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Let us call the day by its rightful name
Peeping Tom…
Kaieteur News- There is something ungainly in calling a spade a bouquet of cut flowers. And something dishonest in asking a people to celebrate what is not truly theirs under a name that pretends it is. A nation, like a man, does not better itself by dodging the truth, or by dressing it in gauze. And so, it is with this business of “Arrival Day” in Guyana, a holiday that aims to be something for everyone and ends up being true to none.
May 5th, we are told, is Arrival Day—a day set aside to mark the arrival of immigrants to Guyana. It is spoken of as a day for the immigrants who came to Guyana from elsewhere: the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Madeirans, the Africans who came from the West Indies, the Indians.
A great coat of many colors, stitched together to honor all. But the fabric frays under scrutiny. The seams do not hold. For while the rhetoric is inclusive, the reality is not. Everyone knows what May 5th is. It is Indian Arrival Day. It began as such, and in the hearts of most, it remains so.
It was the arrival of Indian indentured immigrants in 1838 that occasioned the demand for a holiday in the first place. The date is not arbitrary; it is not pulled from a hat of immigration anniversaries. It marks the landing of the Whitby and the Hesperus in the colony of British Guiana—vessels bearing the first batch of East Indian laborers who would, in time, shape the country’s economy, cuisine, religion, music, and politics. A demography was altered that day, and with it, a nation’s future.
There is no shame in that. Quite the opposite. It is a chapter worth remembering with pride. What is troubling is the need to obscure it with a euphemism. “Arrival Day” is a title that aims at fairness but lands on farce. It pretends to be democratic, but it flattens the historical truth. It fools no one. Not the Indo-Guyanese, who rightfully mark the day with cultural events. Not the other ethnic groups, who find themselves observers at an event not their own, folded in only through political nicety.
Former President David Granger, to his credit, sought to correct the imbalance. He issued proclamations naming separate observances—Portuguese Arrival Day on May 3rd, Chinese Arrival Day on January 12th. These were gestures of respect, and they were not unappreciated. But no national holidays followed those declarations. No public closing of offices. No great wreath-laying at the seawall. And most tellingly, there was no call from the Portuguese or Chinese communities demanding those days become holidays. The demand was always, and only, for a holiday to make the arrival of Indian indentured immigrants.
The PPP government, since its return to power in 2020, has quietly folded all other observances into the one May 5th affair. The pretense has grown more unwieldy. Speeches are delivered in wide nets, trying to thank everyone, trying to honor all journeys. But this is not a day of shared arrival. This is a day that belongs to a specific story, a particular migration, and a people who came under specific and trying circumstances.
Why then do we hesitate to name it for what it is?
Perhaps we fear the consequences of seeming to elevate one group above others. But naming a thing truly does not diminish the value of other things. A tulip is not dishonored because a daffodil has its day. Let May 5th be Indian Arrival Day, with all the dignity, pain, and resilience that entails. Let us have the honesty to say so in the law and in our calendars.
If we truly mean to honor other arrivals, then let us do so deliberately and distinctly. Let January 12th be Chinese Arrival Day. Let May 3rd be Portuguese Arrival Day. Let other groups, if they so desire, petition for recognition. There is room enough in the year for historical observance. But there is not room enough in the soul for historical evasion.
A national holiday, like a national anthem, must be more than a performance. It must sing with the clarity of memory. It must not ask us to pretend.
So let us end the euphemism. May 5th should be Indian Arrival Day, by name, by statute, and by spirit. Anything else is a costume stitched too hastily and worn too long. The country will not collapse under the weight of truth. It may, in fact, stand straighter.
Let us call the day by its rightful name. Let us, for once, not pretend.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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