Dear Editor,

THE hostile email and Facebook narrative purportedly written by Dr. Melissa Ifill and the Kaieteur article on August 21, 2016 by Freddie Kissoon — directed at whether the President was making an ideological error that bordered on betrayal in commemorating the 1823 Insurrection at the current monument at Thomas Lands — were impulsive and not tactically weighted from the perspective of what was important in the entire event.That the monument was a source of contention in 2011 is not ignored. The turning of the sod had, in 2010, commenced between Afro-Guyanese groups and the PPP government at the Parade Ground as an act of good faith. That good faith was flushed in the wake of the Year of the African. Without any collaboration, the then 2011 Government decided to place the monument at Thomas Lands. To compound this, we learnt that Government had intended to convert the historic Parade Ground into a car park through its obvious favourite foreign company. This car park was to be shared by the GRA.

Thus the emergence of the 1823 Coalition in the face of that administration’s contempt for African Guyanese, disrespect, and shameless bigotry. I was an affiliate of the Coalition, and even submitted a monument design to the ministry, for which I received no acknowledgement. What struck me with the current mentioned missives, especially the hostility in Dr. Ifill’s, was how two prominent members of that group could fail to recognise that most of the books, booklets and artwork on that incident were suggested by me and were from publications by Free Press ‘Themes of Afro Guyanese History’ ‘Kwamina the illustrated booklet’ etc; and that no other local publishing entity has, with no overwhelming support for nineteen years, covered so much of Afro-Guyanese history as the Emancipation magazine.

That publishing group is owned by Ret. Brigadier David Granger, now President. The then minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, was given the option of engagement, which he contemptuously rejected.

So why not this Government? It was loose-cannon behaviour that made me step away from the coalition, and it still persists.
The 1823 Insurrection occurred in the now Paradise-Bachelor’s Adventure-Melanie village district. Twice during Emancipation, in 2010-11, I was invited by my friend Floyd Hendy to lecture at the location of the village monument. These were the people that Anand Persaud of Channel 65 addressed as hooligans in 2001 when his political friends in Enterprise were shooting at their homes. I was a visitor to this village in my ‘roaming days’.

The other face of the Thomas Lands monument is that, since its building, our schools have been visiting it; citizens unaware of the 1823 Coalition have been photographing themselves before it; its persona has gone beyond that struggle; that struggle has won the historic Parade Ground, and it has seen a cultural face.
The 200 Anniversary of the city of Georgetown occurred in 2012. The then PPP ignored it. I initiated an idea to my colleagues at ACDA to begin a Kreole Day, held at the Parade Ground. Some members of the coalition supported, and it was successful.

We did a 200 Anniversary TV show with then Mayor, Hamilton Green, and all were enlightened and elated by his knowledge of our city.

I have witnessed one of the many historical re-enactments overseas. I had suggested this for 1823 to the people at Bachelor’s Adventure, to the Steering committee of ACDA, to members of the 1823 Coalition. The first lively approval of the concept came from the President when I raised the idea again when he met with us last Friday. 90% of the history that we know of other nations come from their dramatisations, whether falsifications or not. Ask ten school children what the Non-Aligned Monument is all about and they will not be able to tell you. Dramatise it, and they will remember the play. Put a monument and sit on one’s laurels and fail to excite their minds, and the next explosion of self-absorbed venomous diatribes you pen on Face book and email will be to accuse probably the Prime Minister next time, because someone else didn’t educate people to respect it and they stole the metal plaque from the monument and sold it to a scrap iron trader.

Regards,
BARRINGTON BRAITHWAITE