Kingston, 12 September 2023 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, is expressing deep disappointment with the conduct of the Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding, who on the weekend paraded a Jamaican man of African descent who was placed in a large chain around his neck. Mr Golding positioned himself as the architect of the man's freedom.

Minister Grange says “I was horror-struck when I saw Mark Golding pull the man by the large chain around his neck while laughing and having a jolly good time. My heart sank as I remembered the ancestors who were similarly treated as they endured hundreds of years of unspeakable oppression and brutality perpetrated by white colonial enslavers in a long war for our freedom today. All of us have been the beneficiaries of Emancipation given to us by the ancestors. We mustn’t take it lightly that today we live the life our African ancestors could only dream of. How could the holder of such a high constitutional office as Leader of the Opposition so disrespect our ancestors who gave their lives so that we could be here today?”

The Culture Minister who also has oversight of the National Council on Reparations says “the 'slavery scene' in which the Opposition Leader positioned himself as the main character and chief arbiter on the issue of whether a black man is freed, is deeply offensive and is an affront to the entire nation.”

Minister Grange says "Mr Golding’s reprehensible conduct has angered Jamaicans from all walks of life as his performance mirrored a very painful period when our ancestors were chained and pulled by chains about their necks sometimes before cheering crowds at auctions where they were sold or as a mere act to fulfil the perverse pleasure of the oppressor.

“Would the ancestors be pleased with Mark Golding’s behaviour? Would they cheer him? Or would they reject him and condemn his behaviour?”

Minister Grange says that at a time when we are demanding that enslavers set things right for the hundreds of years of chattel slavery of our African ancestors, we cannot accept this behaviour from the Leader of the Opposition.

“Mark Golding has made a mockery of the sacrifice of our foreparents. He should at minimum apologise and commit never to disrespect our people again.”

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