Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day is observed on 31 August every year.
This year marks the country’s 61st anniversary of independence from the United Kingdom.
What was once physically connected to the main landmass of South America, Trinidad and Tobago is a duel-island Caribbean nation located in the Atlantic Ocean and shares a maritime border with Venezuela. Together, both islands are known as the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Inspired by the three peaks of the Trinity Hills, in 1498, Christopher Columbus named the island he’d spotted on the horizon from his ship, Trinidad.
Both islands experienced colonial rule from several nations, including the Spanish, French, and finally, the British, where Trinidad officially became a Crown territory in 1802. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British gained control of Tobago, and the two islands merged to become a single entity in 1889.
From 1958 to 1962, the nation was a member of the West Indies Federation. On 31 August 1962, Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from the United Kingdom.
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Independence Day address by Dr Eric Williams in 1962
“The first responsibility that devolves upon you is the protection and promotion of your democracy. Democracy means more, much more, than the right to vote, and one vote for every man and every woman of the prescribed age. Democracy means recognition of the rights of others.
“Democracy means equality of opportunity for all in education, in the public service, and in private employment — I repeat, and in private employment. Democracy means the protection of the weak against the strong. Democracy means the obligation of the minority to recognise the right of the majority. Democracy means responsibility of the government to its citizens, the protection of the citizens from the exercise of arbitrary power and the violation of human freedoms and individual rights. Democracy means freedom of worship for all and the subordination of the right of any race to the overriding right of the human race. Democracy means freedom of expression and assembly …
“All that is our Democracy, to which I call upon all citizens to dedicate themselves on this our Independence Day. This is what I meant when I gave the Nation its slogan for all time: Discipline, Production, Tolerance. Indiscipline, whether individual or sectional, is a threat to democracy.”
— Dr Eric Williams, first chief minister and first prime minister of Trinidad & Tobago (1956–81)
To celebrate the nation’s independence, there are parades, songs, and dances that will form part of the official and unofficial events of the day.
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