“IT is a time to remember our ancestors, it is a time for celebration, where we reunite and dance all night,” were the words of Martha James, a born and bred Berbician who migrated to Linden in the 1970s.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Martha was fondly describing the soiree celebration in her native village of Hopetown in West Coast Berbice (WCB).
Like in many other WCB villages, Soiree is the celebration of emancipation from slavery in 1838. It takes place on the eve of Emancipation Day and the celebration ends on the break of the new day.
Like Martha, many WCB residents from villages such as Hopetown, Belladrum and Ithaca, migrated to Linden between the 1960s and 1970s to settle.
Her husbands had previously journeyed to Linden in search of jobs at the bauxite company. Martha, followed her husband Lloyd James, who is now deceased and so did many of her fellow Hopetown Berbicians.
The migration was so massive that, to date, there is a sub-community in Amelia’s Ward, Linden, which is called Hopetown Square. In this ‘Square’ live residents who had migrated from Hopetown, WCB and to them, they are all family. Everyone is referred to as ‘cousin’ or ‘aunty’ and the close-knit circle which they share makes it more evident that their ancestry line has some form of connection.
Even though it may be many, many decades since they had moved from Berbice and added tremendously to the population of Linden, the many matriarchs of these families that are alive today cannot hide the fact that they are Berbicians, because their raw Berbician accent is still firmly intact.
“Me a wan Berbician, me follow me husband, who come up hay sah fah look wuk, and me neva went back, but ah Hopetown me born and grow,” James proudly revealed. Journeys back to Hopetown would normally occur whenever there is a funeral or a wedding, but most importantly, for the Emancipation Soiree celebration on July 31.

EMPTY HOMES
Almost all of the houses in Hopetown Square are empty during this time and many pack up their bundles and journey back home to participate in this significant celebration of their African ancestry and roots. Joy James, Martha’s daughter, who was born in Linden, despite not being a Berbician, has it engrained in her, the importance of taking this journey and therefore makes it a must, along with the rest of her siblings, to be in Hopetown on July 31 every year.
The custom became so popular that even friends of these children that have no roots in Berbice also take the journey.
Hopetown Soiree is a mixture of libation ceremonies to evoke the spirits of the African ancestors, African drumming, chanting and shanto dancing.
The village of Hopetown was bought by ex-slaves in the 1840s and the tradition of Soiree dates back since then. Drumming, marching and dancing would start around 18:00hrs on the eve of Emancipation Day in an area of the village called ‘Twenty Two’ and the large crowd would disperse into groups, keeping their separate libation ceremonies, while the main road is flooded with hundreds of boom boxes which create a party atmosphere for the young people.

NOT LIKE IT WAS BEFORE
While some ‘old timers’ in the villages strive to upkeep the old African tradition of Soiree, the older villagers, the few of whom remain, are of the belief that the young people are twisting the culture to suit their way of entertainment.
“Apart from the small groups that try to keep the tradition, mostly there is men sporting, women wining to the boom box music, the young people drinking and smoking, barbeque and all these fancy nowadays food selling and it is really sad,” one old timer in the village said. She explained that the youths have the responsibility to carry on the culture and they are not doing so and fears that it may be completely lost, since they do not even dress in the traditional African garbs.
Despite this reality Berbicians in Linden, young and old, continue to take that yearly journey back to their homes, and for those who cannot make it, some African groups located in Linden try to mimic the Berbician Soiree and keep little celebrations in communities such as Silver Town on the Wismar shore.