History did not begin on a slave ship or plantation- Dr. Lettsome
This he said was important when understanding culture.
Dr. Lettsome was a caller to the 3D Show which was aired on a local radio station on November 13, 2012.
The host, Doug Wheatley and guests were discussing cultural activities and heritage issues surrounding Virgin Islanders as Culture Week is being celebrated this week. One of the guests on the show was Mrs Luce Hodge Smith of the Department of Culture.
The caller, who Mrs Hodge- Smith identified as Dr. Lettsome, said what he found happened in discourses about culture among persons was that “we all tend to think that history began in a slave ship or on a plantation.”
The caller felt at this stage we should endeavour to go back and make references to Africa which he said was now accepted scientifically as the birthplace or mother of civilization.
The importance of the reference, he felt, came from person’s thoughts that their history came from a ship or plantation as opposed to Africa. He said “you think much differently I think when you realise that human vessels were the persons who brought about civilization.”
He also felt that some persons in the Virgin Islands did not think they were Africans because of the negative things that were said about Africa. “They don’t want to be affiliated with Africa but indeed… they’re from Africa and in fact all races came from Africa, all civilization came from Africa, all science came from Africa.”
He also felt that it was important that these things were stressed. “…that the basic foundation of all learning, of literature, science… came from Africa and it would be very good too because we would be beginning at the ‘beginning’ of history.”
The caller reasoned that it might erase some of the negativity about Africa in our minds as there were a lot of positive things about Africa apart from [slavery] because the wealth of Africa he asserted was used successfully by the west including Europe and America to build their cities and do many other things.
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6 Responses to “History did not begin on a slave ship or plantation- Dr. Lettsome”
Students should be taught about them in school. It's time that a public facility is named after Ralph T. O’Neal, preferably an educational facility or the central administration building...