Latest update December 11th, 2024 1:33 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Farewell to the flesh, Osaze: The sound of the drums will forever haunt them

Jul 19, 2020 Features / Columnists, Hinds' Sight with Dr. David Hinds

Death is inevitable. At some point that dreadful news must come. This past week, those who are and were associated with the WPA got news that one of the stalwarts of that movement has passed away. Osaze is not known to the younger generations or even to those before them. We often remember the movement but not those who embodied the movement. In our haste to cannibalize what we produce we throw out the bay with the bath water. There has not been a party in Guyana that has been so demeaned and distorted as the WPA. Some have made that enterprise their cash-cow. In the end, they render persons like Osaze invisible and unheralded. But we know the origins of that stench; some of us have been around the Middle Passage.
So, farewell to the flesh Osaze. You were there in the flesh when Guyana came face to face with its colonial demons as it fought to define the tone and tenor of its independence. You lived the inevitable revolution of your time, not by empty rhetoric and false prophesy, but by making the ultimate sacrifice. As a soldier for real freedom, you sacrificed everything for the revolution. Some who may call your name in death crucified you in life as they engaged in their cowardly narratives. Many of them never stood before the might of the State in the quest for freedom for all as you did. You, from the salt of the earth, earned your stripes.
You brought your creative intellect to the real struggle and planted it in the ranks. Your artistic talents found authenticity in active struggle. And you were everything they could never be. Whether you were sitting behind the African drum or painting images of reality and imagination or driving a Tapir on the dangerous roads of then, or making the case with a microphone in hand, you were forever that beautiful Black working class brother from the nigger-yard of yesterday and today always trying to turn to the world of tomorrow with your strength. Yes, it was you and your type who Martin Carter had in mind when he gave birth to that poem of rage and hope.
That you slipped back to the ancestors as they are in the process of burying your legacy with their twisted songs heralding return to the nigger-yard is a coincidence they will never see. You die as they paint new images of colonial supplicancy. Some promise to erect on your grave site statues of colonial supremacy—not statues of you. Your very name is thrown to the wolves as the view such a name as the embodiment of Black romance and Black pomposity. You die as they try to separate you from your brethren in the USA.
But go in peace Osaze. Tell that brother what they have reduced his name and his legacy to. Tell him what a dogmatic simpleton they have turned him into. Tell him how they talk him up but reserve their statues for the dreaded colonizers. Tell him how they have un-blackened him in their quest to prove that Black lives do not matter. And say hello to all the other comrades. Let them know how dread it is with the new assassins of conversation. But let them know that we continued to defend the sacred earth they traversed with libations of survival.
Brother Osaze as you walk through the gates of Africa wait to have a chat with John Lewis, the man from a place called Troy. Have a good laugh with him about those who know not of your common origins but try to lecture Guyanese with their nonsensical anti-black narrative. And give John some of that unique dialectical reasoning that was your trademark. Go my brother, knowing that they cannot stop the tide of your history. Make one last salute to the seed and fruit of you. And give one last rebuke—that Osaze smile– to those who are trampling on the sound of your beloved drum. Tell them that the sound of the drums will forever haunt them.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news. Send comments to [email protected]

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

 

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Government and GOA sponsors Guyana’s FIBA 3×3 team for AmeriCup in Puerto Rico

Government and GOA sponsors Guyana’s FIBA 3×3 team for...

Dec 11, 2024

-Team departs today Kaieteur Sports- Guyana’s basketball team departed today for San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they will compete in the Americas’ premier 3×3 basketball tournament, the...
Read More
King hits 82, Seales takes 4-22 as West Indies dominate Bangladesh in second ODI to secure series victory

King hits 82, Seales takes 4-22 as West Indies...

Dec 11, 2024

Should the West Indies cricket team play independently?

Should the West Indies cricket team play...

Dec 11, 2024

Fazim Abdool crowned best equipped senior lifter as 19 records shattered

Fazim Abdool crowned best equipped senior lifter...

Dec 11, 2024

Kevin Sinclair 81 not out spearheads Rose Hall Namilco Thunderbolt Flour into BCB/ Madray 20/20 semifinals  

Kevin Sinclair 81 not out spearheads Rose Hall...

Dec 11, 2024

Maggie’s Snackette joins growing list of sponsors

Maggie’s Snackette joins growing list of...

Dec 11, 2024

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]