GOVERNOR General Prof Kenneth Hall, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Leader of the Opposition Bruce Golding used their Emancipation Day messages yesterday to encourage Jamaicans to learn from the struggles of their ancestors, build on their achievements and become a purpose-bound people set on making Jamaica better.

“This year more than any other, the real meaning of emancipation and the opportunities that it has provided for our growth and empowerment as a people and a nation have been articulated as we continue to recognise the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade,”

Hall said.

Simpson Miller, in her message, urged the nation to remember ancestors who had been “condemned to the footnotes of history, or forgotten altogether”.

Golding, in the meantime, said while serious reflection on the past was required, Jamaicans must not live in the past.

“There is in some of us the instinct to exploit others just as we ourselves were once exploited,” he said.