FEBRUARY 23 is the date in 1970 when Guyana declared itself a republic. The leaders of the government chose that date as recognition of the Berbice Slave Uprising of 1763, which began on that date. Today the leader of that uprising, Cuffy, is a national hero and the uprising he led is etched in the annals of our country’s living history.

Historians have grappled with the dynamics of the uprising and have picked apart its various parts to tease out its immediate and larger meanings. There have, in the process, been various interpretations of the actions taken by the rebels and the plantocracy of the day and the outcome of the uprising.

Suffice it to say that there is consensus that , that uprising represents one of the most important blows against slavery in the Americas. It came before the most famous Black uprising, the Haitian Revolution. It also occurred before the American and French Revolutions, which are celebrated by the West as the great revolutions of that time. Our 1763 uprising, therefore, occurred in an age of revolutions when oppressed peoples took their destinies into their own hands and struck definitive blows for freedom.

Some scholars have concluded that the uprising was a failure, because the rebels were not able to hold on to the territory they had captured and because there were divisions within their ranks. But such a narrow reading ignores the significance of the very act of resistance against an entrenched system. Resistance by its very definition is not sprinting—it is more like long-distance running. That the rebels held the territory for as long as a year and that they forced the powers that be to send for reinforcements was itself a massive victory. The signal was sent to the plantocracy that henceforth all would not be well; that the enslaved would not accept their condition of bondage.

For us in Guyana, the 1763 uprising represents independent nationhood. One can argue that what we today call the Guyanese nation took root in 1763. Our fore-parents who participated in that 1763 uprising knew what they wanted. The ultimate demand of Cuffy and his followers was the right to self-determination. The proposal to the plantocracy that the rebels be allowed to set up their own free and independent State in southern Berbice is testimony to this thesis.

They wanted their freedom to determine their own destiny. They had left Africa as free peoples and they were determined to restore that freedom. Slavery therefore was not only about the brutality of the slaveowner, but equally important, it was about the resistance and heroism of the enslaved in the face of the worst form of degradation.

By 1823, the space we now call Guyana would again be the site of another groundbreaking uprising—the famous 1823 uprising in Demerara. This was one of the largest slave rebellions in the world as once again, the power of resistance was felt in a massive way. Over 10,000 enslaved Africans emulated their forebears of 1763 as they moved for freedom from bondage.

Again, the plantocracy responded with gruesome force as they randomly killed approximately 250 rebels and summarily executed another 27
But by the time all was over, emancipation was closer. In 1834, The Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed and in 1838 slavery was formally ended in Guyana and the wider Anglophone Caribbean. That today Guyana is a free republic with the formal right of self-determination is in no small way a direct legacy of the brave warriors and martyrs of 1763 and 1823. That fact should be a national mantra, for presentism often separates peoples from their own history of achievement.

History could be tedious and historical memory could invoke sharp emotions, but nations are products of their history. And we are no different. Thanks to those who ensured that the symbols of our history of resistance have become part of our living narrative. It is up to our present and future generations to use that memory in constructive ways as we continue to defend our freedoms from myriad challenges. The journey to true and unfettered freedom is an ongoing process, but the example of 1763 remains a definitive reminder that the struggle for our collective humanity has very deep roots.