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It is the minister’s responsibility
Dear Editor,
I note with great concern the letter written by Claudeston G. Massiah, Kaieteur News, Wednesday November 27, 2019 titled ‘Can Guyanese justify the still prominent display of Queen Victoria’s Statue in our capital?’
He is right and I believe this matter ought to be discussed and an agreement found to the way forward.
All over the world, people are attempting to correct the perks and deeds of oppressors and those who marginalize the other people. You see it in China, India.
This week, when Americans celebrated Thanksgiving Day, native Americans met to remind this generation of the cruelties and injustices they suffered at the hands of the American colonisers.
In Burlington, United States, the City Council erected a structure to hide the confederate statute. Those who know American history, such as, the Mason Dixon Line, the Jim Crow Laws and the energy of the Civil Rights Movement will understand this action by the municipality.
As a youngster, I remember seeing Minister Hamilton Green, his mother and Parliamentary Secretary, the late William Haynes, supervising the removal of the said Victoria Statute from the fore court of the Law Courts.
The Victoria Statute was placed at the eastern end of the Botanical Gardens.
However, the late Compton Young, while Mayor of Georgetown, urged and obtained the support of certain sections of the Diplomatic and ultra-right communities and so, the statue was returned after certain repairs to its present location.
We must remember that just before our visionary Forbes Burnham passed away, he started the process of correcting our history and so, for example, Murray Street named after a cruel European administrator was renamed Quamina Street to honour one of the African leaders of the 1823 Uprising.
Massiah’s words are worthy of repeating: “What can we say to our hero, Jack Gladstone and his father Quamina, and those brave souls who took part in and lost their lives in the Demerara Rebellion; those 40-odd that were hanged after the uprising, what do we say to their sacrifice? How can we explain that after 53 years, 1966 to 2019, when we were so called allowed our freedom that we still cling to the boot of our oppressor?”
Before I end, what is this nonsense about moving Walter Rodney’s name at the archives? Information available suggest this is the work of some bureaucrat, but the responsible Government minister must know that it is the Minister’s responsibility at the end of the day and he should correct this flawed removal of Walter Rodney’s name at the archives.
Eric Moseley
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