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'We focus on all the wrong things'- Premier Wheatley
Premier Wheatley in his address during the Emancipation Service at the Sunday Morning Well on Sunday, August 4, 2024 said focus is often placed on the lineup of the Emancipation Festival and whether things went wrong or not for organisers.
“We focus on every single little thing and we criticise each other and we often forget the cruelty, the inhumane institution of slavery [and] that by God’s grace and mercies we have been delivered,” he said.
Premier Wheatlehy added that a day should not go by without giving thanks for being freed from slavery and the cruelty inflicted upon the enslaved by the plantation owners.
He used Arthur W. Hodge as an example, stating he used to pour boiling water down the throats of those enslaved by him.
Shift focus to what’s important- Premier Wheatley
The Premier challenged Virgin Islanders to focus on what is really important and be grateful to God for how far He has taken His people.
Premier Wheatley quoted the Negro Anthem and said it would be “a shame” to forget the struggles of our ancestor, foreparents and to not acknowledge how “God has brought us through that cruel and inhumane institution of slavery”.
The Premier voiced his appreciation for the former Chairman of the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee, Reverend Dr Melvin A. Turnbull over the years.
“I would say he has been the conscience of our community in reminding us what we often forget, which is the importance of the celebrations,” Premier Wheatley said.
After twenty-seven years, Reverend Turnbull officially handed over leadership of the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee to his son, Pastor Dr Michael A. Turnbull and Pastor Jovan E.L. Cline.
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15 Responses to “'We focus on all the wrong things'- Premier Wheatley”
Stop fooling yourself. What begun as Emancipation Celebrations seventy years ago has evolved over the years, and now is mainly sexist display of of flesh competition in the B.V.I Most of the people British Virgin Islands are not free, but instead shackled by selfish lust of their choice, you included.
To say Arthur Hodge was a brute is sanitizing how awful, horrific he was. His behavior was so abusive,,horrific, etc that it was a bridge too far for his fellow planters, slave owners, legislators, at his Kangaroo Court trial found guilty and sentenced the horrible ‘thing’ to death by hanging. His hanging was the first time in the Slave World that a slave owner was tried, convicted, and hanged for murdering a slave. Murdering slaves was as common as breathing. Nonetheless, the brute Hodge hanging sent shock waves through out the slave world as the Haitian Revolution sent shockwaves through out the slave world in the West Indies, Southern US, etc. Slavery was an institution from which whites benefited immensely from exploiting slave labour.
By the way, not that I give a rat’s ass about the brute but where he was buried tells a story. Some say he buried in the Old HMP prison yard; others, across bay in the white burial ground. He may have been a brute but a white brute, so he could not be buried in the same space as ni…..s.