donate now
donate now
logotype
Trinidadian voters

Tag: Trinidadian voters

November 4, 2008

Morning in Harlem: Voices of Immigrant and First-Time Voters in New York

Through Election Day, Feet in 2 Worlds reporter Aswini Anburajan interviewed voters from very different origins. She talked to a Polish first-time voter in Harlem, and then she interviewed two Bangladeshi men and an Argentinean woman in Jackson Heights, Queens. She even had time to make an appearance on PRI’s nationally syndicated show The World.

In the morning, Anburajan talked to Keith Shaka Daway, an immigrant voter from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Daway saw an eventual Obama victory as “a vindication” of his ancestors and the “freedom fighters” of the past. You can read more about him here and you can listen to him speaking on this audio clip:

[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/fi2w_KeithShaka.mp3]

Another interviewee was Carl Duck, an African American man in his fifties who voted today for the first time in his life. “It’s time to make a change,” he told Anburajan. You can listen to him on this clip:

[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/fi2w_CarlDuck.mp3]

Tamar Owens and her daughter Oprie, 7, were at the same polling place. “Its exciting to vote for a person that’s real. That’s real by heart by soul,” the mother said of Barack Obama. The kid, as you can hear on this audio interview, was also very enthusiastic:

[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/fi2w_Oprie.mp3]
By Feet in 2 Worlds
November 4, 2008

A Caribbean View: Obama Victory Will Bring Carnival, Trinidadian Says

Voting in Harlem, by CarbonNYC/Flickr
Voting in Harlem, by CarbonNYC/Flickr
NEW YORK – Aswini Anburajan, FI2W Reporter

Keith Shaka Daway is “sixty and a few months.” Originally from Trinidad, he says today is a chance to “vindicate” all his “ancestors” and the “freedom fighters” who have gone before him.

“Nat Turner, John Brown, and aaaaallll of ’em. I’m pulling that lever just for them, not for me,” he said, standing in line to vote at Madison Avenue and 120th street. “It’s a vindication because Barack Obama has sparked something international.”

“All those abolitionists and all the Quakers,” Daway continued, would feel that what they worked for had come to fruition.

On the reaction in Trinidad to a potential Obama victory?

“It’s carnival,” Daway laughed. “Backin’ up’n dancing, it’s music in the streets, rum-drinking, partying for at least seventy hours.”

By Ashwini Anburajan