3 weeks ago
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ANGELO JEDIDIAH
While many have praised the decision to remove the Christopher Columbus monument from Port of Spain, questions remain about how it will be displayed at the National Museum and Art Gallery.
Caribbean Freedom Project director Shabaka Kambon welcomed the move, saying activists had long called for its removal as a necessary step away from glorifying colonialism. He said without relocation, the statue might have been destroyed by the public.
In recent years, the statue has been defaced—splashed with red paint, its hands removed, and at one point, a bag placed over its head. But Kambon believes the damage should be preserved.
“Trinidadians have done a great job ‘beautifying’ Columbus and perhaps he should be displayed exactly like that… he has a lot of graffiti and maybe even, they can keep the bag on his head,” Kambon said on CNC3’s The Morning Brew today.
He pointed to the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in the UK during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. That statue, of a 17th-century slave trader, was later housed in a museum in its vandalised state.
“They shouldn’t attempt to try to display him [Columbus] in his original form in the museum. I think perhaps they need to let the monument in the museum speak to how the people feel about Columbus and what they did to him. That’s part of history as well,” he said.
Kambon added that advocacy groups have agreed a monument representing indigenous resistance should be erected in Columbus’s place. He said several street names are also expected to be changed to honour national heroes.
He described the changes as part of an effort to rescue local figures from “colonial oblivion,” and called for a rewriting of national narratives.
“Because while the colonial slave masters trampled on our humanity and dignity by erecting monuments to those who subjugated and brutalised and exploited our ancestors, they also took great pains to bury and erase the history of those people who stood up for the freedoms we enjoy today.”
English (US) ·