Yes­ter­day’s African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions end­ed in boos and an on-stage con­fronta­tion in­volv­ing Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin, over­shad­ow­ing ear­li­er calls for repa­ra­tions, a di­rect air link to Ghana, the re­moval of Colum­bus’ ship from the na­tion­al Coat of Arms at the Er­ic Williams Fi­nan­cial Com­plex and the long-await­ed re­nam­ing of Ox­ford Street in ho­n­our of civ­il rights icon Kwame Ture.

A no­tice­ably small­er crowd gath­ered on In­de­pen­dence Square in Port-of-Spain to mark the 188th an­niver­sary of the full abo­li­tion of slav­ery, as speak­ers re­peat­ed­ly ar­gued that eman­ci­pa­tion re­mained an un­fin­ished jour­ney and urged Gov­ern­ment to move be­yond sym­bol­ism to tan­gi­ble ac­tion.

Bare­ly a cloud dot­ted the sky as open­ing li­ba­tions paid trib­ute to lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al pi­o­neers in the fight for repa­ra­tions, in­clud­ing Er­ic Williams and Mal­colm X.