Open Campus Chairman Delivers Dame Eugenia Charles Memorial Lecture
Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal. Friday, February 21, 2020 - The University of the West
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus in Dominica hosted the 12th Annual Dame Eugenia Charles Memorial Lecture in collaboration with the Dominica Reparations Committee and the House of Nyabinghi on Thursday February 6, 2020 at the UWI Auditorium.
Her Excellency, Dr June Soomer, Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and Chairman of the Open Campus Council presented on the topic: “Upgrading to First-Class: Uprooting the idea of Women as Second-Class Citizens.”
During her presentation, Dr Soomer addressed the role and contributions of women in Dominica in the freedom and the reparations movement. Dr Sommer cited these are the fight for freedom and justice and the great crimes committed against Africans and indigenous peoples and its lingering, concomitant injustices.
“Within the Caribbean region, the issue of reparations has received mixed reactions,” said Dr. Soomer. She noted that some wish for the region to leave the issues alone and move one, however, she disagrees with this view.
“If nothing is done against the injustice that women have faced, no one will understand what society is supposed to be about,” she explained.
She argued that if we do not put the redress of the dehumanisation of African and indigenous women at the heart of the movement, we will never get justice and reparations for all.
“Throughout the fight for women’s rights in the world, women have had to re-examine their history in order to make themselves visible,” Dr Soomer asserted. “Women have never remained silent about social injustices and slavery was no exception. Although the very structure of slavery on West Indian plantations sought to deprive men and women equally of their status as human beings, similar work demands were made on men and women, we cannot forget that women were not even considered equal under this system.”
The lecture series is intended to reflect on the influence, ideas and life of Dame Eugenia Charles (the first female Prime Minister in the Caribbean) and link these ideas with contemporary political, social and economic issues. The series is hosted by the UWI Open Campus Country Site in Dominica.
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Photo Captions:
Dr June Soomer with Dominica Site staff
Dr Soomer with Honourable Cozier Frederick, Minister of Kalinago Affairs and Member of Dominica Reparations Committee
About The UWI
For the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Asia, and Africa such as the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development, the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education (THE) has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018. It was the only Caribbean-based University to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
