Dr. Gregory Richardson presented Saba Heritage Center Board President Vito Charles with a copy of his book “Sweet Breakaway” during the pre-Emancipation Day celebration at Saba Heritage Center on Monday evening.
SABA--Saba celebrated Emancipation Day 2025 under the theme “We know because they spoke, generations remember”.
Dr. Gregory Richardson presented Saba Heritage Center Director Sharifa Balfour with a copy of his book “Sweet Breakaway” during the pre-Emancipation Day celebration at Saba Heritage Center on Monday evening.
The Saba Sweet Steel Orchestra set the tone for the evening at the pre-Emancipation Day celebration at Saba Heritage Center on Monday evening.
Guest speaker Nathania Engelhardt pictured addressing Tuesday’s gathering at the Emancipation Day celebration at Princess Juliana Sports Field.
The elderly group from Saba Life Center presented a message of resilience during their performance at the Emancipation Day celebration at Princess Juliana Sports Field on Tuesday.
Some of the Saba youth who contributed to the various performances during the Emancipation Day celebration at Princess Juliana Sports Field on Tuesday.
As part of the pre-Emancipation Day celebrations on Monday evening Saba’s Heritage Center hosted a screening of the first episode in the docu-series “Awo Now Nu”, which features young voices from across the six Dutch Caribbean islands, including Saba youth.
Directed by Roland Colastica, the docu-series explores how today’s youth are engaging with and interpreting the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. “We are proud to see our own young Sabans featured in this groundbreaking product,” said Saba Heritage Center Director Sharifa Balfour.
Balfour said the evening was not only to commemorate a historic turning point in shared history, “but also to reflect on deep legacies of resistance, resilience and cultural expression that continue to shape our lives and identities today.”
Speaker for the evening was cultural anthropologist Dr. Gregory Richardson, who presented a public lecture on his research into how calypso and soca function as forms of storytelling and resistance in the Dutch Caribbean, particularly in connection with emancipation. His presentation explored how traditional music and performances served as vital tools of expression both then and now.
The main event to commemorate Emancipation Day, at Princess Juliana Sports Field on
Tuesday evening, included speeches, poetry, song and dance by Saban youth and elderly groups.
Guest speaker Nathania Engelhardt, co-founder and coach at Debate Education Foundation Curaçao, addressed why it was important to recognise Emancipation Day.
“It’s not just to look back, but to look within and to look ahead,” she said. “If we don’t keep our story alive, we will lose a part of our identity, that thing that makes us us.”
She told those gathered that they each had a role to play, whether it be educators or politicians, on keeping the discussion alive. “We have to ask ourselves ‘what kind of ancestors do we want to become.’”
Engelhardt facilitated a youth forum on Tuesday morning that focused on local heritage and how to keep it relevant.
The community is invited to view the temporary exhibition at the centre, which was donated by the National Slavery Museum of the Netherlands. The exhibition features stories about different persons and objects that symbolise slavery, emancipation and freedom in the former Dutch colonies.
