Celebrating freedom and promoting ujamaa in 2017

By Gibron Rahim
THIS year marks the 179th anniversary of the reclamation of freedom by enslaved Africans in Guyana and in the Caribbean region. Emancipation Day celebrations are observed on August 1 and focus on the joy that resulted from freedom, but also include a time of

reflection on the pain, death and suffering that were endured under a brutal and inhumane system. It is an occasion of great significance to Guyanese of African descent, but also to all Guyanese, regardless of race or creed.

This year’s Emancipation will mark the 24th anniversary of the Emancipation Day Festival of the African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA). The organisation is in the midst of preparations and has much planned in the days leading up to the occasion and on Emancipation Day itself.
The two weeks leading up to Emancipation will feature a street bazaar in Main Street, Georgetown and will have, among its many attractions, vendors showcasing their work as well as cultural performers.

In an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, ACDA’s Emancipation Coordinator , Aisha Jean-Baptiste, said that the aim of the street bazaar is to create an environment where those who are interested in showcasing their talents are able to do so, while simultaneously getting everyone into the spirit of the Emancipation season.
Another pre-Emancipation event will be the Spiritual Tribute. This will be conducted at the Square of the Revolution in association with the House of Santeria over successive nights and will pay respects to African ancestors. It will begin with Ancestors Night on July 27 and be followed by Elemental Night (Water/Earth) on July 28, Elemental Night (Fire) on July 29 and Guyana/All Nations Night on July 30. On July 31, also known as Emancipation Eve, there will be a candlelight procession from the car and bus parks in front of Demico House to D’urban Park in memory of all those who died in the struggle for freedom.

Emancipation Day

The day of Emancipation will begin with Sunrise Services, scheduled for 05:30hrs at the National Park. Different religious groups will come together to hold a service to ask the Creator to bless the day and keep everyone involved in the day’s activities safe. This will mark the opening of the Emancipation Day Festival at the National Park.

The gates for the Festival will open at 10:00hrs. The activities will cater to all interests and all age groups. Jean-Baptiste said that there will be an array of activities for children. “Every year we try to put on a lot of activities that are centred on the family. And, of course, the centre of our family has always been our children,” she said. For this reason, the Festival will have a Children’s Centre which will have face-painting, ring games, folk games, bouncy castles, colouring and storytelling. There will also be presentations featuring young people from youth groups all over the country. This children’s show will commence from when the gates open and will include drumming, dancing and poetry. Later in the day, there will be the ‘Hello Africa’ Children’s Parade. There will be prizes for most creative costume/float, best-dressed group and best costume display.

Other scheduled activities
There will also be activities for more athletically inclined young people. Leading up to Emancipation, there will be various teams of youths competing against each other in events such as football and cricket. The teams taking part are from Georgetown, East Bank Demerara, East Coast Demerara and West Coast Berbice.

The culmination of most of these activities occurs during the festival. It is also noteworthy that there will also be 40 and 60-metre races for the blind, a six-over cricket competition for the blind, five-a-side small-goal football matches for veterans and a domino competition. A definite highlight will be the five-mile Freedom/Reparations race. This race begins at the Square of the Revolution and ends at the National Park. It will be a collaboration with the Guyana Reparations Committee.

Cuisine will not be neglected. ACDA is collaborating with ANSA McAl to bring a cook-up competition to the festival this year. There will be three categories. “There’s a no-meat cook-up, a chicken-and-beef cook-up and then there’s the all-goes cook-up with pigtails and so on,” Jean-Baptiste said. This ensures that everyone can enjoy cook-up. The first prize will be $50,000 in each category and there will also be hampers. The coordinator encourages all those who are interested in participating to contact ACDA.

Registration forms for the cook-up competition are available at ACDA headquarters. Additionally, she said that there will be vendors offering an array of food as there will be local and international visitors to the festival who wish to try new culinary experiences or are nostalgic for ones from their childhoods.
The culinary, sports and cultural events will also be joined by educational features as well. Jean-Baptise said that the festival will feature educational booths for visitors “who are interested in history; in exhibition; those who love to read; those who love to learn about new things and new areas.”

Musical entertainment
Of course, the celebrations would be incomplete without music. It is not surprising then that ACDA will include numerous live musical performances. Headlining the festival will be reggae soul singer-songwriter Etana and reggae singer Everton Blender. Etana’s hits include “Wrong Address”, “Warrior Love”, “Roots” and the well-known “I Am Not Afraid.” A unifying factor among the acts is that their music is inspirational and uplifting.

This is completely intentional. “You want an inspirational, positive message on Emancipation,” Jean-Baptiste said. “It’s going to be very rich, soulful, powerful sounds coming out on Emancipation Day.” These performers will also be joined by local acts, including, Big Red, Charmaine Blackman, First Born, X-Factor, Zion Kid, Divine Stars, Mystique, Flame of the Hearts, Young Bill Rogers. There will also be other acts visiting from neighbouring countries such as Fire Dancers from Suriname, providing excitement and spontaneity to the celebrations.

Celebrating Africa
Two ubiquitous features of the Emancipation Day Festivals have been the annual honouring of an African country and an African Guyanese village. This celebration of an African country is reflective of the fact that most Guyanese of African descent cannot trace their ancestry to a particular African nation. The country chosen this year is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC was chosen for being the second largest country in Africa, boasting a rich history and culture. “We thought it was fitting, considering Guyana is on the forefront of being extremely rich in natural resources,” Jean-Baptiste said.

“We thought it was a good comparison to look at a country which is the richest country when it comes to resources.” She also noted that Guyana is only on the brink of discovering its potential in terms of resources and that showcasing the DRC was an opportunity for Guyanese to think about how they can develop themselves to take advantage of the opportunities of Guyana’s new-found oil wealth potential.

The village chosen for the festival this year is Union Village, also known as a conga village. “Their entire story is told through the drum,” she said. She added that Guyana had a second wave of indentureship. There were Africans who came to Guyana as indentured immigrants from Ghana and the Congo. Though indentureship was just as difficult as slavery, these immigrants were not stripped of their culture. In time though, she said, “Their everything, the one survival piece of their story is this drum.”

The conga drum is the core of these communities and it is this aspect that ACDA wishes to highlight. The hope is to have a conga drumming competition at the festival with invitees from different conga villages all over Guyana. “I want people to understand that there’s a difference in drumming styles,” she emphasised. “It’s quite intriguing when you can sit and actually hear the difference between the beats and the styles.”

Emancipation is a celebration for all Guyanese Jean-Baptiste added. “Emancipation is not an African-Guyanese concept. The concept of Emancipation is the struggle against injustice, against oppression and discrimination.” Fairness, equality and justice, she explained, are celebrated by and fought for by all. The story of Emancipation is also one that illustrates the power of unity. In her words, “Together with a common mind, with a common focus, you can achieve something good.” Indeed, this can be seen in the fact that the funds raised from the festival go toward funding ACDA’s programmes in communities.

These include feeding and literacy programmes, free dance and drumming classes and youth entrepreneurship. “We’re in the background 365 days of the year trying to reach out in communities that need it the most and to individuals that require it the most to empower them and to make their situation better.”

Sponsors and volunteers are invaluable to the success of these Emancipation events with purpose. Highlighting the importance of volunteerism in Guyana, Jean-Baptiste also called on volunteers to sign up for Emancipation. Interested sponsors and volunteers can contact ACDA at 225-8420 or at acda.emancipation@gmail.com. And, of course, everyone is invited to ACDA’s Emancipation events. In the words of Ms. Jean-Baptiste, “No matter who you are, no matter what background, I want to encourage all of you to come into the National Park and take part in the activities that we have in store for you.”