English-speaking countries throughout the Caribbean celebrate Emancipation Day on August 1. The public holiday was by no means gifted by the British Empire or even white abolitionists. It was the result, according to Ajamu Nangwaya, PhD., organizer, writer, and educator at the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, of “accumulate covert and overt acts” of resistance by enslaved Africans. 

Emancipation Day is a way for people of African descent in the Caribbean to remind themselves that they too are the sons and daughters of Africa and their freedom came through sacrifice and struggle. It’s also a means to celebrate their culture and customs after nearly 400 years of European colonization and slavery; forced to change their names, religions, beliefs, languages, and more. 

“Today is an opportunity for descendants of the enslaved, and en-slavers, to reflect upon the causes and consequences of these crimes against humanity, and in particular their significance on how we live today, and will in the future,” wrote Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chair of the Caribbean Community Commission on Reparation and Social Justice. 

Emancipation Day is widely observed in the former Caribbean colonies of Britain during the first week of August to remember and celebrate this historic moment of liberation from oppression and injustice. As the Anglican Church is large and popular in the Caribbean, Emancipation Day includes liturgical celebrations!