Dear Editor,
We refer to the letter from “broadcast journalist” Enrico Woolford (September 5, 2022), `Extremely unfortunate juxtaposition by Ravi Dev’. He extracted one sentence from Ravi Dev’s recollections on 1972’s Carifesta I that was in the news: “At Independence in 1966, I was in Secondary School with the ethnic cleansing of 1300 Indian Guyanese in the “Wismar Massacre” and sinking of the Sun Chapman with 43 African Guyanese dead, still raw.” And judged it to be “an extremely unfortunate juxtaposition, tendentious vilification sans verification, authentication or validation” that the ERC should investigate.
We hope the following provides “verification, authentication or validation”. Firstly, there had to be a typo since Ravi has previously quoted from the official COI into the Wismar Massacre of May 25-26, 1964, several times and stated that the number of Indians who were forced to flee were more than 3000.
The actual quote from the COI said, “The number of families displaced is 744 comprising 1,249 adults and 2,150 children making a total of 3,399 individuals… On arrival in Georgetown the evacuees were taken to the Ruimveldt bond where they were given free board and lodging for 10 days.”
On the Sun Chapman, the COI Report noted, “Following the Sun Chapman disaster the bodies of 35 persons were taken to Mackenzie and 12 others were listed as missing or unidentified. All of these were Africans. The Sun Chapman incident resulted in five East Indians being murdered at Mackenzie.”
We wonder which of these statements can inspire “hostility”. The Sun Chapman tragedy has been commemorated annually since 2004 and has now been moved from the original site up the Demerara River to Linden. The Wismar Massacre and the displacement of Indian Guyanese has long been silenced, but as a Red Thread team that included Alissa Trotz, Andaiye and David Hinds found, the trauma remains to haunt survivors who relocated to the East Coast. Should we continue the silencing??
As Ravi Dev has written, “We cannot undo the past, but we simultaneously, from our present, should have our eye on our future – a future we hope to create with the knowledge gleaned from the past. For us, it is a future in which all Guyanese can live in peace to create their progress, and not be manipulated to a return of that past. I have long proposed we should erect a memorial for all the 176 Guyanese who perished in the 1964 disturbances and need restorative justice.”
Sincerely,
Baytoram Ramharack
Swami Aksharananda
Vishnu Bisram
Ramesh Gampat
Tarron Khemraj
Kris Kooblall
Adit Kumar
Ashwini Kumar
Latchman Mahabir
Veda Nath Mahabir
Vishnu Mahadeo
Latchman Narain
Dhanpaul Narine
Salim Nausrudeen
Chris Persaud
Mike Persaud
Dav Prakash Persaud
F. Rahim
Banmattie Jean Ram
Balram Rambrich
Udayram Ramharack
Ashook Ramsaran
Leyland Roopnaraine
Nanda Sahadeo
Ryhaan Shah
