AMID a swollen rank of alienated and unemployed youth Victorians will on next Monday open their annual conference with heavy focus on reexamining historical wrongs endured and carving out a plan to spur economic development.The East Coast Demerara community is the first village bought by freed slaves. The conference or Indaba as is called will commence Thursday under the theme “Reconstruction” and will conclude four days later on the evening of the inaugural observance of a National Day of Villages.

In a statement organisers said the Indaba Planning Committee shifted the event that is usually held during Emancipation Week as a way of acknowledgement of President David Granger’s foresight and the significant symbolic decision to designate November 7 – National Day of Villages. “The Indaba Committee is in harmony with the breadth of the Head of State’s designation of the observance as it honours and celebrates the pioneering contributions of all villages and acknowledges the continuing pivotal role of villages in the economic, social, and political life of Guyana,” the statement said, adding that ”we also view the selection of the date of November 7 as a posthumous honorific bestowal on our Ancestors–the 83 Proprietors who daringly purchased Plantation Northbrook and emerged a local government code for the management of the village they named after Queen Victoria.”

Further, organisers complimented the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan for his role in ensuring that the local government election was conducted “and we are hopeful that under his leadership the issues that have festered over time will be resolved.”

According to the organisers while it is constitutional and it is necessary, “we recognise that the election by itself alone is not sufficient for lifting the villages that have sunken into unimaginable despair due to policy neglect and economic stagnation. The necessary local government election is by itself inadequate for combating the rising ills that continue to beset these communities. We therefore look forward to future economic initiatives that are significant enough to contribute to needed village reconstruction.”
The statement noted that while Victoria takes its place in the constellation of villages in Guyana it must certainly be recognised as the Sirius in that constellation both for its single act that spawned the Village Movement and hastened the modernisation and transformation of British Guiana, and for the creativity and ingenuity in demonstrating that an alternative social and economic system that was not dependent on the degradation man and did not thrive on the exploitation of humans was quite possible.

Accordingly, the statement said, the weighty word “Reconstruction” has been selected as the theme of this Indaba as a reminder that “our addition to the stock of wealth bequeathed to us by our ancestors is the best form of homage we can pay to them. Consequently, the four philosophical pillars upon which the village was constructed – Spirituality, Education, Co-operativism, and Community – will be excavated and refurbished and focused upon as we believe that the fundamental values remain relevant.”

Historical wrongs
When the conference opens on Thursday villagers will re-examine the historical wrongs endured without succumbing to the psychology of victimhood, as parallel to the hellish experiences are the noble achievements, organizer said. “That a people who have endured the long night of enslavement should arise victorious and without excusable bitterness and just vendetta and establish a school that our children may learn to read their Bibles and learn to fear Almighty God, displays a morality that exceeded that of their oppressors.”

Villager, Honourable Madam Justice JoAnn Barlow will deliver the main address at the Indaba and she is expected to identify the restraining bounds imposed in the past and to show how in spite of those constraints villagers abounded and recorded enviable achievements. The Indaba Committee believes that the present generation needs to be much more resilient in hardship and thereby record comparable achievements as our fore-parents. “This observation is made cognisant that more teachers and lawyers and doctors are emerging from the village population but conscious that the ranks of the unpurposeful, alienated, and unemployed have also swollen.”

At the opening ceremony the village pennant will be hoisted for the first time after the Golden Arrowhead is raised, the national pledge is repeated, and the national anthem is sung, organiers said. The Village Pennant bears the symbol of the Proprietors making the Purchase of Plantation Northbrook for 30,000 Guilders in November 1839.

Reworking farming
In considering the Village Economy, Villager Hugh Saul will lead a workshop on Revitalizing & Reworking of Farming in Victoria. The traditional Village economy upon which Victoria built its past successes has been severely affected by changes in the local economy and is struggling to find a niche in the changed economic circumstances. Earlier villagers will consider the intersection of agriculture and climate change in an effort to minimise their contributions to environmental degradation.

Ras Leon Saul who wrote and directed “Legend of Victoria” for the country’s jubilee celebrations will screen and discuss the dramatic presentation which is a re-enactment of the early years of the village and the resourceful ways it dealt with economic sabotage and other forms of pressure from the planter class, with little support from the colonial administration.

The high point of this Indaba will be playing host to President David Granger when he addresses the National Day of Villages observance on the morning of November 7. In inviting the Head of State, the Indaba Committee reasoned that it is most becoming that the President speaks to the nation from the perch of Plantation Northbrook. We remain convinced after 177 years, that both the boldness of spirit and the spirit of compromise, evidenced in our fore-parents in their setting aside past grievances, remain germane to the building a better country. We have therefore invited Ministers of Government and Members of Parliament to participate with us in the hope that that very spirit may be contagious and imbue us all.

Unveil stamps
In the National Day of Villages programme the eldest active member of the community will unveil two stamps depicting the exodus of formerly enslaved persons from the plantations and the purchase of the first village by formerly enslaved persons. Additionally, the Committee has now received the approval of the Minister of Education for school bells to be rung at 11:30am on the National Day of Villages and for the interruption of instruction to briefly focus on the significance of villages to national development both historic and current. The Ministry of Education has also accepted a proposal for small groups of students from schools between Ann’s Grove and Paradise, East Coast Demerara to be part of the first National Day of Villages observance at Victoria. “It is remembered that the purchasers of plantation Northbrook resided on estates within that latitude.” According to the programme, the President is schedule to conclude his address a few minutes before 11:30am at which time Church bells in Victoria and environs will peal and schools bells will ring in a symbolic acknowledgement of the role of villages in the country’s progress.

Indaba 2016 will conclude on the evening of National Day of Villages. Victorians will undertake a tramp throughout the village in the afternoon of the National Day of Villages and will converge at the Southern section of the village where the closing Indaba ceremony will take place.