MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony has announced a colourful calendar of events being organised by his ministry, as part of the activities in observance of the 16th anniversary of African Emancipation in Guyana.
It kicks off with the traditional Emancipation Day Festival on August 1, which will see thousands of Guyanese of all ethnicities coming together to mingle as One People; One Nation; with one Common Destiny, as they celebrate the occasion, which not only freed the Africans and peoples of African ancestry, but, effectively, put an end to slavery in any form in Guyana.
The minister said the ministry will be working with some 30 different community and national groups and is soon to publish the programme of what would be happening in those communities.
To this end, he urged all present at the Book Launch to attend those other occasions.
Highlighting some of the other planned but not necessarily occurring in the month of August, Anthony noted that the Museum of African Heritage will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary on July 27. He is optimistic that visitors will be fascinated with the kind of artifacts on display there and how much one could learn of Guyanese history from a tour there.
During Emancipation Week, there will also be an exhibition at the National Museum, especially targeting children, with a view to getting them to understand more about freedom, the struggles towards it and related activities.
Science exhibition
Meanwhile, during the third week of August, the ministry will, for the first time, stage an international science exhibition at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue, in Georgetown, too.
It will coincide with the observance of 7,000 years of science in India, highlighting how that would have contributed to the development of humanity.
Minister Anthony said a lot of the exhibits are very interactive and there will be qualified persons who will be able to explain things to viewers.
Of interest, he said will be special workshops with a new methodology of teaching science and mathematics and teachers of those subjects would teach participants in a fun way.
“All this will be happening at the Sports Hall and persons are encouraged to make use of this opportunity to attend and enrich and enlighten themselves in fun ways,” the minister urged.
During the last weekend of August, there will be the Inter-Guyana Cultural Festival, in which about 50 persons from Suriname and another 50 from French Guiana will join their counterparts here in Guyana for a bonanza of cultural activities, involving arts, fashion, performing arts, all happening at the National Cultural Central Centre.
There will also be competitions in culinary arts to determine who can cook the best and what foods will be on display.
“I want to encourage you to come out to these activities, because, it will be exciting and it shows that we have a vibrancy of cultures, hence we should encourage more people to be part of this,” Anthony stated.