REMEMBERING THE PAST; LEST WE FORGET

Oct 12, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Allow me to commend the Organizers of the Commemoration Ceremony of the African Holocaust, 2019, (ACDA). They remind us of the importance and dynamism of ancestral piety. They deserve our applause and admiration.
It is in order that the community celebrates this event. The circumstances that occasioned the worst treatment of some of God’s children, the Africans.
The holocaust occasioned the worst treatment of man to man known in recent history.
Africans were ruthlessly severed from their homelands in West Africa and transported in ships across the Atlantic to Guyana and other countries in the so-called New World.
Many of them recognizing the plight of new and unaccustomed captivity and brutality jumped overboard, never to be seen again.
Today, we celebrate and honour their decision of magnificence martyrdom.
Today, we must, by recognizing the horrors of slavery, redouble our efforts to vindicate their sufferings.
It is our responsibility to act so that their bones will not rattle in shame or disbelief that, we their descendants are not behaving in a manner that truly honours them, both by word and deed.
At supper, and my wife reminded me recently, and my parents shared this wisdom, to be “gentle as doves but be wise as serpents.”
At this time, I ask that on behalf of the slaves that we forgive. However, we must not ever forget, for if we forget, it will be a form of disarming this and future generation.
The month of October offers the Guyanese of every age, race and class an opportunity to learn from history and avoid a journey of shared stupidity.
It was in October 1957, that the descendants of slaves and indentured labourers met to establish the People’s National Congress (Burnham, Jainarine Singh, JP Latchmansingh) to advance the cause of freedom in this colonial outpost and importantly, to avoid the folly of being aligned to alien powers and ideologies.
Recently, we hear the propaganda about a return to democracy in October 1992. A complete deception. This propaganda should embolden us to emancipate the truth.
In some cases, reminiscent of stories told of the proverbial house slaves.
After that October, we saw a reversal of the gains won in the mid-1960s. We witnessed the discrimination of the descendants of those Africans who endured the Trans-Atlantic journey and the blood, sweat and tears of life on our plantations, where those slaves civilized the entire coastal belt by digging drains, canals and dams by hand.
It was after October 1992, that we witnessed the extra judicial killing of 400 odd persons, 95% were of African stock.
We witnessed house slave mentality when as part of a previous government, a Minister and descendant of a slave, facilitated the now infamous cash jet-plane pilot with a special access road to his hangar, etc. at our main International Airport. How many trips the gentleman made is unknown to us.
It would be unnecessary for me to give all the examples, except to say on holocaust day, we must remember with respect and reverence our earlier fore-parents.
The task our Organisations face is to unapologetically support the Leader that will give us the tools to narrow the vast gap created by enslavement, which completely severed the African from its roots. This dismemberment unto this day witnesses Afro Guyanese carrying names alien to Africa.
Today, we must note, this is a monumental task and educational and similar opportunities are the best medicine to dissolve this debility and give each one of us irrespective of race, colour or creed, the opportunity to achieve to our highest potential.
Next year holocaust must see us pursuing a good life, good education, so that we rekindle the dreams and aspirations of our noble ancestors.
This must not detract us from our efforts for reparation and the pursuit for unity, not only among the Afro-centric groups but be reminded as Forbes Burnham said as we ushered in Independence “To us, the Amerindians are important. To us the Chinese are important. To us the Portuguese are important. To us the Europeans are important. To us the mixed races are important. To us the Africans are important. To us, the Indians are important.”
“In short, all Guyanese are important and valued members of our community and we cherish them and consider that as a Government it is our duty and privilege to guard, protect and further the real interests of all.”
Today, we focus on the enduring strength and resilience of the Africans, who unlike the others arrived here with a status below the estate mules and animals.
Next holocaust, we must advance with courage, patience, and determination, the fulfillment of our Motto, ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny.”
Thoughful Holocaust.

Hamilton Green

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