Dear Editor,
As part of a continued effort to highlight the role of the creative arts in interpreting our history and culture to foster and promote national unity, members for the Guyana United Artists will be undertaking a nation-wide walk to the major administrative centres of Guyana in the run up to General Elections 2011 and in the aftermath.
In 1997-1998, several members of the organization undertook this journey to five administrative regions at a very crucial junction in the political affairs in this country. In the process of grounding with our Guyanese compatriots who welcomed our presence we distributed well over 6,000 postcards of the National Unity and Regional Integration monument that was constructed on the lawns of Castellani House as a tribute to Guyanese of all races and was declared open on June 13, 1995 in memory of one of Guyana’s greatest sons, Dr Walter Rodney, who during his short lifetime had made an indelible contribution to the promotion of racial harmony. The monument was endorsed by late President Dr Cheddi Jagan, who spent a lifetime in the struggle for national unity.
On this occasion members of the Guyana United Artists will be engaging our Guyanese compatriots as far as Lethem, Region 9. We will be distributing postcards of the restored National Unity and Regional Integration Monument which is an embodiment of Guyanese cultural and historical experience. It is only by a comprehensive understanding of our history that we can begin to appreciate the part played by our foreparents and our role in the development process in Guyana and the rest of the continent.
The future and prosperity of Guyana lies in our hands in that we are the inheritors of the past and the architects of the future. It is the non-apprehension of the role of the creative arts that has led to many misapprehensions with politicians taking the centre stage at variance with themselves, formulating numerous theories and hypotheses which are rendered inapplicable because of political insularity.
As artists we have not failed in our responsibility to the Guyanese Nation under these most difficult circumstances for the struggle goes on.
Yours faithfully,
Desmond Alli
