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Burnham’s detractors did him a huge favor by reviving his legacy
Dear Editor,
I am sure that when Horace Campbell and his vindictive, putative ”Pan Afrikanist” cronies decided to wage their mischievous battle against the legacy of the Honorable LFSB, they did not envision that they would motivate a sustained response from an energetic and learned international network of supporters.
A response which has now caused many of them to refuse public interviews and long for the days of sweet pontification in the safety of their ivory towers. Ivory towers which seem to protect their convenient ”Pan Afrikanist” minds from the realities of economic isolation and disenfranchisement, for which there is significant empirical evidence, faced by Afrikan and poor people in Guyana, as a result of an program of governance implemented by their former ally, the PPP, over the past 20 years.
To be clear, many more learned than me have already made the case for why Former President Burnham is most deserving of the award, so I will not belabor the point. What I will share, however, is my observation of the increased level of interest revived by this unfortunate saga.
Surely if our hateful ‘Pan Afrikanist” friends had envisioned the multiple discussions, the social media explosion, the online radio shows, the letters written by young people who have no other interest but to ensure fairness, to assure Burnham’s rightful place in history and to request that the truth be told to the Guyanese people, they would not have launched their nefarious plan. The goal; after all, was to denigrate the Honorable LFSB, not to elevate him.
A facebook friend of mine uttered words which completely changed my perspective on the discussion. She said, “Burnham was a proud man and would not have walked behind some South African clown with a begging bowl for recognition– let it rest! This public humiliation of our great leader is too much. Let them wallow in their ingratitude! We know who our leader was and continue to salute him.”
She then went on to state, that Burnham’s detractors who were motivated by personal vendettas did him a huge favor, they revived his legacy and motivated a vast international network of supporters, old and new to tell his story, to inform, to enlighten, and to ‘hail him up’ one more time and for that editor, I, for one, must thank them profusely.
Essentially, Horace Campbell et al, have been wildly though unintentionally successful at doing what many groups have struggled to do for years; motivate an international network of supporters to lift the veil of ignorance and political propaganda from Burnham’s legacy and reveal to a new generation of young people his brilliance, his love for Guyana, and his contributions to the Caribbean and to people of other parts of the world.
So as I compile the well researched letters in the public domain, as I record the radio discussions and archive all of the information on Burnham’s accomplishments, I share them with my children and family and friends, who feel a profound sense of pride and gain a more complete appreciation for Guyana’s legacy of leadership, accomplishment and greatness. And, that, in itself is powerful, and so we simply must not allow detractors to define our leaders and rewrite our history.
Editor, I will end my sharing the words of another of my learned friends, “I challenge the Guyana government to declassify all secret documents around Rodney’s death, phantom killing squads, and all other controversial issues and put them in the public domain, so that the citizens of Guyana are able to take more informed positions.
I reiterate the call for the Government of Guyana to once and for all fund an independent inquiry into Rodney’s death. I dare the Government of Guyana to act like true leaders and unify the nation by adding a layer of transparency and honesty to the discourse.” However, like my friend who uttered those words, I am not optimistic that the PPPC government will heed our calls, because the government of Guyana benefits greatly from a divided populace ; a benefit which allows them the opportuinty to reinforce their strangle-hold on absolute power over the citizens and natural resources of Guyana.
Karen Abrams
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