Dear Editor,

Some misguided Indians claim that they are black, ignoring the fact that they are really coloured or brown. They blindly see only two colours on an artist’s palette — black and white. They even foolishly brag that, “If you not white, you black,” again failing to see that Chinese and Hispanics cannot fit into these extreme race categories.

On the other hand, blacks categorise Indians as blacks for political convenience.

For those Indians who insist that they are black, here’s is a slap in their face. The Black Consciousness Festival was celebrated last week (June 11-13, 2021) with a focus on reparations for slavery, not including indentureship. The presenters were people of African descent and indigenous descendants from the USA, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Haiti, and France. A release stated: “The conversations around reparations are important as they seek to build awareness and raise consciousness for our healing and for our agency in this space to chart our destiny as persons of African descent.

“The Black Consciousness Festival provides a global online platform for the celebration and sharing of vital histories and stories that boost the awareness and impact the pride, power and practices of people of African descent.”

The speakers from Trinidad included Earl Lovelace and Nicholas Ward. Guyana was represented by Sule Collymore. Indo-Trinidadian historian Professor Brinsley Samaroo was not invited to speak, although he boasts that he was in the forefront of the 1970 Black Power Movement in Trinidad, locked in arms with Makandal Daaga and Khafra Khambon.

Indo-Guyanese-born professor, Dr David Dabydeen’s name was also not on the programme, although he is the author of books with titles such as The Oxford Companion to Black British History; Black Writers in Britain; 1760-1890; Hogarth’s Blacks: Images of Blacks in 18th-Century English Art; A Reader’s Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature; The Black Presence in English Literature; and Slave Song.

This second edition of the Black Consciousness Festival Series was done in collaboration with the Africa Film Festival in Trinidad and Tobago.

Sherry Hosein Singh

Claxton Bay, Trinidad

sherry2hosein@gmail.com