Distinguished chair, your worship the Mayor of Freetown, representatives of the British High Commission, president and executive members of the Krio Descendants Union, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to offer the vote of thanks on this momentous occasion that also recognizes the United Nations Decade of People of African Descent. The event is made even more poignant because of the current debates about monuments and memorials. Questions are being raised as to what we should remember and what we are better off forgetting. For an example, should the monuments celebrating

slavery in the Southern United States be removed because of their cruel past? Should Cecil Rhodes, the murderous imperialist who devastated Southern Africa be memorialized in the public spaces of South Africa and at Oxford University?  ‘Rhodes must fall’ has become the clarion call from students at Oxford University and South African universities, to remove all monuments dedicated to Cecil Rhodes.

Today we can declare with pride that this is one monument to Dr. James Africanus Beale Horton that is here to stay and will never fall!  It fills us with pride and joy! It has earned a credible and outstanding place in history. It carries the legacy of an extraordinary man from Gloucester village, with unparalleled talents as a surgeon and military officer but above all, as a philosopher of African liberation.  He rose to professional and intellectual prominence at the international level and left an indelible mark on the political and economic development of the continent of Africa.  In denouncing ideologies of domination and ideas of racial superiority and inferiority, Dr. James Africanus Beale Horton contributed to reuniting our species, Homo Sapiens. In other words he asserted the equality and dignity of all people belonging to the one and only human race.

Of Igbo heritage, he was an exemplary Krio and Sierra Leonean, a devoted pan-Africanist and a ‘Philosopher King’ of African self -determination. I wish I had learned about him in my secondary school instead of learning about the architects of the French Revolution and the American Revolution that tended to leave people who looked like me out of their declarations. I wish I had been taught how his thinking was in line with the Haitian Revolution of the early 18th century against slavery, which was perhaps the most comprehensive treatise of freedom ever written.

I wish I had learnt about his views on Black pride that inspired movements of decolonization; Garveyism; the American Civil Rights Movement; The ‘Black is Beautiful Movement,’ the Anti-Apartheid Movement, especially The Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko of South Africa; Pan-Africanism and the Black Lives Matter Movement of today. I wish I had learnt how he laid the ground work for major thinkers of African descent, including Franz Fanon, Kwame Nhrumah, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Dubois, Walter Rodney, Audre Lorde, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela Mandela and our own Mr. I.T.A Wallace Johnson, Mrs. Constance Cummings-John, Dr. Arthur Porter, Dr. Davidson Nicol, Dr. Akintola Wyse, Dr. Raymond Sarif Easmon, Dr. Talabi Aisie  Lucan and Professors Joe Allie and Gibril Cole, to name a few.



We are filled with gratitude for the life, talent and work of Dr. Africanus Horton, whom we honor today. We are also thankful for all those who made this event possible. First and foremost, I want to thank our leader, Cannon Cassandra Garber, JP, for giving us our place of honor as major contributors to the history and development of Sierra Leone. For teaching us to rise above prejudice and ignorance, and see them as deficiencies, without veracity or value. For encouraging us to choose recognition and assertion over attempted oblivion and discrimination; for daring us to meet prejudice and xenophobia with wisdom, forgiveness and understanding and for urging us to stand tall, fight for our rights as full citizens, and to be always proud of our heritage!

I want to thank the sculptor, Mr. Alex Tetteh from Ghana for this beautiful memorial that puts a visionary humanitarian and consummate pan-Africanist in a place of honor for posterity. I want to thank the families of the doctors who have passed on, and who are honored with him today, for their contributions; Special thanks to the engineers, especially Mr. Paul Conton, who worked hard and devotedly on the project; the members of the KDU committee for the Africanus Horton Project; the City Council and its tireless and talented Mayor, Mrs. Yvonne Aki Sawyer; the Town of Wilberforce and the British and Sierra Leonean military. Special thanks to ret. Col. Dr. Akim Gibril, our superb and able chair. Finally, the guests and friends deserve a warm thank you for spending the last few hours honoring a man whose recognition and place in history is justly deserved and chiseled in stone and in our memories forever. Thank you all very much.