It is time for us to smash false icons and images

Sep 16, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I have studied in-depth the deplorable history of the British Monarchy through the ages, right up to the present Queen Elizabeth II and her son, now King Charles III. The blood of millions of Indigenous, African, Indian and other colonized peoples are on their hands, a crime against humanity that Queen Elizabeth II refused to acknowledge and apologize for, right up to her death. The crimes committed by this royal family are not attributable only to their ancestors. Queen Elizabeth II presided over a modern day Britain which continues to maintain an imperial relationship with its former colonies, and remains the beneficiary of the continued plunder of countries throughout the Global South. Only a few months before she died, on June 10th, 2022, she bestowed a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the oldest and most senior British order of chivalry, on war criminal Tony Blair.

It is for this reason that Forbes Burnham declared Guyana a republic all those years ago, a move that only now Barbados has finally made, and other Caribbean nations are considering. It is why Burnham removed the statue of Queen Victoria from in front of our High Courts. There can be no doubt that Queen Victoria is a symbol of colonialism and all its crimes. Sadly, after Burnham died the statue found its way right back there. It is high time that this statue was removed. Statues that are symbols of colonialism and the genocide and plunder that it spawned, are being removed all over the world. It is time for us to smash these false icons and images. We must rename our streets and structures after our own heroes and purge Guyana of these symbols of injustice and inhumanity.

As a free, detoxified and decolonized mind, unlike those intellectually incarcerated minds amongst us, that have penned letters following Queen Elizabeth’s death referring to her as “our gracious majesty”, I can boldly proclaim, “the Queen is dead, so what?” And to hell with the King.

Gerald A. Perreira
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)

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