As Jamaica marked Emancipation Day on August 1, Steven Golding, President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), issued a stirring call for Jamaicans to move beyond surface-level commemorations and embrace a deeper, more critical understanding of the nation’s emancipation legacy.
Golding warned that the historical gravity of Emancipation Day is increasingly being eclipsed by the proximity of Independence Day celebrations. The tendency to conflate the two observances, he argued, dilutes the unique and hard-fought triumph that emancipation represents.
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“Emancipation was not the result of moral awakening in the British Parliament,” Golding asserted in an interview with The Gleaner. “It was the product of centuries of Black resistance—of our ancestors’ unrelenting struggle against enslavement, brutality, and the trafficking of African bodies. This prolonged defiance rendered the slave system unsustainable.”
Golding criticized what he described as the persistence of a “colonial narrative” in the national psyche—one that credits British benevolence for emancipation, rather than acknowledging the agency, resistance, and sacrifice of the enslaved. He identified this misconception as symptomatic of a broader educational failure.
Reclaiming Historical Truth
To reclaim this narrative, Golding pointed to figures like Dutty Boukman, a Jamaican-born revolutionary whose role in initiating the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) sent shockwaves through the colonial world. Haiti’s victory, he noted, terrified imperial powers into accelerating abolitionist measures for fear of similar uprisings across the Caribbean.
Golding also invoked the haunting story behind Sabina Park, now Kingston’s iconic cricket venue. The grounds were named after an enslaved woman who was executed for killing her own child—a desperate act intended to spare him the atrocities of slavery. Her burial on the site, largely unknown to the public, underscores how many of Jamaica’s everyday landmarks remain untethered from their painful but powerful pasts.
“Our history has not been told truthfully,” Golding said. “It has been sanitized—taught as though freedom was bestowed upon us rather than wrested from an oppressive system by the blood and courage of our people.”
A National Memory in Danger of Erosion
Emancipation Day, which commemorates the formal abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean on August 1, 1834, has long been a cornerstone of Jamaican identity. Though it was first celebrated through church services and community gatherings in the 1880s and officially recognized as a public holiday in 1893, the observance was controversially discontinued in 1962, the same year Jamaica gained independence. It was only reinstated in 1997, following growing calls for its revival.
Golding sees the post-independence discontinuation as emblematic of a troubling tendency among Jamaican leadership to sideline the legacy of slavery and resistance in favor of post-colonial state-building narratives.
He further criticized the region’s failure to meaningfully commemorate the United Nations International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, observed globally on March 25. Instituted in 2007, the date honors the millions who perished during the centuries-long trade in human lives. Yet, in the Caribbean—the epicenter of that tragedy—public acknowledgment remains minimal.
“Each November, world leaders gather to mourn the victims of the Jewish Holocaust, and we, as Black people, wear poppies in solemn solidarity. But where is the comparable recognition for the holocaust of our ancestors?” Golding asked. “Do our flags fly at half-mast on March 25 or August 1 to honor the fallen freedom fighters of African descent?”
Resistance as a Global Blueprint
Reverend Dr. Devon Dick echoed Golding’s sentiments, describing Jamaica’s emancipation struggle as a global model of nonviolent resistance. He praised National Hero Samuel Sharpe, who led the 1831 Baptist War, for his role in shaping a “blueprint for passive revolution.”
Dr. Dick advocated for renewed civic and educational engagement around Emancipation Day. He recommended expanding essay and quiz competitions, public lectures, vigils, and other cultural programming that center the contributions of Jamaica’s freedom fighters.
“Civil society has a critical role to play,” he said. “While some churches and community groups have maintained the tradition of reflection, the media must also elevate these commemorations—giving them the same platform and prominence it gives to festivals and entertainment events.”
A Time for Reckoning
As the region reflects on its past and imagines its future, Golding’s appeal is ultimately one for historical reckoning. Emancipation was not a gift; it was a victory earned through unimaginable struggle. To honor that legacy fully, Jamaica—and the wider Caribbean—must reclaim and retell the truth of its emancipation story, centering the resistance, courage, and sacrifice of those who fought for freedom with everything they had.
