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Theme for Emancipation 1999
 

 "Celebrating the Pan-African Century"

The theme for 1999 revers the memory of a recently departed hero, Brother Kwame Ture. He was the last of four great Trinidad & Tobago-born thinkers and activists who stood as colossi of the Pan-African world at different times in this century.
Henry Sylvestre Williams of Arouca in East Trinidad opened the century with the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. George Padmore and C.L.R. James made their own indelible marks in the intervening years. Kwame Ture's death has come at the closing period of this century which has seen formidable changes for the advancement of Africans. We need to recognize these changes, despite the daunting problems which remain. We draw our inspiration for the continuation of the struggle from a recognition and celebration of the achievements along the road.
Our theme for 1999 "Celebrating the Pan-African Century", pays tribute to those who have gone before, these four great national ancestors and their twentieth century counterparts - Garvey of Jamaica, DuBois of the United States, Nkrumah of Ghana and many others - and reminds us to continue their legacy.