TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s five Caribbean allies held a basketball tournament on Sunday (Aug. 4) to commemorate Emancipation Day (Aug. 1), which celebrates the freeing of enslaved people in the Caribbean.

Teams from the embassies of Belize, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines competed at Tianshou Park in Tianmu. The friendly competition was organized by Belize Ambassador Candice Pitts.

In her opening remarks, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador Andrea Bowman said the five Caribbean embassies first celebrated the special day in 2020, “as a means of demonstrating to our hosts and our friends in this region, the depth of the ties which bind us together.” She said it was necessary to “declare who we are, by defining ourselves” instead of allowing negative tropes and stereotypes that undermine constructive people-to-people relations to continue.

The ambassador pointed out that the “journey of Caribbean bonding” began with the Haitian Revolution in 1804 and was followed by the U.K. parliament’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which came into effect in 1834. The journey continues today, Bowman said, “as we forge our paths as republics and independent countries with diplomatic missions throughout the world.”

The Belize team placed first, winning a prize of NT$15,000 (US$460.07). Haiti took second place and Saint Kitts and Nevis won third place, winning NT$10,000 and NT$5000, respectively.