The UN has proclaimed 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent.
In the official website for the international celebration, the UN High commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay has said: "This International Year offers a unique opportunity to redouble our efforts to fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance that affect people of African descent everywhere."
Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters told reporters in Port of Spain the celebrations have already started and will continue in 2012, when Trinidad and Tobago celebrates its 50th anniversary as an independent state.
Peters said the government has established a Committee for the celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago that will include officials from his ministry, and the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Communications; Community Development; Tobago Development; Gender, Youth and Child Development; the People and Social Development; and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Other groups will also be involved. They include the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), the Emancipation Support Committee, the Trinidad and Tobago Organisation of People of African Descent, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) and the Government Information Services Limited (GISL).
"We are going to be documenting all the heritage sites that are relevant to the arrival of the Africans to Trinidad and Tobago," Peters said at the post cabinet news briefing.
"We are going to be embarking on a programme to expose children of African descent to their African history, their heritage, and this will be done by Pearl Eintou Springer.
"We are going to be embarking on African murals throughout Trinidad and Tobago which will be an everlasting thing really. It will be there and maintained. So you will find in places like Port of Spain, San Fernando and Mayaro, places where there were Africans played a significant role, we will have these murals there.
"We will have a Yoruba Village. I want to tell you that all these things that we are embarking on, we will be spending just about $8million to ensure that all these things come to fruition," the minister stated.
He also said the committee will compile a calypso CD as well as preserve the many songs over the years about the Africans in Trinidad and Tobago.
"Research would show that a lot of them have gone by the way. Some of them have been lost, the significance is not there. So we believe it is important that we compile these calypsos so that it would be there for posterity. Archived properly so that the next generation will be able to look at the significance of that," Peters said.
The celebrations will also include lectures by the University of the West Indies on agri-entrepreneurship. Peters noted that the Africans were one of the first people to clear the land and start growing crops in Trinidad and Tobago.
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