By Stephen Kangal
August 03, 2012
Patriotic Trinbagonians, including the ESC must show their outrage and disgust against the statement made by The President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, at the Emancipation Day Celebrations when he accorded racial precedence and exclusivity to Afro-Trinbagonians in our national quest for attaining the good life (The Promised Land). This unfortunate statement was made at a function organised by the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) that received a Government subvention of $4m and at which the Indo- T&T Prime Minister of T&T and Cabinet Ministers were in attendance.
The President of Nigeria, on an Official State Visit to T&T paid for by the Government of T&T, is not only supporting that racial discrimination and the exclusion of the other races of our rainbow country be the dominant pillar in our national developmental agenda but shows aspirations for the advent of black global imperialism. These are ideas and aspirations that are out of sync and inconsistent with our core national values and ideals, our foreign and domestic policies and our pledge to forge unity and cohesiveness out of our cultural diversity- leaving no race nor people behind or out of the national equation and identity.
The ESC must issue a public statement disassociating itself from the black supremacist stance advanced by the President of Nigeria. As for the Government it must reassert its position enunciated in our Constitution, the Equal Opportunities Commission and in the establishment of the Ministry of National Diversity and Social Development relating to the equality of treatment to be accorded to all our citizens. It must also inform the Government of Nigeria via diplomatic channels that race will not be a factor in the further development and expansion of our diplomatic and functional relations.
Give us the exact quote so we can draw our own conclusions.
Go to the Express of Thursday 2 August and initiate a search for the Article “Promised Land for the Black Man: written by Julien Nieves and read the over 300 comments on the statement
The Term “Black Man” applies to all humans. We are all children, grand children, great grand children of the first Mother from the home land of all humans on earth..Africa. All ivy league schools on the planet teach that we are all one species…human. Emancipation is an opportunity for all men to celebrate the moment of Free Will…you have a right to choose what you want to think, however, your choice creates the world you live and die in…You will always be Human-Spirit-Perfect, but you may not always express your perfection by you thinking you are a separate race, ie. Indian, Syrian, White, Black..We must remind our children that we are All Human and our Homeland is Africa the home of our Greatest Mother….check your Mitocondria, we all have th same link to our Greatest Mother.
Not many people are comfortable with Africans asserting themselves in the manner Dr. Jonathan did. So i was expecting some negative responses. But to blatantly misrepresent the facts and make the conclusions Stephen Kangal made, leaves me to ask, what supremacy agenda is he promoting.
“…He said “for those of us who are Christians” the story of God’s people, the Israelites, who were enslaved and the great leader Moses led them to the promised land. “The Emancipation march today is not to take all the people of Trinidad and Tobago to the promised land, but to take the black man to the promised land,” he said.
“…THE emancipation struggle is necessary so that one day the black man will also be at the top and can dictate to the rest of the world, said Nigerian President Dr Goodluck Jonathan.”
These are the words uttered by President Jonathan. Read also the article in the Express mentioned above.
As a Christian do you think that the President should also exclude non-African Chistians from their entitlement to the Promised Land?
He said the “brother country” of Nigeria fully identified with the Emancipation struggle and it was his country that called on states in the African Union to have Emancipation celebrations, though this was not followed “religiously”. He noted the black man all over the world has passed through serious challenges, including slavery, colonialism and apartheid.
“We must put this history behind us and go forward,” he said.
Jonathan stressed it was time for black people to take a stand and play an “honourable role in the world” and black men who are leaders like him should work for this to be realised. He pledged that Nigeria will continue to work with blacks all over the world “to ensure the black man makes it to the promised land”.
Mr Kangal. The above was also part of the president’s speech.
Mr.Kangal there are more Indians living in Africa’s countries than any other country in the world, they started to imigrate in 1800 hundreds first to South Africa with the discovery of dimonds, you should know that Mr. Ghandi could attest to that, Mr. Ghandi was kicked of the train when he wanted to sit with the whites,because that was not his experence in London, and at that time the british had India in a strangle hold of brutal segration and Mr.Ghandi went to his country and started to organised with stricls, you know the rest of the story the Indians fo South Africa has never left ther is a strong community living right now, The only incident thst was meted out to Indians was in Uganda under Ida Amin when the Indian community tried to control the Business community, and he gave them 90 days to leave and they were put out by force, but they are back and living with the people again without any problems, now there are Indians living in almost every African country in Africa and you know why there is Minerals of every sort in that country and the indians have a wealth of knowlage in precious metals so they are needed, by the way there there is a small community of africans living in india for hundreds of years now and they are procted by the goverment of india.
Africans and poor Africans have much problems (e.g. genocide, etc) with daily living under Black Leadership in Africa’s nations, as broadcasted on TV stations.
The Nigerian President ( an outsider making an audacious statement) should ‘look after Nigeria’s problems’ and leave T&T’s business to T&T Prime Minister and its people (of all races) to fix. Of many countries in the world, African nations are still NOT able to govern themselves properlly and bring about prosperity to its people. Perhaps the President should be told not to visit again ( re his statement to incite racial mistrust and perhaps riots), as he is misplaced and out of order to make such a statement. Does he want to create riots as much as Africa has in T&T. Such “bold faced racial comments” by the Nigerian president is unwarranted and certainly NOt his business
Lila, you have all rights not to take up on the invitation not to take up on the invitation by the Nigerian president. That is your right. People of African descent should look at all options available to them. Trinidadians, particularly Afro Trinis are not as naive as some of you may want to believe. You African nations are a tough place to live. But the French, English, Portuguese, Chinese and Indians are all there making money. So why can’t Trinidadians go there? As far as him offering the invitations to Afro decendents? What wrong with that. Many Indo Caribbean citizens are given citizen by India. Naipaul and Sridath Ramphal comes to mind.
When Butler, Geddes Granger and Shah\Lasalle and Abu Bakar was blowing up TT, did any African president tell them to do it. We have a mind of out own.
How is that a black supremacist stance. Stephen Kangal’s origin is infested with supremacist belief systems. Africa has none. This is another shot in his continuous campaign to pawn off his sordid racial traite on Africans.
We do not have dalits in our history. We do not rate humans based on which portion of the emperor’s body they are thought to have been produced. Africans should see this racist vent by kangal for what it is, and never allow these Indianist to erect boundaries between us and our borthers and sisters on the continent, while they argue for the Prime Minister bowing before an Indian in India.
I continue to put the case that there is a nasty and odious attempt to isolate black people in T&T, and the architects of this move are impelled by the emergence of their own in Governnance. African Trinis need to cease being politicaslly correct and be as plain in their response to these racist diatribes, as they would when the source are Europeans.