TT owes Daaga, Lee Sing

Lee Sing said he could remember the racial disparities in work places in this country before the Black Power Revolution in 1970, and the fact that African-Trinidadians did not, back then, have the opportunity to be judged on merit. He also commented on the fact that some in the black community may have regarded Daaga with suspicion after he joined the People’s Partnership (PP); but he believed Daaga meant to use his position there to advance unity of the races in the country.

Lee Sing told reporters yesterday, “I certainly think that Daaga represented the very best of Trinidad and Tobago.

“On a bigger picture, I think the fact that every one of us standing in this room today has some measure of ‘Africanness’, and the fact that we are all free to hold these cameras and to speak our truths without fear or favour has much to do with the achievements we made as a country in 1970.” I had cause to remind people that before 1970, Trinidad was a place where if you were black, you truly stayed in the back. And I am not going to debate that with anyone.

I was a teenager in the 70s, and I could look in the banks, and I could see what I saw. I could look in the insurance companies and I could see what I saw. There wasn’t a place that allowed black people to thrive, based on merit.”