Honouring our freedom fighters and martyrs

Aug 18, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
I firmly believe the people of Guyana must be made aware that they need to start a programme of education aimed at raising awareness of our freedom fighters and martyrs in the struggles which resulted in the granting of political independence on May 26, 1966 to the colony of British Guiana.

I firmly believe the people of Guyana must insist that their Government set aside a day, a week, perhaps the entire month, during the month of August, for a day, week, or, as the scenario may require, perhaps a month of national mourning.

This must be done to honour the memory of our freedom fighters. They are the real martyrs of The Demerara Slave Revolt in August 1823. I am absolutely convinced that John Smith is no martyr. I know I could not, by any stretch of the imagination, regard John Smith and John Wray as heroes of my people, our people.

During the days of slavery, the missionaries could not be on the side of the people who were of a different ethnicity than they were.

Certainly, that was not at all possible. The missionaries were beholden to their ethnic group.
They were hell-bent on keeping my representatives in the nineteenth century in check, in servitude, in slavery in the colonies of Demerara and British Guiana, and those in the Caribbean Basin.

Today, the word “marginalised” is used to define the image and condition of people in Guyana and elsewhere on this planet. My position today is similar to that as it were in the nineteenth century.

I believe mourners should assemble at Plantation Le Ressouvenir and march to the location where the freedom fighters were massacred and buried in the Bachelor’s Adventure-Paradise District.

I also believe it is up to the people to demand that our heroes be recognised for what they were and are. I propose a national referendum on this subject.

Perhaps a petition is the best way to catch the attention of our inept and selfish politicians here in Guyana.
How about it? Where do you stand? The struggle continues… hotep.

“The slave may have appeared in a profit and loss account as an item, a thing, a piece of property, but he faced his new situation as a worker, and a man. At this level of perception, it is quite irrelevant to enquire from which tribe or region a particular person originated”… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942 -1980) Daar-es-Salaam, Tanzania October 1969

“The similarity of African survivals in the New World points not to tribal peculiarities, but to the essential oneness of African Culture. That culture was the shield which frustrated the efforts of Europeans to dehumanize Africans through servitude”… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942 -1980)

“The kind of ancestors we have is not as important as the kind of descendants our ancestors have”… Dr. Phyllis Ann Wallace (1920-1993)

http://descendantsofsancho.hi5.com
http://descendantsofsancho.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/baobabspirittree

Golden Grove – This village in which I reside was perfectly quiet. The Portuguese shop was untouched and kept open during the whole excitement; and I have great pleasure in reporting that the 100 members we have here were all prepared and ready under the leader, Mr. Bentick Sancho, well known to the honourable Mr. Porter, to turn out, not to destroy, but to protect the Portuguese shop had the rioters from the other villages attempted to go there on.

The village was so quiet the next night that Mr. Bentick Sancho, who has considerable influence with the people of Victoria, went with his minister to that village to aid him in allaying the excitement.

Sancho Bentick Campbell