As we celebrate Emancipation Day, it is customary to reflect on the pivotal period during the 1930s which culminated in the 1937 Riots and brought attention to the social conditions of the time.
That period is relatively recent and much of the history of the era can still be verified by many people living today. Perhaps a greater effort should be made to document the oral history of that period with less reliance on the views of historians.
What is important is that citizens have a greater say in the conduct of the country’s affairs and there must be greater accountability and transparency from those in political authority. Otherwise the sacrifices of 1937 would have been in vain.
The right to join trade unions and the right to vote are now entrenched but the improvement in social benefits like unpaid access to health and education has come at significant costs to society, but is euphemistically referred to as “free”.
However, the benefits are skewed towards the middle class though the Riots were driven by the “masses” – a fact that seems lost on many determined to promote battleslong fought and won.
In the evolution of time, the benefits now enjoyed are seen as entitlements and according to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, “a few generations in Barbados” believed the rights now enjoyed were handed over.
The right to vote and the spread of democracy in the last 50 years has been dramatic, particularly in Africa with 2011 a year of reaffirmation, as the year of the Arab Spring also saw elections in some 27 nations in Africa.
It marked the beginning of the end of 50 years of post-independence struggle for democracy. The promise of the independence movement that freedom would rapidly improve the quality of life for independent African peoples was quickly and cruelly subverted by decades of authoritarian rule in post-colonial Africa.
By the 1960s, all of the North African states had gained independence and by 1966, with Ghana in the lead, all but six sub-Saharan African countries had as well. That same year, there were eight military coups in Africa, including one that overthrew Ghana’s first president, the world-famous Kwame Nkrumah.
Dictatorship and suppression of individual freedoms were apologized for as a necessary trade-off for development despite the era of authoritarian rule being Africa’s worst period of economic decline, instability and insecurity.
It was said that the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were not created by accident but were the direct consequence of deep social transformations that are irreversible. They were led by the youth who grew up believing that freedom leads to greater prosperity.
This young, hungry generation, with a global perspective on opportunities and the aspirations to match, expect their leaders to help deliver social and economic transformation that will have a meaningful impact on their lives.
Unlike 1937, new technological tools are making it easier for them to achieve their goals.