Emancipation Day reinstated as May holiday
(CNS): Cabinet has approved the formal recognition of Emancipation Day and reinstated it as a public holiday starting May 2024. The day was previously observed in the Cayman Islands but was replaced with the Constitution Day holiday by the Legislative Assembly in the 1960s. The reinstatement of this day as a national day of observance is the year-long culmination of research and examination of a number of concerns related to Cayman’s cultural heritage, officials said.
In a press release about the decision, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage said it established a task force last year to facilitate discussions, collect data, research and examine existing policies to address concerns about the decline in the significance of local culture. While previous governments have sought to distance the country from its slave-owning history, as well as the emancipation and its impact on cultural identity, PACT has taken a different approach.
In September 2023, the ministry presented its findings and submitted Cabinet papers regarding the issues of cultural identity and Emancipation Day, highlighting the pressing need to preserve traditions and restore a missing piece of history. With Cabinet’s approval, this reinstated holiday will now be commemorated on the first Monday in May, replacing Discovery Day from 2024 onwards, rather than adding to the list of public holidays.
“The decision to celebrate this holiday in May is in recognition of Cayman’s unique history with emancipation,” officials stated. “Records of the Cayman Islands and accounts of the vibrant and celebrated occasion, especially in Bodden Town, the first political capital of the Cayman Islands, clearly indicate the commemorations of Emancipation Day on 5 May 1835, when Captain Anthony Pack, 84th Regiment of Foot and Colonel in Chief of the Militia of the Cayman Islands, read a Proclamation to the assembled inhabitants of Bodden Town, both black and white.”
Culture and Heritage Minister Bernie Bush said the reinstatement and the recognition of Emancipation Day marked a significant step towards honouring Cayman’s unique history and cultural heritage. “This decision not only pays tribute to our ancestors’ struggles and triumphs but also invites our community to connect with the profound roots of our cultural identity,” he said. “It is an opportunity to learn, remember and celebrate our remarkable journey.”
Officials believe that the reinstatement of Emancipation Day will provide a significant tie to the country’s history and provide context to commemorations, and be a direct link to Cayman’s ancestors and the values they epitomised.
Historical records and theoretical papers from Caymanian cultural stewards show that Emancipation Day was celebrated well into the 20th century and boasted vibrant celebrations in Cayman’s first capital, Bodden Town. Its reinstatement is an opportunity for the community to learn and connect with aspects of Cayman’s history that are currently missing.
Considering the historical context and references to slavery and Emancipation Day in the Cayman Islands, the removal of this holiday suggests the re-scripting of Cayman’s history, with false claims that there was no slavery. It also erases a significant part of Cayman’s cultural heritage. In 1802, the population of Grand Cayman stood at 933 people, more than half of them slaves. According to the National Museum, by the time slavery was abolished, there were over 950 slaves owned by 116 Caymanian families.
Cabinet has also approved the start of a public survey to formalise additional national symbols. “As a still relatively young and evolving country, these initiatives are vital in establishing our cultural identity and building cultural awareness,” the ministry team stated.
Following the recognition of the National Flag and the Coat of Arms in the 1950s, the National Song — “Beloved Isles Cayman”, the silver thatch, the Cayman parrot and the banana orchid became National Symbols in the 1990s. The steps now being taken are to select and formally recognise the Cayman Islands national dish, drink, dessert, dress and dance.
“In doing so, we recognise the importance of cultural identity to the Cayman Islands and our efforts to the preservation and awareness of Cayman’s cultural heritage,” officials said, adding that the goal was to enhance the significance of existing recognised national symbols and foster a sense of patriotism. They also spoke about “respecting and acknowledging our forefather’s customs, traditions, resilience and strength through these initiatives”.
“The initiation of a public survey to formalise additional national symbols to ensure these traditions and customs remain for future generations is also key to building cultural identity and national pride,” Bush said.
The public is invited to participate in the upcoming campaigns by visiting the ministry’s website or following on Instagram@mysch_cayman or Facebook and by attending upcoming events.
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Category: Heritage and Culture, Local News
No just legalise the herb and we’ll be whole again. 1 love.
Focusing on foolishness instead of stuff that matters like the high CUC bills! No wonder the government failed!
If we were currently overrun with kidnapping and human trafficking would you still feel all of this was foolishness and less important that CUC bills? Because that is what slavery would be called now. Then just add murder and rape to that. The acknowledgment of this part of our collective history is important to those of us who are descendants of African enslaved people and it informs our everyday living. The slave masters descendants got generational wealth from reparations and the descendants of the enslaved got generational trauma. If inequalities were not still happening here in Cayman, then perhaps there would be less need to remember the past. But this celebration in May is a way for those of us who suffered because of slavery to say out loud this is what happened here, and the players are who they were. Had they not enslaved other human beings we would not have it to talk about.
I had always been confused as to why I had no memory of celebrating Emancipation Day as a child, a holiday that is ubiquitous across the West Indies as a whole and many other parts of the Americas. I grew learning very little about Caymanian history in general – Columbus spotted us (or at least the Brac and Little Cayman) in 1503, said ‘Las Tortugas’ and then went off to slaughter more Amerindians.
I had never even learnt about the extent of segregation in Cayman until I was already in university and was working as an intern at the National Archives. This holiday should work as a reminder that Cayman is not some unique utopia in the Caribbean – we share a LOT of our history with our neighbours, and thus also the consequences of that history.
People that reject the validity of this holiday as some sort of distraction from “real issues” (as if a population not knowing their own history isn’t a real issue) are just displaying their own ignorance.
There is a very interesting interview series with Michael Manley. He was asked to explain why Singapore became a highly successful country and Jamaica became, well, Jamaica (and Jamaica in fact began its post colonial existence in a much better position than Singapore).
His answer was that Singapore had been blessed with the Asian work ethic while Jamaicans were primarily concerned with cultural grievance (his words).
He did not, perhaps understandably, venture into any discussion about good leadership versus bad leadership.
This is stupid to change the holiday. it will only bring back hurt. racist and trouble. SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.
Nearly 200 years ago. It is momentous and worth celebrating but it won’t stop there as the alphabet Mafia weaponizes its influence and turns everything to hell.
They are following America in dividing the country! Pure stupidness!
Interesting, 11:07! Nor, presumably, did he mention his insane sucking up to “Mwalima’s” Democratic socialism from Tanzania which didn’t work there and frightened off the productive people in Jamaica on the so called seven flights a day to Miami that Manley taunted his people to get on if they didn’t like what he was doing. Well, they didn’t like what he was doing and they did indeed get on the flights to Miami….and Atlanta and Toronto and New York and, of course, Cayman.
I looked up anything I could find on Michael Manley regarding his thoughts on Singapore vs. Jamaica, and I found no quotes from him that said such a thing.
I did find a quote from the previous Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, saying that Jamaica was of a “relaxed culture”, and that Jamaicans had ‘left hard work behind with slavery’ (which sounds awful at first sight but I genuinely think that he was actually making a compliment).
So, yeah, this is just a lie.
We should have had a new holiday. In August. In addition to Discovery Day in May. And then add Labour Day in September – and I’m sure I can think of another one for October if you give me a minute. There’s waaaaaaaay too long a break between July and November with no public holidays.
12:33 am. yes more holidays to send the cost of living up. But I think maybe you can’t understand that. I will not explain why holidays help to increase the cost of living. for I think you would not understand .
Can we please all be emancipated from the likes of Bernie Bush and Dwayne Seymour?
And McKeewa
It would be very interesting to know who in Cabinet suggested this. Surely, the discovery of these Islands in 1503 is of cultural importance.
It is an unusual decision at an unusual time in our Islands, there are far more pressing matters to deal with socially for everyone in our Island community. There certainly were no sugar plantations that CNS picture as a header to their article.
Most people surrender their individuality to a group identity to (a) feel superior to other groups, (b) feel victimized by other groups, and (c) take credit for things others did.
Wrong. A bottle of Big Black Dick rum clearly states that Dick started his life on a sugar plantation in Savannah.
No comment!
laughable stuff from caymanians…who somehow ignore blatant discrimination and lack of human rights afforded to 50% of residents
So what would you have us do for the “50% of residents”?
what would jesus do?…especailly with such a fine christain heritage of the cayman islands
I believe Caymanians are now less than 50%
Because Caymanians can’t or won’t do the work being done, and thus underwrite an imported permit worker to do the job. Why is that perceived as injurious? Who holds the permits?
There are simply not enough adult Caymanians to fill all the jobs!! The rate of development far outpaces the local population growth rate which is causing a variety of negative impacts on the local people.
thats not a bad thing.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/search/
The UCL legacies of slavery database is interesting for anyone genuinely interested in Cayman’s history on this subject. Go to Claim Details and on ‘Colony’ click ‘Caymanas, Jamaica’ and there are details of all of those Caymanians who received compensation showing how many slaves they had and how much they were paid out. Familiar family names from 200 years ago; Watler, Bodden, Ebanks Rivers, Scott, Thompson, Merren, McCoy, Tatum, Bush etc.
thank you for this information. it certainly contradicts the narrative many of those families share today that they were the victims of slavery, when in fact they were the perpetrators.
Those names were Jamaican then and they’re Jamaican now. It’s like history repeating.
lmao, you can’t argue a Bodden in 1837 was basically Jamaican. They came from Jamaica. fast forward to 2023 and a Bodden now is statistically a Jamaican as well.
May not like it but the math just fits.
They were mostly all direct descendants of Europeans and at times Europeans themselves. Who only arrived via Jamaica. Jamaica was one of largest slave economies and usually the first port of disembarkation for planters and settlers coming from Europe. Most emigrated back to the metropoles at the abolition of slavery. Some stayed in on in the Caribbean. Some migrated to the then “unimportant “ Cayman Islands and settled here. The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos were were administered Thru Jamaica as matter of convenience, by the British colonial masters.
Jamaica wasn’t a quasi-independent nation until 1962. So how could anyone have been “Jamaican” before that ?
Thank you. That fake news narrative does make it rounds even to newcomers, the citizens of Jamaica that were sent here were European due to Jamaica being an English colony. They should have left Jamaica with the Spanish
So do we get another holiday or this one replaces Constitution Day?
Sighhhhh. Did you read the article or just the headline?
Just get to the point, such a long article.
Just read the headline then duh!
Ironically, Cayman’s elite consensus response to the Slavery Abolition Act of Aug 1, 1834, was essentially, “make us”. Hence, regrettably, Captain Peck, accompanied with troops, had to pay a visit 10 months later. It’s good to earmark a full day to contemplate Cayman’s long history of anti-social and self-administered obstruction, including against decrees from its own mother, and in support of our population. Whether it’s stealing other people’s stuff, slavery, or gay rights, there is a long heritage of errant behavior we can either embrace, or dismantle as a society. Not a kind legacy.
So writes the colonial sympathiser…
The Peg-Leg Turtle that used to reside on the tail of the various local 727 & 737 aircraft, now looks kind of appropriate, oh the irony.
The slavery trade was abolished by the UK in 1807. Ownership on August 1 1834. Unfortunately, it became necessary for Captain Anthony Pack, and other military representatives for the King to be dispatched throughout the Empire to make reluctant colonists cease and desist the practice by decree, and by force if necessary. It continued until 1837 throughout the Empire, with various agricultural Barons demanding compensation from the Crown for their “losses”. It shouldn’t be a proud history that Captain Peck had to pay this house-call.
Interesting, I always knew the dates as 1807 and 1834. I didn’t know Cayman held out another year until 1835. I’m learning more already!
There’s even a plaque on second floor of Pedro Castle that explains why Captain Peck had to come to Cayman to enforce the Slavery Abolition Act 1834. This was an expansion of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which many Colonists pretended never happened. We will all recognise the legacy slave-owner family surnames that were paid compensation for their “losses”, including Bush!
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Aren’t you special!!
The plantation owners in Montego Bay, as well as others in Jamaica, mostly defied the decree to abolish slavery in the plantations, leading to the ‘Slave Revolt’ which got very bloody & ugly resulting in many lost lives. There are some good articles online that illustrate the period’s history well. (Wikipedia, etc). Rose Hall in Montego Bay being the larger of the period’s plantations.
It is not surprising that Cayman, due to its isolation & the slowness of news being transmitted by ship alone, was late to the game with emancipation.
If I’m reading this correctly, you’re saying that our British ancestors were slow to implement economically-disadvantageous changes to British law abolishing a British practice, after moving to one of the smallest most remote corners of the British Empire? Sounds about right to me!
Also sounds a lot like the criticism Caymanians get now for having strong religious beliefs when a British man came here in the 1840s and went around the island giving everyone bibles.
Always slow to adopt the latest fashions in London, whether it’s the a dress or a change to whether one person can own another or not, aren’t we?
So far out in the colonies, we can’t even get abolishing slavery right.
I hope you aren’t Caymanian but I don’t see how you could be with that attitude.
Has the donkey been recognized as the national animal?
It only counts if its being ridden by Jon Jon.
During a full moon
Dear government – please do something useful rather than moving the deckchairs around on the Titanic.
Appreciate your restraint Anon 9.06.
In plain language ffs Pact, less distracting Woke stuff and more actual Work please.
This is just a massive waste of time and money.
Classic first action of the power play book. Remind everyone of colour that they were slaves at some point. Get them to focus their anger somewhere else other than the politicians that don’t do a thing for them.
I promise you it won’t be long before August 6th is a public holiday here and people are protesting outside CIG asking for reparations.
Nothing like conditioning young minds to believe they were born victims and as such shouldn’t be expected to achieve too much without a handout. working wonders in the USA.
Only USA? LOL, works pretty damn well in UK the motherland too!
Don’t be so silly. The vast majority of historical Caymanians are descended from both slaves and slave-owners. This public holiday renaming is a good idea.
Only a simpleton could think that celebrating and venerating Emancipation is about ‘anger’
Its about celebrating the progress of our society, remembering our roots and the freedoms which have been gained through our history
Emancipation isn’t about division, its about unity and progress anyone arguing otherwise only displays their own ignorance and malice
@7:19 a.m. Respectfully you do know that there are people who recognize the days of slavery and where their ancestors came from without looking for handouts or special privileges or special recognition in terms of anything else you’ve described above in your message. We here in the Cayman Islands, in the Caribbean, have a right to want to recognize what we know was a part of our history. That is an entirely different thing than some of the points you guys are making here. If many took a DNA testing the surprised for many of those bearing lighter complexion some would be surprised what’s in that DNA.
You may have missed the point. Ask why Bernie the misogynist, race baiting, tiny cock, sexual harassment its just banter, Bush would feel obligated to change this holiday all of a sudden?
hmmmmmmmm, I suspect you don’t mind Burneh but let me explain it. It’s called diversion tactics. Burneh has realised his PR is bad just before elections and has found a way to relate to his Jamaican status victim mentality imports by pointing the finger at the white man.
Which he has a history of doing every time it gets a likkle bit hot under his toes.
Clearly you know him well. I would have added coward as when caught his gaze can’t reach past one’s shoe laces.
Oh move on!
Slavery is alive and flourishing in the Cayman Islands.
Look at the Caymanian’s who run this “buy a work permit” program that the government turns a blind eye to. Example are reported possible violations of the labor laws by an immigration board member and a civil servant in the legal department. How can this be? All the cases of employers taking out health insurance and pension payments yet never sending the money to the proper providers. Why does government turn a blind eye to all this? Wait, maybe we should do another survey by ESO.
Yes! There are SOOOO many “Buy your work permit” people here it is SIMPLE to get a temp work permit, even a regular permit in construction field, restaurant industry etc. People then paying part of their wages back to that person that took out their permit. I’ve reported it over the years. For what? Waste of my time since the complaints don’t ever appear to be investigated and life goes on…
I agree that we have bad actors in our midst, but how can an example be “possible violations”? If you have evidence then report it in detail.
Would wager it’s more indentured labour. Can’t break the addiction to cheap labour.
Interesting but let’s get real the true heroes of Cayman are the ones that turned it into a tax haven. Regardless it is pathetic for Cayman politicians to focus on the year 1805 slavery of less than a thousand people rather than focus on the shocking daily crime waves reported many now gun related and the current generation of Cayman youth education and development.
Going over the same again and again for what? To have your name etched in 2023 for changing a public holiday name? Needs a survey? Who and why are you being paid? Go put your mighty power touching up robbers and earn your salary!
Ew. Cayman has almost no legacy of slavery or lasting ill-effects from it so we do not need an Emancipation Day. There was no great nation of oppressed Caymanian slaves. This was a mosquito-ridden nowhere with a handful of people, some of whom were slaves. Almost 200 years ago, all 400 or whatever of them were freed. Oral tradition is that they settled the Eastern Districts. The Cayman miracle is that it was discovered and settled, not that there was some slavery at one point like everywhere else. I’m going to continue calling it Discovery Day because it sounds better and puts the emphasis where it should be. I don’t want Cayman to shake its fist at ancient history and pander, I want it to take the future head on. Discovery Day said something about Caymanians – we discovered our islands and from here, discovered the world. Emancipation Day says nothing other than ‘slavery was also here’. Uninspiring, uninspired, unnecessary.
a people who don’t know they history are doomed to fail.
Except that the genesis of Discovery Day in the Cayman Islands stems from the brutal colonizer Columbus sighting the sister islands, NOT people with origins from the UK (some by way of Jamaica) and their slaves “discovering” these islands and becoming Caymanian.
While I question the political motivations of this move now, let us not perpetuate the narrative that some young Caymanians have that “the slaves who lived here liked their life.” Slavery is slavery. The slaves who ended up in Cayman (or their parents/grandparents) travelled the same brutal Middle Passage as all other slaves across the western hemisphere. If you are not free, you are oppressed. Anything to insinuate the contrary is dangerous an another attempt to sweep the terrible history of slavery under the carpet.
Why does everyone talk about the slave owners but never about the sellers who were all from same countries as the slaves. Just like land nowadays. Can’t buy it without someone selling it.
Well said! Very true. Who sold the Irish?
I applaud this while recognising that 10,000 work permit holders were issued last year, so in a way this is a mere gesture and perhaps a way to ease Government’s collective conscience.
I am Caymanian and feel proud to be so. I went to the Cayman Islands High School having arrived here from the UK in 1980 aged 13. I am embedded in the Caymanian culture and have been to countless weddings and funerals where I was likely one of few persons not born here.
The only reason I tell you this is that our population is now made up of people that are NOT like me. They have become “Caymanian” but in no way relate to our culture; they have no culturally rooted Caymanian friends and therefore do not know or identify with these Islands’ culture. It’s not their fault so this is not an attack.
This is merely an observation: Caymanians are losing their Country. This holiday name change is symbolic and will not be a cure to what is an out of control demographic change. It is at least something.
This post reflects what I see, the eroding of culture and power. It is not an attack on the many people here that contribute much but do not identify as Caymanian. The laws allows it, and who can blame anyone for choosing to settle here.
For goodness sake don’t use a plantation/overseer illustration when no such things ever existed in Cayman. That’s just prejudicial, sensationalist and wrong.
But it makes for good press!
Literally how it was.
Really? Where exactly were the cane fields?
Some context: There were 545 slaves in Grand Cayman in 1802. The majority of slaves (322) were owned by 11 white families. There were fewer than a dozen cotton plantations at the height of cotton boom, owned predominantly by whites, averaging around 100 acres. Some 25-50 slaves worked each plantation. Two thirds of CI slaves worked on those plantations. Slaves were branded .. there were close to 1000 slaves in 1834. See Michael Craton, Founded Upon The Seas.
1000%
Would the legacy Caymanian family surnames, who owned slave labours at a 10:1 ratio, and insisted on gold-guinea reparations from the Crown to accept this decree, like to forfeit-back that money received, that some deny accepting, with compounding interest, and put those funds into a national trust for the contemporaneously downtrodden, seeing as these things never happened? There are good records to make those calculations, and assess by family. #heritagedays
A task force you say? 😂
Will it be chaired by Saunders & Seymour?
Dear PACT government your people struggling to make ends meet especially the middle class person that don’t qualify for government assistance in any shape or form. From mortgage payments to electricity payments that almost doubled under your administration. I watched in sadness on CMR a burglar who was cleaning out a fridge a kitchen cabinets. Yet people made jokes not knowing the danger this act is creating in the near future.
The man was not stealing cash, electronics or jewelry he was stealing food. Folks look at the underlying issue. If man cannot eat what do you think he will? This will be norm if this government don’t start turning this ship around. I hope they take heed.
THIS!! Our hardworking middle class citizens are being ground right back down to slaves – mentally, emotionally, financially & in some cases – physically.
With mortgages, insurance, utilities being the modern day whips!
It is a complete waste of time and effort. Emancipation Day is an important historical point, but in the big scheme of things, it has little to nothing to do with Cayman culture today. Include it in our history books and ensure it is taught to children in all schools. But let’s not have it as a holiday we gave up long ago.
None but ourselves can free our minds.
or our bodies. get an education and a better job and quit complaining
Great “them and us” divisive tactic by our Jamaican government.
Bernie loves the racial injustice card and plays it whenever he can. Sometimes he’ll open with it!
Do i still get the holiday if I’m white?
There were white slaves too
There still are
Indeed there were. More than 10,000 Irish from “beyond the pale”- brought by “Oliver’s Army” – and many years before the first Africans were brought to the region.
The “redlegs” of Barbados are the last surviving community of them – but the DNA of those Irish (and their family names) is apparent throughout Cayman.
The other fact that should be understood is that a number of the slave owners in Cayman were not white.
The history is tragic and horrible – but should not be allowed to be rewritten.
Nor does it need to be told. We have very little racial tension here. Let it remain that way.
We used to have “Reds” in West Bay..remember anyone.?
There are still white slaves, or white enough. Colour doesn’t matter so much, or where you come from, as long as you’re willing to work for $4.50 per hour or less.
Disgraceful.
Just another way for political and religious leaders to divide us as a whole into fractional us’s and thems–it’s what they do.
Go woke go broke.
We’re being treated like slaves now, changing the name of a holiday won’t help us.
This keeps you ‘busy’ changing the name of a public holiday, evaluate the time and money spent on this while Cayman is going to the dogs and by the reports the dogs are being starved and mistreated too!