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alexk
Guest
Deputy Mayor of Port-of-Spain Hilan Morean in his contributing address to the opening of the tenth annual Yoruba Drum Festival, a preliminary emancipation event put on by the Emancipation Support Committee, called on the people of East Port-of- Spain and the Afro-Trinidadian community by extension, to reclaim their Yoruba village.
Speaking at the Piccadilly Street, Port-of-Spain venue, Morean gave a brief history of the Yoruba village before saying “We need to some extent and at some point try to retain our Yoruba village because right now what’s happening around us as you can all see are things that will not make our ancestors proud at all by any means.”
He was echoing the sentiments of Emancipation Support Committee chairman Kafra Kambon who spoke earlier, stating that the communities having ratained the very creativity, intelligence, and leadership of the African people, were in trouble.
“There is a great deal of negativity happening in our communities but there is also a great deal of positivity and I see that positivity here today, because as I look around at the crowd, 90 per cent are young people, so it means you all are keeping the traditions alive and strong and taking them forward,” Morean said.
Using the Akan words ‘aya’ (resourcefulness of a people) and ‘mframadan’ (fortitude and readiness of a people), Morean reiterated he hoped the Emancipation Support Committee and other groups including the Port-of-Spain Corporation, could come together with some aya and some mframadan to reclaim the Yoruba Village.
“For far too long we have allowed it to slide and slip into what it is now, but there is so much positive in it, that there is a great deal of room in it, for us to reclaim a great deal of that positivity while at the same time, trying to remove some of that negativity,” said Morean.