Emancipate yourself from mental slavery None but ourselves can free our minds ... Redemption Song Robert Nestor Marley

MORE than one hundred years have passed since the abolition of slavery in the Western hemisphere.

During these hundred plus years, we have seen the emergence of heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Marcus Garvey, Tubal Uriah Butler, and Eric Williams.

These are men who were in the forefront of the American Civil Rights Struggle, the Black Power Movement, Trade Unionism and the drive towards decolonialism.

More than one hundred years have elapsed since the emancipation proclamation was read throughout the Western world.

Men and women have fought and died for the cause of freedom. But as we prepare to step across the threshold of the new millenium, are we truly free?

I look at the nation of my birth, Trinidad and Tobago,and I see economic oppression, social inequality and racism, all within the races and among the races.

I see our black women being constantly marginalized, degraded by our calypsonians and abused by their loved ones.

I look at the Caribbean islands and I see political instability and island prejudice.

We remain in economic bondage to the first world, the I.M.F, and the World Bank, while we fight among ourselves for island supremacy, forgetting or rather refusing to acknowledge, that we are one people with a common history.

I look at the continent of South America and see crime, economic, and political instability, citizens engaged in colour prejudice, race hate and an attitude of superiority towards their island brothers.

Finally, I look at North America and Canada. I see that race hate still exists there; social, political, and economic oppression are part of their reality. Black women are degraded and abused by our men, and our brothers and sisters kill each other.

More than one hundred years have gone by since the end of slavery in the western world.

We are only a footstep away from the new millinium.

But unless we as a people can emancipate ourselves from mental slavery", put aside petty prejudices, learn to respect each other, and unite in our struggle to gain social economic and political freedom massa day would never done .

More than one hundred years have rolled over since we were granted our freedom.

It is time that we took it.

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