Jamaica marks ‘Emancipendence’ with thanksgiving service in Trinidad

The Ja­maican High Com­mis­sion com­mem­o­rat­ed 188 years of “Emancipen­dence” with a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice at the Parish of the As­sump­tion Ro­man Catholic Church in Mar­aval last Sun­day, ahead of Ja­maica’s In­de­pen­dence Day, which is cel­e­brat­ed an­nu­al­ly on Au­gust 6.

Ja­maica’s High Com­mis­sion­er to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Na­tal­ie Camp­bell-Ro­driques, said the ser­vice cel­e­brat­ed three im­por­tant mile­stones in the coun­try’s his­to­ry: the 188th an­niver­sary of Eman­ci­pa­tion, the 63rd an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence and 63 years of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions be­tween Ja­maica and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Camp­bell-Ro­driques ex­plained that the term “Emancipen­dence” com­bines the words Eman­ci­pa­tion and In­de­pen­dence, re­flect­ing the coun­try’s twin cel­e­bra­tions of free­dom from slav­ery and po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence.

“As Ja­maicans, we give thanks to God for the strength and guid­ance that has tak­en our coun­try from en­slave­ment to the ful­fil­ment of in­de­pen­dence,” she said.

“Our fore­fa­thers brought us out of the dark­ness of slav­ery, sus­tained not by ma­te­r­i­al wealth, but by an un­yield­ing hope in the promise of free­dom.”

She said Ja­maica’s jour­ney from Eman­ci­pa­tion to In­de­pen­dence, achieved 124 years lat­er, demon­strat­ed the re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion of its peo­ple.

Re­fer­ring to this year’s na­tion­al theme “Unit­ed in Cel­e­brat­ing Re­silience,” Camp­bell-Ro­driques said it re­flects the en­dur­ing strength of the Ja­maican peo­ple.

She al­so high­light­ed the close re­la­tion­ship be­tween Ja­maica and Trinidad and To­ba­go, de­scrib­ing it as one built on mu­tu­al re­spect, strong peo­ple-to-peo­ple ties and shared re­gion­al val­ues.

Camp­bell-Ro­driques thanked the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go for their con­tin­ued good­will and sol­i­dar­i­ty, in­clud­ing their sup­port fol­low­ing the pas­sage of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Ran­dall Karim, rep­re­sent­ed Min­is­ter Sean Sobers at the ser­vice.

Karim said the oc­ca­sion ho­n­oured the re­silience of both na­tions’ an­ces­tors while cel­e­brat­ing 63 years of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions and reaf­firm­ing a com­mit­ment to con­tin­ued re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion and broth­er­hood.

In an Eman­ci­pa­tion mes­sage, Ja­maica’s Prime Min­is­ter, An­drew Hol­ness, urged Ja­maicans to re­flect on the courage and sac­ri­fice of their an­ces­tors and to cel­e­brate the free­dom, iden­ti­ty and na­tion­hood that con­tin­ue to shape the coun­try’s fu­ture. He al­so praised the Ja­maican di­as­po­ra for en­hanc­ing the coun­try’s in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion through its achieve­ments across a wide range of fields.