No matter what may be said about history, it brings us face to face with ourselves at times and in moments, causing reflection on the events that have shaped our lives.
The significance of July 26 is therefore not to be trivialized. It must be as much a matter of import to us as the Magna Carta is to the British and July 4 to America. It may even be of greater significance, because out of it was breathed a life of liberty and the language of the free.
The people of Barbados revolted because, notwithstanding declared emancipation, they were not in fact free. The cords of oppression and poverty were so strongly wrapped around the body of the poor and disadvantaged, that normal law-abiding citizens came to believe courage only could gird them to confront the forces of oppression. But this carried certain dangers.
For them free speech was not free; the right to vote was non-existent; and subsistence was a constant struggle, with many at the mercy of massa – even if a lucky few were able to see examples of the promised land of comfort and a proper standard of living.
But see was all they could do in the main, because rudimentary education and lack of access to the engines of economic growth, whether it be in the form of a job or access to money, were among the deprivations of the poor. And their numbers were legion in the land.
It could not have been a comfortable state of affairs, and that our forefathers released the pressure valve by their courageous action is our wonderful legacy.
It is true that it took another 14 years before the real breakthrough came; but it makes July 26, 1937, all the more important when we recognize that none of the benefits so easily enjoyed by Barbadians could have come about without the universal right to vote.
In this country, power comes out of the ballot box and not from the barrel of a gun; and as we embark on the run-up to the next general election and as we debate free education and the deficit on current account and like issues, these things concern us and are our “problems” now, because we are the decision makers in our collective and personal lives.
July 26 has led to all this, and as we enter the Season Of Emancipation and engage in Crop Over, we must ever be mindful that our freedom was earned with the blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers: those who dared to take those first courageous steps in 1937; those who deserve our undying gratitude.
