Dear Editor,
This February, the AKWAABA Centre of the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) was a hive of cultural and economic activity for the celebration of African History Month. Three main activities attracted hundreds of schoolchildren, young adults and senior citizens to the centre.
The first and busiest activity was the brainchild of Violet Jean-Baptise, Aisha Jean-Baptiste, Clementine Marshall and Shamane Headley. It was ACDA’s first month-long cultural exhibition. Entitled ‘Sankofa,’ 21 schools and 7 groups from Georgetown, Berbice and Essequibo visited the exhibition. They were all treated to an emotional and educational experience comprised of a lecture, guided tour, video and storytelling. Individuals ranging in age from 6 to 72 attended the event. Photographs, sculptures, artefacts, books, cloth and wooden carvings were on display. The Museum of African Heritage provided the Guyanese history context by providing pictures and banners from slavery and the 1763 Slave Rebellion. This included a very detailed miniature sculpture of the 1763 Monument by the late icon Philip Moore.
In two months, ACDA will repeat this month long exhibition format with the theme of ‘Africans in Science.’
The second event for African History Month was a very successful youth entrepreneurship conference entitled ‘Creating and Sustaining Generational Wealth.’ Eighty young adults from the Pan African Organization (Guyana Branch); the African Cultural & Educational Association of Essequibo; Youth Vision of Linden; the Festival City Youth Organization; the Sea View Cultural Group of West Berbice, ACDA, the University of Guyana and the general public were in attendance. This one day event which was created by Eric Phillips to honour the 100th Anniversary of the establishment by Marcus Garvey of the United Negro Improvement Association and the 175th Anniversary of the Village Movement (Victoria in November 1839), was supported by Ambassador Robert Kopecky of the European Union who spoke on programmes available to Guyanese from the EU; Audrey Gomes of the Small Business Bureau of the Ministry of Trade and Tourism; Kevin Bonnett of the Inter-American Development Bank; Hubert Forrester of the Multilateral Investment Fund of the International Finance Corporation; Craig of the Partners of the Americas; K Chattergoon of IPED and Michelle Henry of The Guyana Youth Business Trust.
ACDA would like to acknowledge Mr. Terrence Campbell (CAMEX Inc); Mr Derrick Cummings (SBB); Ms Glenyss Adams-James (Common-wealth Youth Secretariat); Dr James Rose (Director of Culture); Mr Robert Persaud MP (Minister of Natural Resources); Ms Violet Jean-Baptiste (ACDA) and Mr Nigel Johnson (Nigel’s) for financial help for this endeavour.
This will be an annual event every African History Month.
The third major activity in ACDA for African History Month was the visiting of schools to assist them in their own activities. ACDA visited the Berbice Multilateral School in New Amsterdam and participated in the very colourful North Georgetown Secondary School 6th Annual Culture Day. Apart from this, ACDA visited the St John’s Golden Jubilee Club comprised of seniors at their request and later hosted them at the AKWAABA centre for a lecture tour. These 16 women are all above 65 years of age and meet every Wednesday to keep each other company in well-structured activities.
Yours faithfully,
Eric Phillips