The slave owner’s descendant visit must not become a political football

Aug 24, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I read with some concern of the visit by the descendants of slave owner, John Gladstone to Guyana.  According to reports gleaned, they will make a formal apology. If this happens it will be the first step to the process of Reparation.  Further, I have been assured that one hundred thousand pounds is a falsehood. This is good news because if that be the case, it constitutes an insult to every Guyanese with one drop of African blood surging through their veins. Truth can be hidden, Truth can be distorted, but I firmly believe Truth can never be destroyed. The following, therefore, is the truth.

First, I look forward to this apology being followed by an ungarnished apology from the Dutch and British governments, so that we can work out the modalities for reparation. The enslavement of black people is the worst of human cruelty inflicted on the group because they look different and in some cases, were too trusting.  With a treacherous government we must be careful, all of us, not to accept this ruse of a similarity between enslavement of Africans and indentureship. It is like chalk to cheese and you heard this President once said that we all came to Guyana for betterment. A further truth or fact is that the Trans-Atlantic Trade completely severed the roots of those who were captured, kidnapped and subsequently enslaved. The wounds of enslavement were deep and have left to this day gaping wounds. Our conversations should be directed to finding ways to heal those deep wounds and not be tricked again by the other people. A daunting, difficult task, but one that must be taken with courage and perspicacity.

We must teach in our schools the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of our history. That’s the only way to achieve this utopia of oneness. For example, while we have no difficulty with the rights for Amerindians, three of the nine Amerindian groups came to Guyana; one hundred to two hundred years after Africans were brought here. As a matter of fact, they were not here during the 1763 rebellion. Furthermore, the Amerindian Act of 2006 is the only Reparatory Justice Act in South America and the Caribbean. This is a legal precedent that should also apply to Reparations in Guyana since almost 400,000 Africans died to build Guyana. Our ancestors cleared 15,000 square miles, using crude implements and lost their lives in the process. There were no bulldozers and hymacs. In reality, they cleared one hundred million tons of earth with their bare hands and this covered 9 million acres of land. The Africans in Guyana cleared more land than all the other countries in the Caribbean during enslavement.

This must allow us to ensure that the Gladstone visit is seen in its proper context. Knowing the proclivities of our Government, I have no doubt that efforts will be made to make this visit another political football to enhance the fortunes and increase the power of the ruling elite.I have contended before that the issue in Guyana is not so much about race but the emergence of a class, power-drunk and greedy who use a well-funded propaganda machine to ignore our history, the plight of the Afro Guyanese and the role that the British and Dutch governments played during enslavement and after Emancipation.

At a recent lecture I delivered, young and old listeners were surprised when I mentioned that only the Portuguese were given licenses to import goods, which they then sold through their outlets to the majority Indo and Afro Guyanese. This gave that group economic power. The children of Manumitted Africans must utilize every opportunity to secure economic power. To recapture the zeal for learning and putting to the fore the acquisition of skills as craftsmen, tradesmen, and entrepreneurs. Unless, our real history is taught in our schools, this generation, all of them constitute a disabled group, ill-equipped to deal with the uncertainties of a Guyana in a very complex and challenging global environment.

Before the Gladstones arrive, let us begin to discuss the key issue of our identity. I listened to a prominent Hindu leader being interviewed on the question of Hinduism and the need to preserve their identity. I scored the person A+. The Africans were severed from their roots when they were brutally transported from Africa to Guyana. Today, as was the case of Jack Gladstone and Quamina Gladstone who led the 1823 Uprising, they were forced to use British and Anglo-Saxon names, like any product, a deceptive label for the contents. The monumental task is to work towards change and to ensure that with the BBC and the international media coming, that the Government, do not,  so to speak, steal the show, for that is their wont and I know that is what they are planning.

As the apology is proclaimed this weekend, Afro-Guyanese must learn to listen and learn and not leap into the dark and endure another form of enslavement. With tears in my eyes, I sign this letter using the name of my erstwhile persecutors and enslavers.

Yours truly,

Hamilton Green

Elder

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• British, Dutch, governments, Hamilton Green, political football, slave

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