their support in bringing this thing to life and without their support and the support of the entire community of Denry allowing Petruini to come to life. So within that fair the concert was overloading with people and it was just a period of coming together and celebration and understanding that this is who we are and in a sense as a community and as a solution and bringing together all of those groups of people together towards creating one sort of format, one goal. So for CDF in terms of achieving that that is significant and important and the Emancipation Committee all of those persons who made up that committee in terms of really latching onto the vision because it's important for persons you may have an idea and a vision and nobody seems to understand but understanding the vision, understanding the purpose hats off to everybody on the Emancipation Committee and the community of Denry and within that sense that for me bridged the success that we wanted in terms of finally that trigger to awaken people when you go down the high when you see that billboard you take two, three seconds and you say Petruini this person is significant, this is my hero and so we want to continue that in terms of Sufre, if I get to Sufre the drums and dance ritual this was primarily designed to allow people to interface with aspects of our history and understand the context of Emancipation I would say on a spiritual level and take aspects of our culture that connect to it if you notice the parade and people ask oh boy why 4 a.m. in the morning but think about it the enslave probably got up at 3 a.m. in the morning a little before that and spent hours from sunrise to sunset toiling and really untruly they did not have the liberty to say I could stay in my bed at 4 a.m. it's just one day out of the year you make that pilgrimage you make that sacrifice to show respect come out of your comfort come out of your sleeping zone yes and be part of the celebration and there were two reasons why it had to happen early in the morning so I'll give you a technical reason why so it's that spiritual connection when you're awake so that parade is coming down and it's boosting into daylight so that is one effect of that reverence the parade coming down the road and the parade is aspects of our culture that we have sort of developed whether you call it through creolization over the years the Stilled Walkers has significant spiritual connection in terms of deities so you have that element you have elements of that we have taken from our carnival to show the connection between that all of the performers, the dancers all of that embodies who we are and even a general public would join come in your African way and show that that continues I will come back to you on this but as we indicated earlier Monsignor has to leave us about now so we would have to give him the opportunity to briefly tell us in Creole what he said in English and we'll take a break so that he could make his exit Do you know Paol Paba who is your appraiser? Well I have to explain to you that's it because we have three violins that we have focused on it's a kind of gas only calls and it's a kind of college and we have to teach them and we have to we have to study and do research to find out what's going on but we have to do research because we have to study the traditions we have to do research to make it a song but we have to do it on radio but we have to find out what's important for the development we have to find out what's going on in the music and we have to find out what's going on in the music because it takes to make it that way to make it so you have to find out what's going on in music We have to find out we have to do research to know what's going on in music and we have to find out what's going on in music Because service is important to use because they have to talk about development. It was us, Belgium, Gomez, talking about money, business, and so on. Wash Xima. Wash Xima, excuse me. But he said, yes, all of this is development. But what matters is development. It's pepper. It's pepper. It's not pepper, it's development. Because the way we work is to find a way to learn how to use it. How to use it to develop. And this is what we think of our work. And we think, yes, we have to develop. We started to have a lot of people, and we started to think about it. We started to think about it, and we started to think about it. We started to think about it. We started to think about it. After that, we started to talk about it. We started to think about it. Because we have a conscious development. Development of this pepper. The pepper. And then, the way we work is to find a way to use it. Supported for 25 years. We have to sell it to the market. But when we started to have a career, it developed into a celebration. Celebation Aguandi, Nute Kuma Seada, Yonti Place on Mopo. The second one I had to pass on to me, Tua Piti, Nute Kuma Seada, Police, many others, Nute Kuma Seada, Aguandi, Aguandi, Aguandi. Just Nute Nute Kuma Seada, your community, because Nute Kuma Seada, Fleni, Nute Kuma Seada, Shwazi, Nute Kuma Seada, the community. After that, Nute Kuma Seada, Nute Kuma Seada, we went to three communities. We went to four communities. Just Nute Kuma Seada, Nute Kuma Seada, Shwazi, Nute Kuma Seada, a national park. Because it was a month. Not a day, but a month. A month, a month. And for me, that's the same dream I had. And then, I did an exhibition. So I told them, it was an exhibition. I told them, it was a movement. One day, a celebration was held for a long time. We went to the beach, to the beach, to the beach, and it was all over. It was a movement. And it was a movement. We went to the beach. We went to the beach. We did the technology. And then we started to appreciate the quality of the earth. We did the engineering. We did the violence. We did the technology. Because Nute Kuma Seada defended us. That's when we started to fight. That's when the violence started to spread. When we did it psychologically. What? The movement that Kuma Seada did, the society that we did it, we did it psychologically. For me, it transformed. When we did it, we did it psychologically. And then it became conscious. We looked at the restaurent. I started to think about it. I started to think about it. It was a movement. It was a movement. It was a movement. I started to think about it. It was different. It was different. continue to make an exit. You're watching our special press conference reviewing Emancipation Month activities to date. And we will continue our discussion with the Creative Director of the Cultural Development Foundation and the head of the National Office of the Organization of American States in St. Lucia, Madame Lily Ching Soto. We will be right back. Waiting. When the sands of time will give way to a tide of change. And for yesterday and to din her sun can kiss the cheeks of your loved one. And her stars can twinkle in her honeymoon skies. Her brace will reassure and calm your soul. And her unique view can change your whole perspective. She has risen to meet new champions. Safe harbor to all who reach her shores. For her hopes and dreams still stand. Shoulder to shoulder. A precious reminder of experiences yet to come. Let's climb it is changing. And that affects all of us. Storms are becoming increasingly intense. Periods of intense drought and heavy rain, stress farm animals and destroy our crops. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish. St. Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is doing its part, along with countries around the world, to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation. But decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt. That is, do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual and expected negative effects of climate change. And everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops, build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the government of St. Lucia's National Adaptation Plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St. Lucia's. I want to say that the government of St. Lucia's National Adaptation Plan is doing everything it can to protect our crops, build homes that withstand storms and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. What's in the food you're eating? Do you really even know? All the chemicals and hormones used to accelerate their growth. All the artificial flavoring, sweeteners and colors too. We consume and we don't spare a thought for the damage that they'll do. Welcome back to our press conference discourse discussion on the observance of Emancipation Month 2022 in St. Lucia. And we have heard from more senior Dr. Patrick Antony. We have also heard from Madame Lily Ching Soto, the head of the OAS Office, National Office in St. Lucia. And just at our break, before our break, we were hearing from Eugenia Frederick, the CDF, Cultural Development Foundation's Creative Director. And Eugenia, you were telling us about the positive response on the last day of July to the launching of the patronel activity in January. The unveiling of her plaque, her picture, her image, whatever we might want to call it. You have in fact been making reference to the fact that we used to drive our own four-door up and down. We just consider we live in January to head for Miku. But the location of that monument will encourage people and has already started encouraging people to think about not just who she was and how nice she was, but the contribution that her death made to the changing of the way in which women were punished during slavery. Because as Eugenia pointed out, Ambassador Sumer's research and that of others has indicated that she died in something called a pillory. And a pillory was like a cage in which you are put with your head outside at the top, your hands tied behind your back. And that is done in public in a yard to bring a measure of public shame to the person for having sinned by just being rude or refusing to take orders like patronel. And because of the way in which she was able to influence other enslaved people, both men and women, she ran away. They were punishing her and she ran away. And eventually she was caught putting the pillory and she died. Now having died on the morning in 1833, remember that's before emancipation, the baron de bocage like we heard earlier who was overseer at the four door estate, they claimed that she strangled herself. Now remember her head was outside the cage, her hands were tied behind her back, but they claimed she strangled herself. So that issue went to the courts and in so far as justice court and court in those days was concerned, the change it brought about was that women would no longer be punished in the pillory except until unless there was somebody present who could make a presentation in a court of law. I leave you to try to figure that out. But we were talking about the image and I remember there was a discussion about the image of Petronie whether we should be presented as a nice person, as an ugly person, as a bad person, as a peaceful person. And this is a problem we have when we try to give images to people we've never seen. And therefore we have to build the image among not only the impressions we have but the impressions we can imagine as to what the person was. And in the case of Petronie so that we could move on, in the case of Petronie the punishment that she went through in the pillory was akin to the type of punishment in this image that I'm going to show you right now. And that is the image supposedly the image of a woman who talked too much and her punishment was to lock her mouth so that she could not talk. Now the person who drew this and has been circulating it of late has an inscription below the 11th commandment of God to man, blessed are the speechless that they might not find themselves in trouble. Now this was written for that but I'll tell you where I first saw that picture it was in the balcony of a gentleman by the name of Mr. Colom. That's all he was done. Colom on Manuel Street where exactly where raise your voice is St. Lucia. The office is located exactly there at the bottom of the Caddy Hill. Mr. Colom had that photograph in his balcony. Now the name Colom has a specific meaning in French in that it was the French for the Overseer. Now whether Mr. Colom was an Overseer or whether he was called Colom because of how he dealt with his co-workers in Curacao I don't know but the image we have of Petronie is one that allows us to pay homage to her and not what she looked like or didn't look like but homage to who she is and Drenna you can tell us about what happened in Souffre on the 1st of August. So the concert in Souffre again Gornesna Community we work with the Souffre Foundation and the Souffre Council in terms of shaping and putting the event together and of course we use most of the performers came out of Souffre most of the the persons who were doing the vending so it became an activity in the community and I must say Souffre really took over the activity and embraced it and it was really a pleasure working with them. All of those persons on that committee, Glendale and if I forget any news is because I can't remember now and it really cements for me and throughout this entire process all of the agencies that we've been working with the collective sort of cooperation and understanding the vision of what we want to do and so for me Souffre the concert started from afternoon and it went into the night and the crowds of people that were there I mean we had people from all over St. Lucia and I think we ended at midnight and when we ended I said well okay great I heard people walking off and saying miss it I'd finish already I'm like so it was really a celebration a celebrating ourselves we had performed a faale who's from Souffre and really rallying people to that call of really understanding that we are actually celebrating this event and this this concept of sort of reconciliation and unity amongst us all and working towards a common goal and we can do that so this essentially what it did and we have not done we're going through to as a youth podcast excuse me but before we get there why Souffre? Souffre yes was our first first capital etc but was there any other reason for the freedom concert in Souffre? Souffre is part of the three year plan Souffre most people only realize Souffre has a rich history and in discovering that Souffre I believe Negma took over Souffre for one year again it's alleged that the resistance is set by so Souffre has a lot of significance we know that the Negma was statues in the square and we wanted to highlight Souffre in that sense so people now get a sense of this place we often look at it as a what I would say a sort of a tourist place it's beauty driving volcano driving volcano but it is really more than that Souffre is deeper than that and we need to understand that and understand our history and maybe understand you know those persons who who live there and understand that this is the legacy that that continues and in our third year for this series in emancipation we want to go back to Souffre and do a reenactment and really connect to the community of the battle at Rabot yes the battle of Rabot so it's and also to sort of decentralize it's not only about castries but it's about the entire Saint Lucia and that's what we'll be doing for the next three years to come empowering communities and empowering people I want to say something about I think I lost a train of thought Petranny is more than an iconic hero it is a symbol that our emancipation celebrations the emancipation is celebrated throughout the Caribbean of course you have all of these concerts and events but for us it is deeper than that it is unearthing our history and it is through these events and activities whether it's our educational outreach we have to unearth our history if it is not in our in books if it is not in our education system as yet it is to come then we unearth it another way and spread the message to people so we know definitely who we are and the calling of those slave names on Monday is significant and understanding who we are and why we're here and I hope people notice that when those names were called you had 10 people with the same last names these were families and that's the reality that we have to come face to face with and understand that it's time for reconciliation the Caribbean ties exhibition is held caravan ties and the exhibition with OAS or south for loose David is held in an unusual place people would have thought would have a nice hall it's in the Anglican church which has its own history which has its own history and connection to slavery but what better place than to do that and this is a time for reconciliation so this bodies what this is about this is an awakening and I think we have awoken people all the comments on Facebook all the buzzing all the discussions between intellectuals about petrony the discussions about slavery whether it's positive or negative these are the discussions that what we want is that the narrative takes place you mentioned the podcast the NYC podcast so the national youth council will be doing a podcast really hearing what young persons have to say about emancipation the raw truth and getting their view and their perspective and channeling that message there's a panel discussion going to be done by the folk research center the dispensation of land after emancipation of that is going to be a hot topic and we're asking persons you know you need to understand what happened afterwards it was more than 20 million pounds given to those implantation owners what else was given to them what about the people who work the land so we have to face all of these things why certain areas seem to be different and why large areas we say well this is these are not the owners locally but so we need to understand all of that and understand in terms of how do we go about managing 238 square miles of the present what we have and understanding that we have to appreciate what we have so apart from that the library is launching a project about oral history and of course we will close off with the Laos festival which is over a hundred years old which came out of slavery and celebrated in castries August 30th from 9 a.m. until 5 a.m. church service and really Laos has been a country they had said that they had not been to castries for the last 15 years and it's only fitting that we celebrate within the city of castries we're working closely with the castries constituency council thank you to the mayor we're working with east arm events company who has been with us throughout all of these events working in terms of executing and all of the other agencies who have supported us so we're just inviting persons to come and be part I will not say experience but a part of a movement of social change and that allows us to before we go back to madam lily so too and that brings us it allows us to reintroduce the regional and international element of what we're doing in st. Lucia today and what is happening in st. Lucia today because like I said the we have to put all of that within the context of reparations because we're looking at a space from the beginning of slavery to its supposed end and the result of which is all reparations so when slavery started when the royal family established the royal africa company in whatever whatever century to start the transatlantic slave trade which was not about racism but was an economic means a very very fruitful economic means what happened coming out of this was that through the sort of responses like in st. Lucia between 1795 and 1796 when slavery was abolished for one year that was as a result of the influence of the french revolution in 1789 so that the the seven years after 1789 there was this revolt in st. Lucia the battle at rabot that destroyed defeated the british they returned in 1789 and re-established slavery therefore in 1804 the Haitian revolution took place and abolished slavery forever through the creation of a constitution now from 1789 the french revolution to 1804 the Haitian revolution there were so many instances of rebellion in latin america and the caribbean the america is in the caribbean that the enslavers in europe had to take a note of it and therefore seeing that slavery did not have a future they found a way to come up with abolition abolition in 1834 but conditional upon the supposed x slaves given free labor for a lot of four years through apprenticeship but we noticed that in that period between abolition and apprenticeship the europeans were able to get enough time to arrange for indentureship so that you could have indians to replace africans providing the free labor that fueled the transatlantic slave trade the so-called middle passage from africa to the caribbean and the americans and the so-called great triangle that started in britain went to africa down to the caribbean and brought the profits back up so slavery emancipation and indentureship all led to reparations and that is what reparations is all about it has internationalized the issue reparations is not only a caribbean thing it is a big matter in america as well where for the 2020 presidential elections in the united states every one of the nine democratic candidates seeking the candidacy for the presidency had to have a public session on what they would do about reparations and then came the george the george floyd situation which snowballed the reparations movement in the united states so reparations is being sought in the caribbean in the united states and now africa is on board so that with the upcoming second africa african union and caricum summit on the 7th of september which is going to be the second we're going to most likely hear the extent to which the african union is joining the caricum's call for reparations for slavery and native genocide and i might also tell you that the caricum the heads of government are also engaging with the government of india so that india could come in on the international reparations movement on behalf of not just the exploitation of india by the british empire but the exploitation of the indigenous uh indians who were brought to replace the free labor in slavery as a result of which in sentry for example we have specific indian oriented communities from forestry to mark to oj so all of these are the issues we will be able to discuss during an emancipation month but please let us not treat emancipation like carnival or like um jazz and only get ready for it when it's coming emancipation and reparations are prominent and one of the recommendations that the national reparations committee is going to be making at the end of this is the creation of a permanent committee commission or transformation of the national emancipation preparations committee into a permanent forum with a budget that operates throughout the year rather than waiting until july next year to plan for emancipation or waiting till march next year to plan for observance of slavery having said all that let us go um to madame lili ching is so too the oas like we said earlier has been pleased to participate in contribute to and be present at the various activities that we have been organizing in st lusia um particularly in the past year of your three years here um when does all that fall in within the context of the oas charter because like you pointed out the oas is one of the oldest if not the oldest international organization um organization of nations and um in that context um i would hate to think that oas participation here is just is just because you have an interest um tell us how it falls in within the oas's uh objectives let me say well i have a couple ideas or reactions that i would like to raise um i'm going to try to organize them in a way that that i explain myself but when you speak about reparations and you know this better than i do one of the basic elements of reparations is guarantees of non-repetition and for you to not have repetition you need to be able to have truth and reconciliation right so in most of the in the world that the records the truth and reconciliation commissions committees initiatives always have the truth part of it and i think that with these initiatives cdf and the government of san russia is doing a great job into explaining or bringing you know there's two kinds of truths as well that the judicial that is established by a court when you bring something to a tribunal and also the historical and i think that the historical truth the way that it has been exposed to everybody all of us even when we're watching online the events and the the stories that are coming out i think it's a wonderful way of bringing awareness to truth which is one of the elements of reparations so i just wanted to say that and that's really from my human rights perspective but uh um my second reaction is with pretrony and when you were saying was she pretty was she ugly was she bad was she and then i would have to say well she was a person right and she was a holder of rights and that is basically also what where i'm going to connect with your question about the organization of american states and what do we do because as a as a regional forum on the organization of american states since establishment a long time ago with the mid-dominations and besides um we have had regional discussions and and one of them strongest elements of the oyes is also the human rights standards that had been created so from the charter and its origin to the declaration of the rights and duties of men to the american convention on human rights the celebration of the rights of people and the equality the principle of equality the non-discrimination the rights of women the the rights of it's something that we have at a political dialogue level on a permanent basis just like we have reparations just like we have the right to truth we this is something that we have been discussing since i haven't been since then but uh that the oyes has been discussing since inception so i think that this is totally related and i think that one of the things that we also have to take into consideration when we speak about this big political organizations regional organizations is that when you have 35 member states one of the main objectives so as to be able to work effectively is to bring cultures together while preserving their identity so it is a task you have 35 states but i am delighted to be part of the initiative and the effort to try to bring cultures together while preserving their identity and seeing san lucha blooming with identity and not identity expressions of cultural heritage that teach me about your identity is wonderful so historical shoes thank you are we running out of time we have only five more minutes left and of course we will be looking for closing remarks from each of our remaining panelists in your anthony had to leave to participate in an activity that he could not have have pulled out of and therefore folks um we're hoping that we have been able during this um discussion to bring you up to date with why reparations why emancipation the connection between slavery abolition emancipation apprenticeship indenture ship and why all of that has led to who they call for reparations for slavery and native genocide and like we said earlier the ninth of august is international day for indigenous people the organization of american states has an activity planned the national reparations committee will also be engaging the oas office and the cdf in so far as how best we could not just contribute to emancipation month 2022 but to ensure that this movement that papa spoke about this movement that ambassador ching has spoken about this movement this and kindling this um and kindling of our consciousness rekindling of our consciousness in the second year and uh reigniting that consciousness even further reinforcing it in the third year so uh for our final comments we will start again with madame ching so too she will give us a final comments on oas participation in what we are doing here and adrenia will hopefully give us um more reason to look forward to the rest of emancipation month 2022 madame ching your closing remarks well i would like to say thank you thank you on behalf of the secretary general and assistant secretary general of the oas and of the staff because you have allowed us to come close to you as a people and i am very um and i am very excited and motivated to be able to to keep on working on this on these issues um i wouldn't like to say a closing remark other than let's keep talking i would love to be able to continue the conversation so to me it is um a challenge to learn more it there's always um a reflection that comes from from these conversations and i was in denny and listening to to the participants there's a lot of reflection to to be done and i am happy for your guidance i'm learning a lot and i am happy to be part of this so let's keep on talking thank you and we look forward to your continuing assistance cooperation and everything that you continue to do not only for us but with us because we can see that you have like you said attended and participated in all of the activities from carnival to emancipation adrenia the cdf creative director the lady in the driver's seat um your closing remarks i just want to thank everyone for coming out and participating particularly the artistic community the creatives who participated in all the activities and allowed their talent and their vision of how this will be put on um to come to fruition there are specific people i'm not forgetting everybody tabu melee all the drumming groups thank you for coming more fire and barry george trevor king i'm those persons who did stage management and our production people our camera persons um always everybody who worked towards creating this both in denny and on monday in castries and in sufre thank you to the creative community the creatives are for ale without your creative impetus this would not be possible and create the impact that we really needed and of course naja simian for reading all those documents and coming up with an image of petrony thank you thank you thank you that is a gift and to minsel fabier for giving us those three images that have formed part of our branding thank you and it's really an outpouring from cdf to the artistic community let's continue to work together to create movement create change and everybody be part of the celebrations come out to support flowers put on your television and be part of the discussion that's it and we want to thank each and every one of you out there for joining us today for what we hope will have been an informative entertaining and educating activity and exchange we want to thank madame lili ching so too we want to thank jenia fredrick the cdf creative director and on behalf of the national reparations committee we want to thank you for joining us and we look forward to you not just continuing to participate in the activities that have been scheduled but also to be ready to participate in those activities we might not have prepared for all like august ninth international day for indigenous people and august 31st the international day for people of african descent which really bridges the gap between the objective of the call for reparations for slavery and a native genocide so we look at native genocide on august 9th and then we will look at the people of african descent on august 31st i'm well buske until next time do enjoy the rest of your day thank you