Latest update June 1st, 2026 12:37 AM
Descendants return to Highbury for Arrival Day observances
By Leon Suseran
The hundreds that turned up at the Berbice Indian Cultural Committee’s (BICC) Highbury monument site yesterday heard speeches that lambasted the opposition for the budget cuts. Opposition officials at the gathering hit back by pointing to the poor conditions of the East Bank Berbice roadway.
Yesterday marked 176 years since the arrival of the first batch of East Indian immigrants to British Guiana. The landing site was Plantation Highbury, East Bank Berbice, some eight miles from New Amsterdam.
Officials at the event yesterday.
President Donald Ramotar did not attend this year’s activity. Representing him was Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall. Also in attendance were: Region Six Chairman, Mr. David Armogan and his Deputy, Mr. Bhupaul Jhagroo; Mr. Nowrang Persaud; Alliance for Change (AFC) Executive Member, Mr. Charrandass Persaud; Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsarran; Chairman of the BICC Magistrate Chandra Sohan; Pro- Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Prof. Prem Misir and former First Lady Ms. Varshnie Singh.
Mr. Nandlall gave a brief history of the arrival of East Indians and stated that it is the fact that other groups of Guyanese also came to these shores on this day, and we celebrate that fact. “Arrival Day is designed to recognize the arrival of all the people who have come from different continents and countries and settled here,” he noted.
He said that when one looks around in Guyana today, one can see what Indians have produced, accomplished and contributed to the society. “I ask you to think what this country would have been like had the Indians not come here.
“It is inconceivable. They have produced Premiers, Presidents, Heads of State, Attorneys General, Judges, academics of international renown, sports personalities who have decorated international records books; they have produced businessmen who have created commercial empires worthy of billions; they have produced cultural artistes whose accomplishments equal any part of the world—that is the magnitude and nature of their contributions, and that is why we must celebrate today.”
Nandlall linked the struggles of our ancestors to the struggles against the political opposition today in Guyana and in the Parliament. “It is important that we reflect on their struggles and challenges as well…we must also reflect on and appreciate our own accomplishments.”
The Minister said that Guyanese should transpose their challenges into today’s world, “as we strive as a government to build a Specialty Hospital to provide healthcare that our foreparents struggled for, to have a Parliament that is cutting the budgetary allocations.”
The government is keen to bring investors to the country. “We have an Opposition in the National Assembly that is preventing the Anti- Money Laundering Bill…That will cause our nation to be blacklisted.”
One of the cultural items at yesterday’s BICC 176th Arrival Day celebrations at Plantation Highbury, EBB0
If we don’t pass the law, he said that 198 countries in the world will “ostracize us from trade and relations.”
The official, turning his attention to the East Bank Berbice Road, warned that if Guyana is blacklisted, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) pending loan for the road project can be in jeopardy, “and we may come here next year in worst infrastructural conditions.”
He also addressed the Amaila Falls Hydro project. “We have a National Assembly that has killed that project.”
When pressed to address the East Bank Berbice Road project, the Region Six Chairman responded that he attended the event to talk about Indian Arrival and not about the East Bank Berbice roadway.
The Highbury event was punctuated by several cultural items from various organizations and persons in Berbice. Sweet meats and snacks were distributed to the hundreds present.
The condition of the East Bank Berbice roadway up to the Highbury site was bearable since the Region Six Administration filled the potholes along the thoroughfare as best as possible, prior to the May 5 event there.
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