As Trinidad and Tobago marks 63 years of independence, Chair of the National Committee on Reparations, and Director of the Caribbean Freedom Project, Dr. Claudius Fergus warns that colonialism's legacy still lingers across the Caribbean. He says while some territories celebrate independence, more than half remain under some form of colonial rule, and the fight for true freedom and reparations remains unfinished.
00:00According to Dr. Fergus, Trinidad and Tobago has already begun asserting its independence, taking meaningful steps to break from its colonial past and embrace its own identity as a free nation.
00:13He emphasizes that this movement is not only unfolding at home, but is gaining momentum across the wider Caribbean.
00:20We have been engaged in changing some of the colonial names that celebrated colonial violence. We have done it at Independence itself. Remember, we changed Marine Square to Independence Square. We changed Princess Margaret Highway to Solomon Uchoy Highway.
00:38So we have been engaged in changing. We understand some of the things. But now there's a concerted drive to decolonize the landscape.
00:51And it is part of the policy articulated by the heads of government of Canicum.
00:58Dr. Fergus also highlights the recent removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, noting the many challenges involved in reaching that milestone.
01:07Columbus, of course, turned out to be the biggest challenge for us because of the support that it had from the Spanish embassy, from the church itself.
01:19The people, Nuncius, was openly in support of it. And the American ambassador was in support of it, putting pressure on the former mayor of Port of Spain not to remove the statue. We understand that.
01:34Dr. Fergus also acknowledges the many social and economic developments Trinidad and Tobago has achieved over its 63 years of independence.
01:44Of course, we have been able to achieve, you know, a number of laudable developments in terms of universal secondary education, free, free access to tertiary education, you know, an efficient healthcare system that is also free.
02:01You know, we have almost like a socialist regime without actually calling it so.
02:07You know, social welfare, which would have been impossible under the colonial system.
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