The Waitukubuli Ecological Foundation, in collaboration with the Citizen’s Forum, will this year hold its Annual Emancipation Hike, set to take place on August Monday.
Inaugurated in 2000, this year’s event continues the tradition of walking the trails and visiting the camps of Dominican Maroon ancestors with a walk to Jacko’s Flat from Belles and then down to the Deux Branche River.
“This year we’re going to start the hike at 8 a.m. up at Belles and we will walk up to where Jacko established his camp. And from there we’ll go down the steps and at the foot of the steps where the two rivers meet, we will hold a ceremony of remembrance,” said President of WEF, Bernard Wiltshire.
He added, “There we will light a torch and that torch will be taken, in relay, by seven runners to Hillsborough in Layou, where the Citizen’s Forum will organize the first Citizen’s Emancipation Forum.”
Representing the Forum, Brian Linton stated, “A number of our young people are not aware of our history, and let’s not fool ourselves about it, we have a struggle for freedom and democracy in this very country. It is against this background that the Forum has given to the people of Dominica a commitment to bring their issues to the fore. It is against this background that we have teamed up with WEF to celebrate Emancipation Day, because we believe that this important part of our history has been neglected over the years.”
Wiltshire hopes that next year the hike put on by the Cultural Division and the one put on by WEF will be rolled into a single event.
When you guys passing through my plantation in stonehill have a jolly time with whatever is ripe but please do not break the branches like the last time when some people went through j e
I will be in layou for sure!!!