Message from the Leader of the Opposition Mr Mark Golding, MP for Emancipation Day 2025

My fellow Jamaicans,

Today, we join together in solemn reflection and in powerful celebration as we observe Emancipation Day, 2025 – a sacred day in our nation’s history when we honour the courage, resistance and unyielding spirit of those who came before us and fought for the freedoms that we now enjoy.

Our freedom was not handed down by decree. Emancipation was the culmination of generations of struggle and sacrifice by our leaders and those who supported their great work. From Nanny to Takyi to Sam Sharpe, they each realized, in the words of Nelson Mandela, that ‘after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb’. The road was long and hard, but they never gave up.

And then on August 1, 1834, the shackles of slavery were historically broken. As we honour and celebrate our ancestors who never gave up the struggle for freedom, we recognize this day as representing the triumph of good over evil.

Having claimed our freedom, it is the solemn duty of successive generations of Jamaicans to protect it and carried it forward through the ages. From the post-Emancipation fires of the Morant Bay Rebellion to the rise of the Garvey movement to the great labour upheavals of 1938 through to our political independence in 1962, the Jamaican spirit has always demanded more than just survival – it has demanded dignity, equality, justice, and opportunity for all.

Today, we stand on the shoulders of our heroes, named and unnamed, who endured unspeakable suffering, whose dreams of liberty helped to shape the very foundation of our democracy and our identity as a people.