Port of Spain -- March 20, 2010 – March 22, 2010 will usher in the twelfth anniversary of the inauguration of The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) at The University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, by US Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell. Dr. Williams, the country’s first Prime Minister who died in office on March 29, 1981, was heralded by Mr. Powell:  “No one was a greater fighter for justice and equality.  No one was a greater leader.”  More recently in 2009, Dr. Williams was honoured as scholar, politician and international statesman when former South African President Thabo Mbeki wrote the Foreword to the University of South Africa Press’ first publication of Williams’ seminal work, Capitalism and Slavery.

The Collection consists of Williams’ Research Library, Archives and Museum. In 1999, it was named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register. At the time, the documentary heritage of only 47 other countries had been so designated.  Available for consultation by researchers, the Collection amply reflects its owner’s eclectic interests, comprising some 7,000 volumes, as well as correspondence, speeches, manuscripts, historical writings, research notes, conference documents and a miscellany of reports.  A Museum - containing a wealth of emotive memorabilia of the period; copies of the seven translations of Capitalism and Slavery (Russian, Chinese and Japanese among them) – Korean, Hindi and Urdu translations are in process; as well as photographs depicting various aspects of his life and contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago - completes this extraordinarily rich archive, as does a three-dimensional re-creation of Dr. Williams’ study.

“Those who labored in the organizational, financial and other vineyards to create the Collection have provided a unique intellectual gift, not just to Trinidad and Tobago…” states Professor Ivelaw Griffith, former Dean of Florida International University’s Honors College. To date, four biographies of Williams either have been published or are in progress – one dedicated to the EWMC. In the prior seventeen years, nothing of note was written.  

      In addition to its physical repository of materials, The Eric Williams Memorial Collection has initiated a biennial Essay Competition encompassing 178 schools in 17 Caribbean countries; instituted the first Caribbean Examinations Council CAPE Prize in History; organized an annual Lectureship at Florida International University (now in its twelfth consecutive year), in addition to collaborating with the Mayor of London in his 2007 Slave Trade Bicentenary Lecture Series, dedicated to Williams; partnered with the University of Sheffield (UK) in an annual one-day seminar for Caribbean Masters and Doctoral students; made inroads into Miami-Dade’s (US) student population of some 414,128 with the inclusion of  Eric Williams in the County’s State-mandated African American curriculum; sponsored four international conferences on Williams (a fifth is presently being organized at Oxford University, in honour of the 2011 Centenary of his birth).  Other Centenary projects are:  the Cuban publication of two of Williams’ books in Spanish (including details of his many contacts with Cuban scholars and several visits to the country in the 1940’s and again in 1975); Trinidad and Tobago  schools Stamp Design and Performing Arts competitions (co-sponsored by the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Corporation and UNESCO respectively); and the publication of Williams’ dissertation, from which emanated Capitalism and Slavery. 

The EWMC has also hosted numerous conference panels - with many of their proceedings published; lectured to interested groups and students about Williams and the Collection; received multiple awards and recognition for its efforts; introduced an Oral History Project which includes well over 150 calypsoes either sung about Williams or mentioning his name – calypso in the Caribbean being the art of social commentary; facilitated Encyclopedia entries on Williams; and actively promoted the re-publication of Williams’ books – many of them translations long out of print. Several international book launches have been arranged by the EWMC.  In addition, the Collection has been the subject of many academic papers, lectures and books, and has been actively involved in supplying and being prominently featured in collateral materials for a ‘walking tour’ - Black Oxford:  Untold Stories – encompassing vignettes of the Black scholars who have contributed to Oxford University’s academic reputation.  In the future, the Collection will team up with Williams’ alma mater at Oxford University – establishing a scholarship in his name in perpetuity.

All of these efforts have been amply promoted in the local, regional and international media – from London’s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the British Virgin Islands Island Sun to the Organization of American States’ Americas magazine – in both English and Spanish.

Thus, with all of its other endeavours, the EWMC is a model for the Caribbean, a means of demonstrating to its younger generation the vital connection to the past – what that means for both the present and for the future.  When the University College of the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands’ H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, along with the latter’s UK consultants, sought pointers in the creation of their own museums, it was to The Eric Williams Memorial Collection they came – visiting several times.

Guests of the EWMC Museum continue to be inspired by their experience, as were the Vice President of India; the Prime Minister and former Prime Minister of St. Vincent/Grenadines and Jamaica respectively; former Mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani, Commonwealth Secretary General, Prime Minister of Tonga, and two Nobel Laureates.  Thousands of Trinidad and Tobago students - along with schools/universities from Barbados; Guadeloupe (including the Chamber of Commerce); Martinique; St. Lucia; Suriname; US Virgin Islands; Mauritius; UK; US - have toured the facility since its inception.  While a mere 20 schools visited in 2001, this figure had jumped to 79 within two years.  And the young continue to demonstrate their profound comprehension as they speak, following, to what the Collection means to the population at large and, as important, what it will mean to future sons and daughters of Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, and of the Caribbean, indeed the world, in general.   

·        “A deep sense of awe and respect, pride, descends upon me in this place.  A remarkable collection.”   Romaine Vularoel 

“Without a past, how can we look towards the future. This establishment is amazing!” - Nicola Whitley, Student, Trinidad and Tobago 

        ·    “An inspiring experience. Propels one to soar to highest high.” Sophia Almorales, Student, Trinidad and Tobago