Celebrate freedom by strengthening our Entrepreneurial spirit

Aug 04, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The Alliance For Change takes this splendid opportunity to link with all Guyana, and celebrate as one, the Emancipation of our African foreparents 181 years ago.
The passage of the Abolition Act in 1833 and the eventual freeing of enslaved people around 1838 was the final episode in that chapter that has smeared the history of this world. Slavery has been designated one of the most heinous acts of domination and exploitation of man by man.
The enslavement of 12.5 millions of human beings over 400 years, began with the forced extraction of African peoples from their homeland – a whole continent. These people were captured, tortured, transported in sardine can-like conditions through the Middle Passage (Africa to North and South America and the Caribbean, with one trip lasting for several months), then sold like cattle to be bound, beaten and otherwise assaulted, scarred, children taken away, re-sold, killed for learning to read, and forced to work for no wages for the rest of their lives.
This is why we celebrate Emancipation every year.
In the words of Guyana’s best renowned historian, Dr. Winston McGowan, “The overwhelming majority of slaves never accepted the system of slavery with equanimity. They accommodated it or adjusted to it when they felt they had to, and resisted it when they had the opportunities to do so”.
It is the same spirit that lives in the breasts of descendants, generation through generation. This is the spirit that marks the path we walk, run, and overcome. This is the spirit that must revive, that need for entrepreneurship.
According to Dr. McGowan: “By 1800 Berbice and Demerara-Essequibo, whose economic growth had long been stifled, had become the second largest producer of sugar in the British West Indies; the largest producer of cotton in the British Empire; and the greatest producer of raw cotton in the entire world”. While all of these industries have waned in this brave new world of high technology, Guyanese now have brand new frontiers to learn from, to earn from, and to educate our children to move on forward.
Wherever we go and whatever we do is on the immense contributions made to this nation by our foreparents – African slaves and every grouping of indentured labour that came to these shores. The slaves first built our major canals and punt trenches with bare hands in the broiling equatorial sun, and in pelting rain. We can picture them knee-deep then shoulder-deep in the hard-packed mud of the Vlissengen Road Canal, Church St., Waterloo St., Carmichael St., Camp St., Sussex St. and Lamaha St. canals, whips on their backs. But they prevailed with a certain pride in accomplishment.
Many believe that it was the entrepreneurial spirit that lived and breathed in those newly freed Afro-Guyanese in 1838 that spurred them towards their new beginnings. On 7 November 1839, 78 freed men and 5 freed women from 5 East Coast plantations – Ann’s Grove, Dochfour, Enmore, Hope and Paradise – walked 18 miles to Georgetown, pushing a wheelbarrow of coins amounting to 10,000 Guilders, their savings that were hidden in the earth. Within 15 days, they paid another 20,000 Guilders to the owners of Plantation Northbrook, a former cotton plantation measuring 500 acres, and they renamed it Victoria Village. This was the first piece of real estate in British Guiana to be owned by free slaves.
COURAGE, FORTITUDE AND MARTYRDOM
The Constitution of Guyana pays homage to the “indomitable spirit and unconquerable will” of our African forefathers who, “by their sacrifices, their blood and their labour” bequeathed to us this dear land. It salutes those “immortal leaders who, in the vanguard of battle, kept aloft the banner of freedom by the example of their courage, their fortitude and their martyrdom”.
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, in his Emancipation message this year said, “I ask that our people of African origin continue to forge alongside every other Guyanese, a common identity, and strengthen our resolve to keep on building a strong and united Guyana”.
He said, “I exhort you to guard our freedom, to protect the gains of our historic and contemporary struggles, to keep alive the dreams of our ancestors for the good life. I ask you to ensure that our Nation remains in safe hands by keeping your full confidence in David Arthur Granger as President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana”.
FREE EDUCATION TO BE RESTORED
The world today is powered by Technology, and Guyana is in no position to continue to stroll into this 21st Century. Speed is the key – to install infrastructure everywhere in the country (satellite dishes, LTE networks, fibre optic networks) that connects to every community and village; ensure that every child has access to the Internet; and to encourage young and old to learn things digital, e.g. animation, music, gaming, robotics and software creation like graphic and website design.
From the day that this Coalition Government took office, President Granger made a public promise to open every door and corridor leading to the restoration of free education for Guyanese children. Well, he has done it.
Last week, in observance of the 181st anniversary of Emancipation, the President announced that free Education with be reinstituted shortly in keeping with our Constitution (Article 27) which says that Education should be delivered free of charge.
President Granger said, “Emancipation means independence… Emancipation means Education”. It was education that unlocked opportunities, which freed African descendants from their cycle of inter-generational poverty.
Guyana has declared the decade 2020 to 2029 as the decade for the development of all citizens. It is meant to protect citizens’ entitlement to Free Education from Nursery to University.
Guyanese, we have yet another mandate, i.e. to never again accept inequality, inhumanity or racism in our lives. Guyana’s future is too bright to allow selfish people to squander it!
Happy 181st Emancipation Anniversary!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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