The Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago (ESCTT) will launch the 2026 Pan African FestivalTT (PAFTT) commemorating Emancipation this Sunday, May 24th, 2026.

The event, which is being held in collaboration with the Port of Spain City Corporation, will take place at the Murchison Brown Auditorium, City Hall in Port of Spain at 5pm. The Minister of Culture and Community Development, Michelle Benjamin, is expected to formally launch this year’s Festival and the Mayor of the City of Port of Spain will bring greetings on behalf of the city.

Igniting African Consciousness: Dismantling Colonial Legacies is the theme for this year’s Festival in commemoration of both the 188th anniversary of the end of chattel slavery in the English-speaking Caribbean and the second year of the United Nations’ Second International Decade for People of African Descent. The organisers said the theme is intended to deliver the message that decolonisation or uncolonisation is key to the liberation of our minds and the completion of the emancipation process.