Do not waste this opportunity to “bridge the history” that has long separated Africa and the Caribbean.
This was the urging of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley as she delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum, which got under way at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaking at the opening ceremony of the AfriCaribbean Trade & Investment Forum Picture by Jameel Springer – Picture by Jameel Springer
In her remarks, which prompted a standing ovation at the end, Mottley pointed out that both regions have had similar opportunities in the past, but lacked the will to take the process all the way.
“It must not escape us that we come to cooperate today, 100 years after that decade that had the greatest amount of Pan-African congresses, first in 1919 and then four more in the 1920s. When independence came, they waned and waned and waned, the last one being in 2014. The fact that in the post-independence era over 80 years that we only had three or four, should speak volumes about our lack of consciousness, our lack of focus and our lack of determination to bridge the history that separated us,” said Mottley. (CLM)