Lindeners want Son Chapman martyrs to be accorded national recognition

Aug 03, 2015 News

---

This year,  July 6th to be exact, the mining town of Linden observed the fifty first anniversary of  one of the most horrific tragedies in Guyana’s history- the blowing up of the Son Chapman Launch at Horadia, about eighteen miles from Linden.
More than 40 Lindeners lost their lives that fateful day.
A symposium in their honour was hosted by former Chairman of Region 10 Sharrma Solomon and Former Member of Paliament Vanessa Kissoon, both of whom posited that the Son Chapman Martyrs must be accorded the same respect as the Enmore Martyrs.
That sentiment was reiterated by all who had gathered for the symposium.
Unfortunately, owner of the ill fated Launch, Mr Norman Chapman, could not attend because off ill health, but he was represented by his son Joseph Chapman.
Solomon noted that the event provided a good opportunity to see that there are still residents in the community who are prepared “not to forget our history.”
He told the gathering that as Regional Chairman, he was afforded the privilege of being a part of the commemoration of the Son Chapman.
“But we’re not in competition, I want to make that clear, I’m not delusional to believe that I am still a public figure, I’m not-I’m a resident, but I remember as Chairman I  would have always tasked residents that those who are in authority work for you. They have to act on your behalf and fulfill the things and desires that would strengthen us as a people and as a Region.
“I’m here as a citizen,  saying that we have a part to play, and we must all play our part.
Our part is that we must also be able to hold our leaders accountable- so I come to the second part of the discussion which is that there is no reason- no excuse, that  absolutely not one single word of this most tragic event was mentioned.”
Solomon called the Son Chapman tragedy the most “horrific indigenous terrorist act” that was carried out in Guyana- only second to the Jonestown massacre.
He pointed out that the fact that 40 families have suffered or are suffering because of the tragedy, is unacceptable. “
“It requires now for us as a community to show those families  that we are not only going to recognize the tragedy, but we will be there with them, and we will be there for them.”

Solomon pointed out that Region Ten is looking to have an economic revolution- we are looking to have an education revolution in Region ten, but I’ve always said to people, before you could have any revolution, you must first have a cultural revolution. People must first have an understanding of the things that would give them the reason to struggle to have a better life.
But if you don’t know your history we cannot have a cultural revolution.
In alluding to the scant gathering that had assembled for the symposium, and the absence of certain leaders within the community, Solomon posited that this “is indicative of the fact that not only our leaders have forgotten, but our people also have forgotten what occurred fifty one years ago.” “As such it is not only an indictment on our leadership, it is an indictment on us all, that 40 persons will be forgotten in time, if we as a people don’t first hold our leaders accountable and don’t hold ourselves accountable.
“We are not here in the interest of ridiculing anyone- we are here on behalf of those who lost their lives- and I’m saying to us all that never again in our history should such an incident occur. But If we don’t remember our past or our history we will be doomed to repeat as we move forward.
“ Today, 51 years have passed since that fateful day, when more than forty of Linden’s own were massacred on the Demerara river, as they travelled home on the Son Chapman Launch.
We’ve been given the opportunity to remember our past, so that we must never forget.
It has been said that to live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die. How true, the men, women and children, who died on the Son Chapman 51  years ago live on in the hearts of their  families , friends and the people of Linden.”
Solomon pointed out that many Lindeners today never knew the victims of the Son Chapman tragedy, yet they are remembered and their experiences reflected upon, “as by their deaths we are provided an example of what hatred and brutality can lead to – senseless loss of so many lives and endless suffering.”
Joe Chapman expressed his disappointment that a tragedy of such magnitude and  one that caused such pain  was ‘’so low key’’, that “our leaders and members of the community did not see it fit to commemorate it.”
“It was once said that if we forget the past you’re condemned to repeat it, but we hope we don’t have to repeat it.”
Chapman, who had in his possession several old newspaper clippings then proceeded to read excerpts to give the audience an understanding of what occurred over five decades ago.
One of the excerpts detailed the mass burials of some of the victims at the Christianburg cemetery. The article of July 11, 1964, further said that the explosion was as a result of a highly explosive substance that was planted with the deliberate intention to sabotage.
Other information in the media at the time also alluded to threats that were made to blow up the launch, the previous week, Chapman noted.
A representative from the Peneil Seventh Day Adventist Church Faye Anne Tappin- Benn,
said that the church lost four of its members in the tragedy, including the mother of popular Lindener, Dr Stephen Carryl.
Benn said that the four young women would have given invaluable service and support not only to the church, but to the community. She described the event as a tragic lost to the community.
Vanessa Kissoon pointed out, “We must make this event National, the Enmore Martyrs is a big thing. The amount of lives that were lost in the Son Chapman tragedy, forty or over, dictates that we must make this a National event.”
Survivor
One man who could never forget that terrible day fifty one years ago, is Claude Patoir, who today is one of the few survivors of the Son Chapman explosion.
In an earlier interview with Kaieteur News,  Patoir detailed what he calls the worst day of his life.
Presently a resident of Ituni, Patoir was at the time of the tragedy an employee of Norman Chapman, the owner of the Launch.
Patoir said that he, along with two of his co-workers, had disembarked the vessel which they had been loading at the “fish koker wharf” in Georgetown, and had headed to an eating place in the La Penitence Market to have breakfast.
Later on their way back to the launch, he said that they encountered a man named Brown, who told them, ’Boy allyuh boat gun blow up!’
Patoir, said they had heard of these threats, and decided to call the police, who subsequently checked the boat and found nothing unusual.
He said they continued to load the launch and left Georgetown for Linden about 11 a.m., that day with less than a full complement of passengers.
“It was a beautiful day and the crew members and some of the passengers, were on deck just enjoying the trip laughing and talking. We made a couple of stops along the way to put off persons, not actually stopping at a ’landing’, but just stopping in the river briefly as the passengers got into smaller boats that came out to meet them.
“Our only real stop was at Horadia, which was the only stop that had a “stelling” and two people got off there, one Winifred Douglas, and her reputed husband Alex Campbell, Patoir recollected.
“One of the men on deck with us, who was known as ’Dodi’, had just gotten married, and was on his way down the steps to get some of his wedding cake to share with us. He never got to the cake!”
“When I heard the explosion, I thought it was the engine, but as I ran past, the chimney was smoking, so the engine had to be running still.”
“Looking in the hull of the boat, I saw people there just sitting like they were in shock, or maybe they were already dead!”
“Everything happened so fast, I think we were all in shock.” Patoir recounted.
“It was the worst thing I have ever witnessed; never have I seen anything like that, except perhaps in the movies. It was a really sad time; for all those people were like family, as they would travel with us, sometimes two, three times a week. And they were good to us, they would often bring us lunch and so on, as most of us who worked on the boat at the time were bachelors.
“Sometimes we would even cook on the boat, and the hucksters would give us fish and provisions. And even with all the threats of bombing the launch that were circulating, they would never travel with any other launch.
“As a matter of fact, some of them responded to the threats saying, “If we gafo dead, we gon dead pon the Son Chapman,” Patoir recalled.
His worst recollection of the tragedy, he said, was helping to retrieve the bodies and helping to identify them.
“It was dreadful, that sight. People were dismembered, and one woman who was pregnant, had spontaneously given birth! The foetus lay entangled with her entrails, close to her.”
But the hardest part was watching as bodies that were retrieved days later, being tied together like a makeshift raft to be taken to Linden .
“A few of them that were in a terrible state of decomposition were buried right at Horadia,” Patoir reflected. (Enid Joaquin)

---

---