The Ja­maican High Com­mis­sion com­mem­o­rat­ed 188 years of “Emancipen­dence” with a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice at the Parish of the As­sump­tion Ro­man Catholic Church in Mar­aval last Sun­day, ahead of Ja­maica’s In­de­pen­dence Day, which is cel­e­brat­ed an­nu­al­ly on Au­gust 6.

Ja­maica’s High Com­mis­sion­er to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Na­tal­ie Camp­bell-Ro­driques, said the ser­vice cel­e­brat­ed three im­por­tant mile­stones in the coun­try’s his­to­ry: the 188th an­niver­sary of Eman­ci­pa­tion, the 63rd an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence and 63 years of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions be­tween Ja­maica and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Camp­bell-Ro­driques ex­plained that the term “Emancipen­dence” com­bines the words Eman­ci­pa­tion and In­de­pen­dence, re­flect­ing the coun­try’s twin cel­e­bra­tions of free­dom from slav­ery and po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence.