Dr Rita Pemberton

THE TERMINATION of the apprenticeship system and the imperial declaration of August 1, 1838, as Emancipation Day, is considered an important date in the history of the Caribbean.

Across the region, the freed Africans welcomed the day for which they had so longed. The day was heralded with church services and then celebrations, some of which lasted for days or weeks.

Since 1985, Emancipation Day was declared a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago, which was the first former British colonial possession to do so, and this year the day has been entitled African Emancipation Day.

While the commemoration of Emancipation is undoubtedly an important event in both Trinidad and Tobago, the actions of the people of Tobago indicate it is of even greater significance there, where its importance to the population was demonstrated by its uninterrupted celebration each year until the 1930s without prodding from any official or administrative force.

Emancipation Day was an unofficial holiday on the island, which facilitated community-wide participation in the celebrations. This is an indication that the event attracted such celebratory responses because of its importance to the entire community.

Contrary to what was intended by the authorities, Emancipation provided an opportunity for the open cementing of community bonding which existed surreptitiously during the era of enslavement on the island.

It is to be noted that nothing changed in 1838. Socially and politically, life in Tobago remained as it was during the years of enslavement. Sugar remained the mainstay of the island and the planter class, which, despite its falling fortunes, buttressed by its allies in the council and assembly, remained the dominant force.

Land was under its control, as its members were the plantation owners and there were no other employment possibilities, so the freed population remained dependent on the plantations for employment.

Determined to make changes to their lives, the freed Africans made use of every opportunity that provided them with a chance to become less dependent on plantation labour and offered them the opportunity to wriggle free.

The Emancipation celebrations, which were planned well ahead of the day to be celebrated, were expressed through three features that were of importance to the island’s freed African population.

The Christian church was the first. Under the influence of the religious bodies, the population adopted the Christian faith and gave thanks to God for the blessings of freedom bestowed on them.

However, conversion had a practical element, for church membership provided opportunities for education and alternatives to plantation labour. The churches offered social and economic improvement which many sought to use to their advantage.

But although at Emancipation the freed Africans celebrated with prayers in the Christian churches, this did not mean that they had abandoned their African belief systems.

However, the realities of life in the years after freedom had been well