BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 24th January 2020) – The Rastafari Nyabinghi Theocracy Order is putting a national heroes spotlight on the martyrs of the 1935 Buckley’s Uprising.
Ras Iyah, during an interview this week, shared such details ahead of the 85th anniversary event slated to take place on Tuesday 28th January 2020 at Buckley’s Estate under the theme: ‘Buckley’s Uprising St.Kitts Birth Place Of Caribbean Democracy.’
“We are pushing this event to mark the 85th anniversary for our people to analyse the greatness that our ancestors did in 1935. We want to see that we impact this history to the people in a fiery way and a way that we have to make the gesture of honouring our ancestors, our martyrs and the people who had been put in shackles, put in jail, who have been hurt to be recgnised as national Heroes so, the Rastafari Nyabinghi Theocracy Order is going to recognise our martyrs and those who have made great sacrifice as national heroes in our book and that is straight coming from I and I so we are not looking at it from an independent gesture; this is gesture from the Buckley’s Uprising to climax through the whole format of St.Kitts and Nevis and the wider section of the Caribbean shores.”
He said four individuals will be honoured at the event namely Ras Zambo Heath (deceased), Sylvine Henry, Earl Clarke and Maurice ‘EK’ Flanders.
“We find that these are the four people who have been instrumental in helping us to go forward. Even though elder Ras Zambo is not with us physically, he was one of the visionaries in the celebration of the Buckley’s Uprising so we have to show respect for what he has seen in the years in the celebration of this magnitude history of I and I people as a part of changing the social fabric of how the condition was facing at the time of 1935 and onward even before Adult Suffrage. So we say thanks to all those who have made strides in recognizing what the Buckley’s Uprising means to our people so we are carrying on as the Rastafari Nyabinghi Theocracy Order of honouring history in marking I and I people in where we go forward from here.”
Additionally, Ras Iyah disclosed that homage will be paid to one 2019 honouree Viola Warner -who has gone into the Great Beyond- in attending the funeral service prior to the Buckley’s Uprising event.
“She was honoured because of her father John Allen who was one of the martyrs who got killed in 1935… seeing that she was just two years old when her father got killed, looking at the structure over the years of understanding not having a father from since 1935 to now and she has passed off now on her 83rd birthday. So she’ll be laid to rest on the same day she was born.”
Ras Iyah said that a visit is scheduled to the Bronte Welsh Primary School on Monday 27th January for a talk session with students of grades five and six.