Dear Editor,

THE TIME has again come to mark the abolition of slavery in Guyana. This is the 182nd anniversary; it is many, many years since slavery was abolished in 1834, but I can remember well an old lady in my village who spoke to me, a boy in the 1950s, of seeing marks on her mother’s skin, inflicted when her mother was a girl, before the abolition of slavery.For long periods, and in most places around the world, man has made slaves of his fellow man. Europeans made slaves of fellow Europeans; but this last period of widespread slavery, when Europeans took Africans as slaves — often with the help of other Africans — has been most pernicious, and its effects have been persistent.

This was the period of European takeover of the Western Hemisphere, the growth of trade, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. And Europeans, perhaps by then reluctant to make slaves of their own people, found it convenient to bring African slaves to the Caribbean and much of the Americas under cultivation.

The conditions that obtained within this period of slavery have rightly been decried as showing the lowest levels of man’s inhumanity to man. But the conditions under which slaves worked were much worse than those under which the majority of poor Europeans worked in those first dark and satanic mines and mills.
Not for the African slaves of this period was there any widespread practice of freedom being granted for good works well done; and even when granted, even today, so many years after the abolition of slavery, all in the Western Hemisphere with African blood in their veins are being declared sons and daughters of slaves.

Not for them, though many times descended, is the anonymity of the Greek slave who was freed by his fellow Greek and immediately became anonymous among his fellow Greeks. As one of the earliest sociologists wrote: “The institution of slavery has disgraced the race, and the physiological peculiarities of the race have perpetuated the disgrace.”

The sons and daughters of slaves must take the lead if this period of slavery is to become just another episode in the history of man. These brothers and sisters of slaves must not notice what might be habitual slights; many times these slights are not recognized as being slights and are not intended to so be. They must even more assume the concerns and the responsibilities of the former masters, which were no concerns of slaves. Perhaps they should steep themselves in the attitude of the “Old Salts”, those slaves who had been brought from Africa across the salt seas. They must escape the heritage of slavery by taking the lead in being one of the best brothers of the brotherhood of man.

Let us recognized that many fellow sons and daughters of slaves in the Western Hemisphere are earning and being granted widespread recognition: President Obama, the late Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Michelle Obama, President David Granger, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. They are being the best that man can be, and reaching the highest heights that man can reach.

Cuffy, a slave, also fought for freedom. In 1763, the fight was long and many were killed. In 1834, Damon led 300 apprentice slaves in a quiet, peaceful demonstration held in the Trinity Parish Churchyard on the Essequibo Coast. The authorities arrested Damon and he was later hanged in Georgetown.

Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow was also a labour hero; he established the first trade union in Guyana, and marched many times in May Day demonstrations. His relentless struggles and demonstrations have bequeathed a rich legacy of gains for all categories of workers. His quick response and support to sugar workers from Diamond and Demerara sugar estates earned him the nickname of “Black Crosby”. In 1919, the first trade union — the British Guiana Labour Union — was formed by Critchlow. Later, he became known as the “father of trade unionism”.
Yours faithfully,
MOHAMED KHAN