- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 05/Aug 13:27

Cross Rhodes, ESCTT thankful for Columbus statue removal

CROSS Rhodes Freedom Project director Shabaka Kambon is declaring victory after Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne's August 1 announcement that the Christopher Columbus statue will be removed from the city. The NGO has been advocating for the statue's removal for nine years. Alleyne also announced that Columbus Square, the current location of the statue, will be renamed. In a phone interview on August 4, Kambon told Newsday the statue's removal was a win for every group, particularly the Warao Nation who fought with Freedom Project to have it done. He also hoped it would inspire other Caribbean countries to take similar steps. Alleyne announced the removal at this year’s Emancipation celebrations and said it would be relocated to the National Museum. He also announced that a new monument would replace it and a part of Oxford Street would be renamed Kwame Ture Way. A Newsday report quoted Alleyne as saying the statue would be removed as soon as possible in the new financial year. [caption id="attachment_1170382" align="alignnone" width="714"] Cross Rhodes Freedom Project director Shabaka Kambon. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption] Kambon said, “This is huge, because we are talking about a colonial narrative that was interwoven into the very fabric of our identity.” The fight to have this done was started in 2017 with the Warao Nation. A petition to have the statue removed was also started in 2018. In 2022, then prime minister Dr Keith Rowley announced a cabinet-appointed committee to review the placement of statues and monuments. Consultations were held last year. “It took us nine years to get rid of both the statue and the ships from the Coat of Arms. We declare victory today, but we acknowledge the importance of the victory.” He agreed with an earlier suggestion by Emancipation Support Committee of TT (ESCTT) executive chair Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada that while they were thankful to Alleyne and his council for the partial renaming of Oxford Street, that the entire street should be named Kwame Ture Way. “I agree with sister Zakiya. I don’t think it is too much for us to name one street after a national hero of the proportions of Kwame Ture.” He highlighted that in the UK, the homes of TT-born heroes like CLR James and Henry Sylvester Williams had blue plaques which meant those buildings could not be touched. However, their respective homes in Tunapuna and Arouca were destroyed and/or re-purposed. “We have failed to educate our citizens about who are their real heroes while upholding these false heroes and the damaging colonial narratives associated with them," Kambon. “But we must congratulate the mayor for both of these decisions.” Kambon: Don't restore Columbus statue He said even though most of the world had recoiled from the veneration of Columbus there were still “hegemonic forces” on the planet which would like to reverse that development. “We want to congratulate the mayor in supporting our position that the monument be replaced by a statute to indigenous resistance. “But the other thing we think the mayor should consider is when they remove the statue and place it in the museum, rather than restoring it they follow the approach that was taken in Bristol, UK with the statue of (colonialist) Edward Colston and place it in the prone position (lying flat on the stomach) with all of the graffiti, paint and so on with the damage that it took.” It should also include a proper historical note letting people know how it got to that, Kambon added. He hoped that would spur other Caribbean countries to follow suit and remove Columbus’ monuments. “The fact that it is so difficult for us to celebrate our own heroes while being so challenging for us to remove these false heroes from our public space really speaks to where we are as a nation.” Uzoma-Wadada said the ESCTT was elated with the announcement and knew it would have happened eventually. In that phone interview on August 4, she told Newsday it was heartening in the era of reparations and decolonisation that this was coming from the lips of not only civil society, but government officials. “We thank the mayor for his courage to ensure that it happened.” The exact time frame for removal would come from Alleyne, she said. She said the national reparations committee wanted the replacement to be something in tribute to the indigenous people. [caption id="attachment_1170383" align="alignnone" width="1024"] ESCTT executive chair Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada. - Photo by Faith Ayoung[/caption] “We give thanks again for the initiative to start the process,” she said of the partial renaming of Oxford Street. “What has been offered is the renaming starting from Argyle Street to Charlotte Street Kwame Ture Way, but the request is that Oxford Street be removed and replaced by Kwame Ture Way. “That is the ideal. That is the objective. And even though we give thanks for a start in that direction, what is required is the renaming of the whole street.” She said there were concerns by some businesses of having to change addresses etcetera, but the committee felt those sacrifices were worth the effort of ensuring that a street on which Kwame Ture lived as a son of the soil was named in his honour. The ESCTT also thanked Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for saying she would continue the fight for reparations and said it was looking forward to how that unfolded. Historian: How will statue's removal help Trinidad and Tobago? Historian Dr Jerome Teelucksingh said the removal of the statue was a good move for the psyche of those who felt offended by it. He added that he was glad it was being preserved in the museum so future generations could see what Columbus looked like. He has some reservations, however, wondering how the move could reduce poverty, unemployment and crime. “I find it a bit strange that we have allowed our emotions to get the better of us, and we feel that the removal of this statue would bring good luck to the country or help us in some way. “I know we cannot change the past, but we are helping to improve the future. But I don’t see how a dead, inanimate object could help us in the present.” [caption id="attachment_1170396" align="alignnone" width="914"] Historian Dr Jerome Teelucksingh. -[/caption] He wondered how much would be spent on the replacement monument and if it would represent all of the people affected by Columbus’ presence. He agreed it took the country further along the decolonisation process. “The pulling down of statues also means regime change. When statues are pulled down it symbolises the end of a political regime,” he added. He asked why the statue was not removed by the country’s first prime minister, the late Dr Eric Williams? “How come Dr Eric Williams did not move that Columbus statue and he knew the evil and destruction that Columbus caused. I want the public to also ask themselves that. He also did not change street names,” he said. He asked why had the country waited so long to get rid of the statue. Teelucksingh suggested that other mayors check to ensure that monuments and statues properly represent their constituents.   The post Cross Rhodes, ESCTT thankful for Columbus statue removal appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.