Dear Editor,
Today all Guyanese are expected to join hands as we celebrate African Emancipation Day.
Covid-19 will disallow us from the traditional open-air and public manifestations of this day, when the British Parliament in 1834 passed legislation to free a group of human beings from the brutality, inhumanity and un-Christian system of human bondage.
After the Act of Parliament in 1834, there were four years of what our erstwhile masters called Apprenticeship.
This meant that one hundred and eighty-two years ago, the Africans were at last free men and women to leave the confines of the plantation and domicile of the slave quarters to make a new life for themselves and their descendants. We use this occasion to develop as a group the mental and physical vigour to overcome the legacy of slavery and be proud, diligent citizens.
Everywhere else other disadvantaged groups such as the Jews have turned their suffering into a sacred doctrine, political fund and economic resource.
For whatever reason, the children of enslaved Africans have done neither and their call for reparations seems to be falling on deaf ears by those who made fortunes out of the slave trade.
The irony today is that in Guyana and elsewhere the descendants of enslaved Africans practice forgiveness and remain anxious to live in harmony with their fellow Guyanese, irrespective of race, colour or creed.
But this day, August 1st, should help us to interpret our history and the vagaries of life and with “strength beyond the slave,” advance the cause of nationhood.
All of us, African descendants and those who came as immigrants, those who occupied parts of Guyana and those who came as explorers, join hands, heads and hearts to make a reality of that ambitious motto of ours “One People, One Nation, One Destiny.”
A pre-requisite must be that other groups should overcome and free themselves of the images, prejudices and predilections against black people created by European literature, folklore and the media for centuries, which suggests even to this day, that somehow the African everywhere is exempted from the theory that ‘all men are created equal.’
As we celebrate, let us have the will-power and the determination to end the status of inferiority.
I am conscious that Afro-Guyanese are unhappy with this label of inferiority.
But not interested in turning tables to dominate any other groups we certainly wish to walk the road together with love, equality and mutual respect.
And on a lighter note, when next we have a census, more Guyanese could be described as ‘douglas, mulattoes, santantones and buffianas’ so as to eradicate the cancer of race.
This is my dream.
But let us remember the trials, tribulations and triumphs Africans have had to face in Guyana.
First, the imposition of Anglo-Saxon culture such as religion, and even the names the majority of Afro-Guyanese still carry.
This has been a disabling charm for many generations.
For the most part, the immigrants who followed were spared this imposition of alien concepts.
If you destroy the root of a plant, it is difficult for it to develop to its full potential.
Using this analogy, it means as we celebrate today, Afro-Guyanese have to dig deep to ensure their survival and growth.
For all around us we see evidence by the children of those who exploited us and those who benefitted from the infrastructure they met, particularly on the estates.
It is the African labour and lashes which dug the canals, dams and dykes thus civilizing the entire Coastal belt.
And we witness the growing attitude which suggests it is alright for the African in Guyana, the Caribbean and the Americas to reach the top in sports and entertainment but when it comes to the control of the economy and the utilization of our natural resources, the descendants of slaves must be throttled and know their place.
There is evidence that the intense interest shown recently by certain folks in Guyana suggest that the poem below, is relevant.
Remember the Leopard never changes its spot.
It was written by R.R. Madden, an Irish Physician and Abolitionist who helped publish many writings of the Cuban slave, Juan Manzano.
“Behold the peace that’s owned by him who feels
He does no wrong, or outrage when he deals
In human flesh; or yet supplies the gold
To stir the strife; whose victims you behold…….
Perhaps, the Cuban merchant too, may think
In guilt’s great chain he’s but the farthest link,
Forsooth, he sees not all the ill’s take place,
Nor goes in person to the human chase;
He does not hunt the negro down himself;
Of course he only furnishes the pelf.
He does not watch the blazing huts besets,
Nor slips the horde at rapine’s yell, nor yet
Selects the captives from the wretched band
Nor spears the aged with his right hand….
He does not brand the captives for the mart,
Nor stow the cargo – ‘tis the captain’s part…
His agents simply snare the victims first,
They make the war and he defrays the cost …
To human suffering, sympathy and shame,
His heart is closed, and wealth is all his aim. “
I end my message by asking every Guyanese to ponder the sentiments contained in the above and to pose this question are those sentiments, attitudes and responses still alive today?
Today, we must know that we owe it to the martyrdom of our noble ancestors to rise up and overcome.
Happy Emancipation Day to all Guyanese and in particular, those who survived from the delivery of slave women who had to dig holes in the ground to deliver their babies.
Let us turn away like the phoenix and rise gloriously from the ashes of the past.
“A luta continua.”
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
