Dear Editor,
Please help me propagate from my own words, an interpretation of the substance of His Excellency, President Brigadier David Granger’s message to the gathering at the `State Of Black African Guyana Conference’ at Critchlow Labour College on Sunday.
In a goubi (in sum), the President said to the African Guyanese Community…you have a `Decade For People Of African Descent,’ designated by the United Nations that began in 2014 and ends in 2024; don’t squander this gift as you misspent the ‘Year for People of African Descent’. Wake up People of African Descent…set aside your differences, co-operate, come up with a `Unified Plan’ to break the bonds of your historical chains now, while you have me and my government…ready to assist you!
From my point of view, President Granger was promising the kind of `Affirmative Action’ I called for in a piece entitled: `We Need Some Affirmative Action To Design The African Guyanese Profile In Our National Identity’, a piece published in my (discontinued) Letters from Yukuriba column in the `Sunday Chronicle’ Pepperpot Supplement, June 18,1016; a piece beginning with the concession – “Let’s face it – of all Guyana’s peoples, African Guyanese are the least ready for the challenge of shaping a genuine national identity.” and inter alia, submitted that “…a lot of work needs to be done within the African Guyanese Community if the APNU+AFC Coalition Administration would really give serious thought to achieving their goal of “cultural cohesion”. For starters, there must be a degree of `Affirmative Action’ for the benefit of African Guyanese youth, stressing the point that `African history does not begin with slavery’.”
We were stimulated by the President’s message and (speaking for myself) if this interpretation of its significance to the African Guyanese Community at this juncture of our history is misguided, I trust Mr. Granger or any of his surrogates, would publicly disagree with my view…shared I believe, by most of the participants who experienced that momentous `Cuffy 250 Committee’ organized `State Of Black African Guyana Conference,’ last Sunday; we will be moving forward based on this assurance.
Yours faithfully,
Joan Cambridge
Chief Convening Officer (CCO)
Yukuriba Creative Farming
Community