Brother K. Leba OlaNiyi introduced a documentary on the Haitian Revolution (Part 1 of 2). Aired live from 6-8pm on 97.3 FM and streamed on wuvi.uvi.edu.
On Saturday, June 16, 2018, members of the Virgin Islands community, including the Pan African Support Group, came together to watch and discuss, “The Greatest Black Emancipation in History – The Haitian Revolution (1791-1803),” at the University of the Virgin Islands.
Brother K. Leba OlaNiyi introduced a documentary on the Haitian Revolution (Part 2 of 2).
“What’s the point in studying our history?” some have asked.
With all due respect, we have to be able to answer THAT question that the people are asking. There is too much of a divide between those of us that understand the purpose for studying our history and those of us who are intentionally distracted by just trying to survive. It is like trying to ask youth to carry the torch without giving them a good tangible understanding of how it has helped us. They don’t see successful Pan Africans enough. What they see are struggling Pan Africans so they have no desire or reason to want to follow in those footsteps. The simple answer is Sankofa: we must study our past to be able to learn from it for making the future better because history and the tactics used by those who oppress us repeats themselves. Therefore we can learn from the mistakes of the past to make corrections in our present and future.
Sister Djabana (Anna Wallace Francis) opening the evening after libation by Felicia Blake:
Audio link to event intro:
https://soundcloud.com/wuviradio_vi/community-discussion-on-the-haitian-revolution-intro
Documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaTNm0a09Lo
Post discussion after watching the documentary:
Audio link to post discussion:
https://soundcloud.com/wuviradio_vi/community-discussion-on-the-haitian-revolution
The next time the group will meet will be on July 3, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. at the Emancipation Garden in celebration of USVI Emancipation Day and to organize in committees.
