26/08/2021
Emancipation Day Remembered in the Cayman Islands
The advent of Emancipation Day in the Cayman Islands this year was one of the busiest in several decades in terms of events to mark the occasion, according to Caymanian Historian, Mrs. Arthurlyn Pedley.
She noted that August 1st did not just come and go this year, without there being some reverence for the day and explained that many activities ‘took place’, included lecturers by celebrated scholars from the Islands’ such as the Dr. Roy Bodden, as well as plays from Playwright Dr. Frank McField and dances.
Dr. Roy Bodden has been on record stating: “In the mid-1970s, the then political directorate - in their attempt to rewrite Caymanian history - removed the cultural celebration of Emancipation Day from the cultural calendar. Before that time, Emancipation Day in the Cayman Islands was a popular and much celebrated holiday on Grand Cayman with both black people and enlightened whites marking the occasion with dance, camaraderie and revelry.
“In Bodden Town, which was both the political, as well as the slave capital, the celebration took on a special significance, with black folk from all walks of life congregating in a jovial mood,” he added.
Mr. Bodden’s remarks in this regard ring true, especially since one of the National Trust’s flagship properties; the Mission House in Bodden Town, is said to have been built by slaves.
On the wall of the Mission House, visitors will also see one of the only pictures that exists of actual slaves in the Cayman Islands.
The picture, which was first published in the Hirst Book by the Commissioner of the Cayman Islands at the time (Mr. George S.S. Hirst), features a group of former slaves in their latter years and is said to have been taken on Christmas of 1910.
At least two of the persons in the image were born in the years 1810 and 1812. Emancipation took place in 1834.
To put this into perspective, it means that they would have been alive at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte and were at least 90 and 92 at the time of the photo.
The role that slaves played in early Cayman life is very vague and the literature and images throughout the course of time, have in many cases, left out their contribution to the building of the Islands’ early infrastructure, though we do know they were bought and sold in the Islands, as in many other places.
Pedro St. James is said to be the place where slaves landed, before beginning their lives of servitude.
Though much of the history of people of colour that is referenced is from the time of slavery, this in many ways is one more injustice. Africa is referred to as the, ‘Dark Continent’ not just because of the skin colour of its inhabitants but also because of the vast amount of ignorance that exists regarding the culture and mores of its people before slavery.
Many of the historians of the time were not people of colour and this may have contributed to ommission of any facts about the people who came to Cayman from Africa or Jamaica. We do not know what parts of Africa they hailed from or what their lives were like before coming to the ‘New World’ all of which has further served to dehumanise early Africans in the Caribbean region and in particular, the Cayman Islands.
Other Islands around the Caribbean have suffered a similar blackout of information regarding the heritage of slaves, their descendants and their predecessors.
In Belize, the first ever Emancipation Day was only celebrated this year. Whilst, Trinidad and Tobago became the first independent country in the world to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery on August 1, 1985.
Today, 12 countries in the English speaking Caribbean commemorate August 1 as Emancipation Day; we join in recognizing this important time in history.
