CDA 5K Historical Commemorative Walk
On Sunday 2nd May we kick off Festival Chaguaramas with the CDA 5K Historical Commemorative Walk beginning at 7am at Samaan Park.
Commemorate Dr. Eric Williams' epic march to end 24 years of US Naval Occupation.
Registration
To Register:
- Fill in the Form below and confirm your submission.
- Visit Pepper Advertising to pay your $50 Registration Fee and pick up your FREE T-shirt and Registration Kit.
The 5K Route begins at Samaan Park and ends at Williams Bay. Samaan Park is located, on the right, along the Tucker Valley Road which leads to Macqueripe. Start time is 7am.
To complete your registration visit Pepper Advertising, 9 Warner Street, Newtown • 622-2762 / 622-6502 • 9am- 5pm.
* required
Historical Background
In 1956 Trinidad and Tobago was still a British Colony, and as such, had no international status. In 1941, the British gave the United States its pick of Caribbean land along with 99 year leases. Chaguaramas with its strategic bays and sheltered harbours, was snapped up by the Americans. Trinidad and Tobago was bound to honour this treaty.
World War II ended long before the lease was up.
In 1956, Chaguaramas was deemed the ideal site for the west Indian Federal Government, but the British felt that it would be unreasonable to ask the United States Government to relinquish part of the base.While the leader of the Federal Government (Grantley Adams of Barbados) agreed that the matter should be closed for ten years, Dr. Eric Williams, the leader of the then Governing party in Trinidad and Tobago, declared war on them all by saying: “Our ‘base’ is the University of Woodford Square, our ‘army’ is the citizen body; their ‘arms’ are the banners proclaiming independence and their placards denounce colonialism …”
Dr. Williams’ position was that no self-governing state could tolerate another country having jurisdiction over part of its territory. He quoted the words of the then popular calypso, “we want back we lan.”
On April 22, 1960, the Governing party of Trinidad and Tobago organized a rally, which began with speeches at Woodford Square. On the platform, Dr. Williams ceremoniously burnt the “seven deadly sins of colonialism”, which included the 1941 lease agreement.
On that day the rain poured in torrents, and tens of thousands marched behind Dr. Williams to present his demands to the US Consulate, on their way to Chaguaramas.
Although the Trinidad Guardian linked Dr. Williams to Hitler, and some called him a “loud-mouthed demagogue”, and even though the crowd did not make it to Chaguaramas, the march in the rain was a vast success. By the end of 1960 a settlement was reached.
On June 9, 1967 large areas of Chaguaramas were returned to the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago after 24 years of occupation by the United States Naval authorities.
The remaining portions were handed back on October 1, 1971 at a ceremony at which the United States flag was lowered and our country’s flag was raised.
Premier Stays in Rain
By the time the demonstration set out from Woodford Square for the long “march for freedom”, the rain which had been a drizzle developed into a shower. Drenched, the Premier stayed ahead of the procession. Singing of “West Indian Boys Are Marching”, “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Brothers in Cooperation” livened the spirit of the demonstrators.
On Queens Park Savannah a group of young men and boys broke into a calypso trot singing “Uncle Sam, We Want Back We Lan”. They kept it up right past the United States Consulate-General on Marli Street, where about a hundred marchers dashed for shelter from the heavy downpour.
Waving banners and placards demanding independence and self government, demonstrators also took sly digs at the U.S. with slogans like “Road to Independence Passes Through Chaguaramas.” “We Want Chaguaramas … not Grapefruit” and “Remove Radiation from Chaguaramas to Colonial Office.”
- Trinidad Guardian, April 23rd, 1960
Rain - But Yet They Came to Parade
By 9 o’clock the rain blowing harder across Woodford Square, huddling demonstrators under trees.
A matron in white scurrying through the drizzle with a wreath. At the gate before the kiosk where the speakers are gathered – a shrouded statuette, with flowers and balisier.
Defiantly, despite the crowds scattered by the rains the loud speaker van blares: “See our numbers still increasing. Hear the trumpets blow.”
More waiting, a fierce drizzle. By 10 o’clock the drizzles slight and intermittent, the square a sea of calm, attentive faces. “Man, move the umbrella, nuh; you come here to listen or see?”
Jack Kelshall urging the people not to be afraid of the rain. “You all won’t melt,” – and he in a raincoat in the shelter.
The march begins, “peacefully and without missiles,” as the Premier said it.
Moving along the crowd, pickpockets moving among the pickpockets detectives.
A little boy in a wet maroon shirt and holding the ‘Sun and Seas’ over his head, looking, not saying for whom.
And with everything over, near the foot of Cipriani, a ground nuts vendor picking up a placard from the pavement, wiping it with her dress, and with a white hankerchief afterwards.
- Trinidad Guardian, April 23rd, 1960
