At the African Emancipation Day gathering in Port of Spain, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced a four-point plan linking cultural guardianship, curriculum restoration, economic ties with Africa, and youth and food security. She also pledged to re-empower the National Reparations Committee. The announcement placed education, cultural memory, development and reparations together in current policy discussion. As a pledge, it records a political commitment, not evidence that the measures had yet been implemented.
The government declared 30 March a public holiday in recognition of Spiritual Baptist/Shouter religious freedom. The official account links the faith to Black people of African descent and descendants...
At the close of CARICOM’s 34th Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain, leaders agreed to establish national reparations committees and a regional CARICOM Reparations Commission. The proposal...
Legal Notice No. 68, dated 18 April 2024, amended the Public Holidays and Festivals Act schedule, replacing “Emancipation Day” with “African Emancipation Day” for the 1 August holiday. The change...
The 1 August 2024 observance used the new statutory name, African Emancipation Day. In its message that day, the Office of the President connected the commemoration to the survival of African culture,...
The amended National Emblems Act came into operation on 25 February 2025, replacing the three ships associated with Christopher Columbus on the coat of arms with a steelpan. The change made a...
👉 Government pledges a reparatory justice action plan
Current
1 August 2025
At the African Emancipation Day gathering in Port of Spain, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced a four-point plan linking cultural guardianship, curriculum restoration, economic ties...
