Emancipation Jubilee to Pay Tribute to African Ancestors
By: , July 29, 2016The Key Point:
Photo: Donald Delahaye
Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) Special Projects Director and Archaeologist, Dorrick Gray, addresses a Think Tank at the JIS Montego Bay Regional Office, where he gave details about the staging of the Seville Emancipation Jubilee on July 31 into the morning of August 1.The Facts
- JNHT Director of Special Projects and Archaeologist, Dorrick Gray, said the event, from Sunday (July 31) through to the morning of August 1, will honour the sacrifices and struggles of the African forefathers for the freedom we now enjoy.
- “We want our people to see those instruments of torture. They are real. We still have them and our people must see them so that we can remember the struggles that our ancestors went through and this is why we are living as united and free in Jamaica now,” he said.
The Full Story
The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) says that this year’s Seville Emancipation Jubilee will be a fitting tribute to the African ancestors.
JNHT Director of Special Projects and Archaeologist, Dorrick Gray, said the event, from Sunday (July 31) through to the morning of August 1, will honour the sacrifices and struggles of the African forefathers for the freedom we now enjoy.
It will include the exhibition of artefacts and relics from the slavery era.
“We want our people to see those instruments of torture. They are real. We still have them and our people must see them so that we can remember the struggles that our ancestors went through and this is why we are living as united and free in Jamaica now,” he said.
Mr Gray, who was speaking at a JIS Think Tank held recently (July 19), informed that the event will, for the first time, see the participation of the Maroon community.
It will feature the blowing of the Abeng and reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at midnight, followed by a candlelight and wreath-laying ceremony at the graveside of slaves reinterred at Seville by the JNHT in 1997.
Activities start at 6:00 pm with traditional drumming, performances from gold medallists in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) festival of the performing arts competitions, Jonkonnu dance groups, Maroon and Islington cultural ensembles, gospel artistes, the University of the West Indies Singers, Carifolk Singers, and the Fab 5 band.
Patrons are urged to bring along their enamel mugs for free servings of ‘chaklit tea’ throughout the night.
The 19th staging of the Emancipation Jubilee is being held under the distinguished patronage of Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, under the theme: ‘United and Free…What a Jubilee’.