It aims to to re-energize the Caribbean civilization project started at Independence by forcing the society to critically examine the people and values celebrated in our public spaces. The Cross Rhodes Freedom Project - confronting the past to liberate the future - can be viewed as two connected parts:-
Cross Rhodes: a historical documentary examining critically the people and values that we hono
r and celebrate in our public spaces, set in the context of recent international developments in this thematic area and;
The Freedom Project: an accompanying wave of activism intended to generate dialogue and action across the Region, to both end the celebration and glorification of nefarious colonial icons and reignite interest in the Caribbean Civilizational Project started at independence. The continuing public celebration of criminals, pirates and slave owners reflects an unacceptably casual treatment of colonial violence. Tragically, it also distorts and silences the history of the first peoples and subsequent groups brought here to further Imperialist economic interests. It will in the process rescue those who battled them to liberate our societies from obscurity. The name of the project invites us to view ourselves as a people at a cross roads. To consider the current historical moment with its persistent crime and violence and its attendant biased and deeply flawed criminal justice system, its racism and prejudice, its inequality and inequity, its inadequate and antiquated education and health care systems as, a critical juncture rooted in our colonial past, which requires us to make some urgent and important choices. The roads in the name is not spelt R O A D S but rather R H O D E S to make deliberate reference to the murderous narcissistic colonialist, Cecil John Rhodes. As a man who distinguished himself, by the violent subjugation and exploitation of the people of the southern cone of Africa and as one of the primary architects of apartheid Rhodes is, supremely qualified to play the role of metaphor for all the prominent colonial era icons and symbols strewn across Region from George town to Kingston whose actions took them beyond the moral pale. Icons which are not just emblematic of our current nexus of problems but are themselves, vectors of the colonial values which both, underpin these problems and, define the parameters in which we can act to address them. Together Cross Rhodes and the Freedom Project are envisioned to transcend these parameters and to take us (the people of this Region) on a journey through dialogue and action (conscientizacao) to living a more liberating narrative of self.
