PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) on Wednesday condemned a political advertisement that showed the leader of the main Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) involved in obeah.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said that her ruling United National Congress (UNC) coalition People’s Partnership, which has embarked on a “No Rowley” campaign ahead of the September 7 general election, is not behind the controversial advertisement that the ESC said contained “racist overtones”.

“The Emancipation Support Committee is shocked and appalled that a defamatory video with racist overtones, offensive images and the superimposition of ‘cut and paste’ words of the PNM candidate for Diego Martin West and Leader of the Opposition Dr Keith Rowley has been aired on national television and is making the rounds on social media.

“The words are selectively inserted to imply his use of a traditional African belief system, obeah, to harm those he opposes and specifically casts the village of Les Coteaux (in Tobago) in a negative light,” the ECS Chairman Khafra Kambon said in the statement.

Rowley, speaking at a PNM rally on Tuesday night, also condemned the advertisement and told supporters he expects more negative advertisements to be aired ahead of the general election.

Kambon said the 30-second video combines images from places across the African Diaspora, such as Louisiana and Haiti, in a manner “meant to cause derision and tellingly includes the image of an Indian woman seated opposite an African male in a loin cloth.

“Both characters are seated around a boiling cauldron from which the African male is conjuring evil spirits, seemingly against the Indian woman. It also uses words and images inferring that the former Prime Minister Patrick Manning was a victim of Dr Rowley’s evil, thereby making a mockery of the illness of a former prime ,minister of this country”.

The ECS said that the video seeks to reinforce all the negative stereotyping against traditional African belief systems, that were brought and preserved predominantly by West Africans to

the Caribbean, and which assisted in

their survival during enslavement in the New World.

“We call on those who are responsible for its production and distribution to withdraw it immediately and to apologize not only to the African community, but the entire national community for engaging in such offensive and divisive campaigning.

“The consequences of such campaigning can have long-lasting effects on the relationships between the two predominant races that comprise Trinidad and Tobago, no matter which party wins. It can only hinder the future race relations in the country.”

The ECS said it was also calling “on responsible authorities to ensure that such demeaning and derogatory campaign practices have no place in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago, condemn those responsible for the production and distribution of the ad, and expect public condemnation even from those whom it purports to support”.