Let Emancipation Day 2022 be catalyst of an Afro-Guyanese Renaissance

Jul 31, 2022 Consumer Concerns, News

==CONSUMER CONCERNS==

By Pat Dial

Kaieteur News – On 1st August, Emancipation Day is celebrated by all Guyanese, both at home and abroad because it is considered one of the country’s most important anniversaries since it commemorates the legal ending of plantation slavery. The story of plantation slavery is well-known but it needs to be retold so that coming generations could have a deeper understanding of the dangers of Racism and of Man’s inhumanity to Man.

With the discovery of the Americas by Europeans in the 15th century, colonisers began settling in the New World intent upon exploiting its wealth. One form of exploitation was the occupation of the lands of the native Amerindian peoples and establishing plantations to grow produce, which Europe needed and which could be sold at enormous profits.

In Guyana, the first colonisers were Dutch planters who laid out plantations along the riverbanks and then later along the coast. These plantations were mostly for producing sugar which sold at very high prices in Europe. Sugar plantations required a great deal of labour and since the local Amerindian population would prefer to die than work as plantation slaves or labourers, the planters were desperate to find labour from any source. Slave traders then entered the picture and began buying or capturing slaves mostly from West Africa to supply the plantation labour market.

From the 15th to the 19th centuries, tens of millions of Africans were forcibly and against their will brought to Guyana and the Caribbean. The sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, “the Middle Passage” was one of unspeakable horror and a high proportion of the slaves died at sea. On land, they were sold to planters who put them to work on the plantations in a labour regime that was cruel, inhumane and humiliating and even today, reading of the horrifying cruelties of slavery is disturbing both mentally and emotionally.

Eventually, slavery was abolished in the British Empire, including Guyana and the Caribbean on 1^st August, 1833. But in most territories full freedom was delayed by the Apprenticeship System where the former slaves had to work for their masters for a number of years at a very minimal wage. By 1838, all Guyanese slaves were freed with the ending of the Apprenticeship System.

The freed slaves or freedmen showed an extraordinary resilience, maturity and creativity. In the 1840’s, they bought a number of abandoned sugar estates and transformed them into villages with thousands of houses and farms and a village government. These villages had certain characteristics, which Guyanese of today could well emulate. They saved whatever small income they had from working as Apprentices and from Sunday markets and were able to buy the abandoned sugar estates. Saving was an important part of the ethic of these villagers. Other important characteristics were their commitment to education and their strong belief in God and their desire to farm and be self-sufficient in food. They also had the entrepreneurial spirit of risk and a remarkable work ethic. During slavery, they were the tradesmen and from the 1840’s, they provided the carpenters, plumbers, tin smiths and the other trades required in the colony.

It was this spirit of risk and adventure which made them and their children go out into the Interior and found the gold industry. It was these same gold fields which the pork knockers had worked from which the foreign mining companies with their modern equipment are now extracting hundreds of tons of gold.

Then the community fell into social and economic doldrums from the end of the 1920’s. This was caused by the Great Depression which brought with it, widespread unemployment and poverty and before any recovery could come, World War II brought more hardship, scarcity and unemployment. The optimism caused by the end of the war did not last for very long and before any recovery could occur, Britain decided to withdraw from the colony and hand over its government to local politicians. These politicians caused racial discord and poor economic and social management of the country and life, as Guyanese and in particular, Afro-Guyanese knew it, collapsed and over half the population emigrated. Dr. Accabre Nkofi, in his booklet “Renaissance of the Blackman” captures the scenario.

In 2022, with the discovery of Oil, the dawn of a new era has come and all Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese in particular are on the threshold of a prosperous and creative life. The ethos of the 1840’s needs to be recaptured and internalised. Oil revenues are now being gradually channelled into the various capital-starved industries so that Guyana’s agricultural and industrial sectors would become employment providing and wealth generating way into the future after the Oil reserves would have been exhausted. Oil revenues are also being channelled into social sectors such as Health, Education, Old age pensions and Cash Grants. Afro-Guyanese and all other groups should take advantage of these offerings. For example, the valuable scholarship offerings in various skills and professions or the grants and guidance given to young people venturing into startups.

All Guyanese social and political leaders, and in particular Afro-Guyanese, should pledge themselves to make Emancipation Day 2022 into the beginnings of an Afro-Guyanese Renaissance since the prosperity and wellbeing of any one segment of society redounds to the benefit of all.

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