Message by
Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, JP
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade
on the Occasion of the
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
23rd August 2024
Jamaica joins with the international community in commemorating the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a most brutal system of dehumanisation which saw tens of millions of Africans ripped from their families, chained and transported in the belly of ships to the Americas. Those who survived the harrowing voyage were stripped of their identities, beaten and forced to labour under torturous conditions.
On this day, we honour the memory of those who endured the unimaginable horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, and pay tribute to those who gave their lives in the fight for freedom.
We also commemorate the courageous efforts of our brothers and sisters in Haiti, who on the night of 22nd August 1791, began the largest and most successful rebellion of enslaved people in the western hemisphere. The Haitian Revolution and resulting freedom inspired similar uprisings in the rest of the Caribbean and in the Americas and played a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The legacy of this racist and inhumane period in history continues to impact the psyche of people of African descent in Jamaica and across the world. It is, therefore, imperative that we honour the memories and sacrifices of our ancestors by building a society and a world in which the atrocities of slavery are never repeated and in which all forms of exploitation and discriminationare banished.
Today, we remember our national heroes, including the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe, the Right Excellent Paul Bogle, the Right Excellent Nanny of the Maroons, as well as the many unsung heroes, who have left a powerful legacy. It is a result of their struggles and sacrifices, that our history is more than captivity, the Middle Passage and slavery, but also of the resilience and tenacity of our people.
In just a few weeks, the United Nations General Assembly will adopt a Pact for the Future. As part of that Pact, Jamaica will stand in solidarity with the rest of the international community in pursuit of a brighter future for all humanity, in a world that is safe, sustainable, peaceful, inclusive, equal, orderly, and resilient.
We owe it to our forefathers to build a culture of peace and a just society for present and future generations, built on the equal, unconditional and inherent dignity of every person.
