UWI Five Islands Says Emancipation Means Protecting Caribbean Genius for Future Generations

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda — The University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus has urged the people of Antigua and Barbuda to use Emancipation Day as a time for reflection, peace and renewed purpose, while emphasizing that the region’s greatest responsibility is ensuring that Caribbean talent is never again exploited for the benefit of others.

In its 2026 Emancipation Day message, titled “The Price of Genius,” Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Justin Robinson used the story of an enslaved man named Isaac to illustrate how slavery reduced human brilliance to a commodity.

Robinson recounted an 1854 letter written by slave-buying agent A.J. McElveen, who praised Isaac as a skilled carriage driver, painter, craftsman, musician and cook before assigning him a resale value of US$1,500.

The university said Isaac’s story was not unique but reflected the experience of millions of enslaved Africans throughout the Caribbean and the Americas whose intelligence, creativity and skills were “inventoried, priced, and sold.”

“This is what Emancipation Day asks us to remember. Not slavery as an abstraction, but slavery as an arithmetic, a system that could look genius in the face, acknowledge it, and still put a dollar figure on it,” the message said.

Despite that history, Robinson said slavery could never define the people it sought to exploit. He noted that generations of enslaved Africans preserved their families, languages, faiths, music and cultures, leaving a legacy that continues to shape Caribbean society.

He described The University of the West Indies as an institution dedicated to reversing the historical injustice that saw Caribbean talent enrich others instead of the region itself.

“Every classroom at Five Islands Campus stands as an answer to that letter from Sumterville,” Robinson said, adding that students should view education not simply as a qualification but as both an inheritance and a responsibility.

The message also praised faculty and staff for helping build the capacity of a region whose people have consistently achieved extraordinary things despite limited means.

While acknowledging that emancipation ended legal slavery, Robinson said the work of freedom remains unfinished.

“Freedom is the work of every generation, and our assignment is to free the Caribbean mind from the idea that we are too small to matter, or too dependent to act, and to build societies where no one’s genius is ever again someone else’s property,” he said.

The message concluded by encouraging members of the university community and the wider public to observe Emancipation Day as a celebration of resilience and a commitment to building a future worthy of the sacrifices made by those who endured slavery.

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