The UWI marks the celebration with hybrid public forum and cultural dress day

The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Wednesday, September 6, 2023—Thursday, September 7, 2023 will mark Africa-CARICOM Day. This is in keeping with a 2021 decision taken at the Inaugural Africa-CARICOM Summit for an annual acknowledgement to signal an ongoing commitment to strengthened relationships. The pace of initiatives to strengthen Africa-CARICOM’s cooperation has quickened, following the Summit, in areas of strategic importance to the both regions. Among the initiatives, an official day of observance, celebrating their formalised unity.

In celebration, on September 7, the Office of the Vice-Chancellor at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) together with the University’s P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy, Office of Global Affairs and Centre for Reparation Research will host a public forum from 10:30 AM (Eastern Caribbean) / 9:30 AM (Jamaica). The hybrid event themed ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans’, will be hosted at The UWI’s Regional Headquarters in Jamaica and broadcast online via UWItv Global. Keynote speakers include Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, The UWI and Chair, CARICOM Reparations Commission and the Most Honourable P.J. Patterson, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica and Statesman-in-Residence, The UWI.

Encouraging the people of the Region to embrace the spirit of Africa-CARICOM Day as the Community seeks to deepen cooperation with Africa, The Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica and Chair, CARICOM remarked, “As CARICOM, we continue to prioritize efforts to build on our deep historic and cultural ties with our sister African nations. We are keen to identify new avenues for partnership and collaboration and advance existing initiatives to expand trade and commercial relations between our two regions.”

Noting the significance of the observance, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles stated, “We are honoured as a university community to have the privilege and opportunity to highlight the unity and strengthen collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean. We know that the Middle Passage has been described as that enormous chasm that separates Africa from its people, and we are now shrinking that enormous volume of water into a mere trickle because we are reunited.”

Echoing the purpose of the initiative, the Most Honourable P.J. Patterson said, “Since our independence, CARICOM and the AU nations have had many fora within which their representatives have discussed and made several agreements…The spheres for cooperation in education, tourism, technology and knowledge exchange, economic transformation, governance, and the creative industries are many, and prospects of rewards so great, that it is more than time that an entrenchment is made for this purpose.”

Members of the public are invited to be part of the live Africa-CARICOM Day forum in person at the Council Room at The UWI Regional Headquarters in Jamaica, or online, via www.uwitv.global, UWItv on Facebook or UWItv’s Flow Evo cable channels. Persons across the region are encouraged to engage even deeper in the celebration by wearing cultural dress.

Statement from the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy on the commemoration of September 7 as Africa-CARICOM Day

The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica W.I. Wednesday, September 6, 2023—September 7, 2023, marks two years since the first CARICOM Africa Union (AU) Summit, hosted by Kenya. The first Summit of Heads decided to establish for celebration, September 7 of every year as Africa-Caricom Day. The P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Public Advocacy strongly supports the opportunity it presents for activities geared at greater African and Caribbean unity.   

The Caribbean and the African continent share a similar history of an oppressive, exploitative experience. In our most recent history of Independence, CARICOM and Africa were supportive of each other and drew inspiration from the works of individuals that advocated freedom and instilled the hopes of the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who declared, “Africa for the Africans at home or abroad.” 

Since our independence, CARICOM and the AU nations have had many fora within which their representatives have discussed and made several agreements, such as the African, Caribbean and the Pacific Group of States since the 1970s.  The CARICOM AU Summit of 2021 the most significant for present and future cooperation and unification.  The spheres for cooperation in education, tourism, technology and knowledge exchange, economic transformation, governance, and the creative industries are many and prospects of rewards so great that it is more than time that an entrenchment is made for this purpose. 

In support of Africa-CARICOM Day, The P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Public Advocacy will collaborate with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) and its entities The Office of Global Affairs and The Centre for Reparation Research to host the first Africa-CARICOM Day Seminar at The UWI’s Regional Headquarters on September 7, 2023 at 10:30 AM (Eastern Caribbean) / 9:30 AM (Jamaica), which will be broadcast on UWItv Global and CARICOM’s YouTube and Facebook channels. 

Members of the public from across the African continent, the Caribbean or its diaspora are invited to this seminal event that will feature Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, The UWI and Chair, CARICOM Reparations Commission alongside Dr Carla Barnett, Secretary-General, CARICOM; noted academics and public officials and UWI student leaders. 

The P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Public Advocacy is committed to the cause of building bridges between nations and the people of the AU and CARICOM to engage in activities which will promote a truly symbolic relationship.  This event is intended to be a building block in the process of forging unity between our nations and people.

P.J. Patterson, Statesman-in-Residence