Given the prevalent COVID-19 restrictions in the country, the current Emancipation Week was celebrated in hushed tones and with less fanfare than in previous years. This had already been disclosed by Chief Cultural Officer Raymond Lawrence who announced that most of this year’s celebrations will be done online using the Cultural Division Facebook page.
The Emancipation Week celebrations is tagged “Giving Thanks, Building Hope, and Celebrating Possibilities.” It started with a thanksgiving church service at the Grandbay Catholic Church where Father Brancker John led the homily on Sunday, July 26.
The Catholic priest noted in his address that this year’s emancipation celebrations coincide with the current global movement for the Black Lives Matter campaign. He said the movement may focus on the injustices suffered by blacks and people of colour at the hands of white people, but attention must also be drawn to the injustices done by blacks to fellow blacks.
“While we focus on this and highlight the injustice done to our brothers and sisters, we must not forget that we too as black brothers and sisters do not have permission to do injustice to each other,” Father Brancker John said. “We are celebrating this week, our heritage, our story, our strength, our sacrifice.”
He urged Dominicans to strive to leave the island better than they met it to the generations coming behind, adding that the current population is able to live on the island because their ancestors left the island better than they met it.
Chief Cultural Officer Raymond Lawrence revealed that the Cultural Division Facebook page features contemporary national icons such as Ophelia Marie, Chubby (Phillip Mark), Rah (Derrick Peters), Adriana Henderson, Pearle Christian, Athena Darroux, Gilles Carbon Jno Baptiste, Vanessa Winston and Paul Lewis.
A live panel discussion titled The African Influences on Our Dominican Culture also held on the Facebook page on Wednesday, July 29. It was moderated by Sonia Magloire-Akpa and had Dr. Lennox Honychurch, Clementine Affana, and Raymond Lawrence among others as the panelists.
The Facebook page also highlighted African fashion and Creole attires with various models every day of the week. Local poets also had their poems featured on the page, while virtual bele and drumming shows were also carried out on the social media platform.
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