By Francis Quamina Farrier

YOU will have obviously noted the twin dovetail in my headline, “First of August” and “August Monday”, because, in one way or the other, the two are actually the same: Guyanese People of African Heritage of the past, celebrating the Emancipation of Slavery in the British Empire, which included British Guiana, now known as The Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
During the years immediately after Emancipation (1838), the First of August was the day on which the celebrations were held.
Many of us who are in our Golden Years can recall the elders singing that song, “First of August Come Again, Hurrah me Ginga”.  Somewhere along the way, the celebrations were also held on the first Monday in August.

Whether it is celebrated as “First of August” or “August Monday” depends on the time and area of the country you are focusing on. As a senior citizen, I have experienced many “First of August/August Monday” celebrations in a number of communities across the country. Of course, there are some years when August Monday is actually on the First of August.
Whatever the case, Guyanese of African Descent have, for over 180 years, celebrated the anniversary of their freedom from enslavement in grand style, paying homage to their ancestors who worked and died building European Empires: British, Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese.

“All roads now lead to the National Park, but in my time, it was to the Promenade Gardens,” 90-year-old John Benfield told me regarding Emancipation celebrations of yore.
A man with a most distinguished look, many would hardly try to wonder what he did as a boy on “First of August Monday”, and that he, and many of his young relatives and friends at that time, attended “First of August Monday” celebrations which were held in the Promenade Gardens in Georgetown back in the day.

“First of August Monday” was not only a day of celebrations and jollification for Africans in Guyana, whose ancestors had laboured for centuries in this Land of Many Waters, and made tremendous contributions to the early building of this country, albeit forced, and without any monetary rewards.

PRAYER AND REFLECTION

“First of August Monday” was also a Day of Prayer and Reflection, recalling the hundreds of miles of canals and dams their ancestors dug and constructed; the sweat, blood and tears which were shed and which helped to make many European countries wealthy.

So on that special day every year, “First of August Monday”, Guyanese of African Descent rose very early and headed for their houses of worship, where they prayed and sang songs of rejoicing to God for the freedom which were centuries in coming. Services commenced in the pre-dawn darkness, and concluded as the sun rose over the horizon and brightened the land.
Then off they would go to wherever was the specific venue to continue with music and singing and dancing and eating and drinking. It was the day of each year to celebrate one’s FREEDOM in a very special way.
Men, women and children would already have been wearing their most creative and special attire, which was mostly of African design.
Friends and enemies together rejoiced. That was not the time for rancor or bitterness; it was the time for singing, dancing, playing their African music, especially the drumming, singing their African songs and dancing their African dances.
Some told stories of the bitter times of slavery, and stories of Africa even before they were sold into slavery, sadly, by their own brothers back in Africa, in the same way the biblical Joseph of the Book of Genesis was sold into slavery by his very own brothers.
However, “First of August Monday”, although about torture, trials and tribulations, was mainly about triumph and togetherness; about an enslaved people who were determined to become free, and were even supported by some Europeans who expressed the view that slavery was an injustice which had to be put to an end.
During the post-Emancipation colonial era, the celebrations for “First of August Monday” developed as transportation facilities increased.

THE EXCURSIONS

So, for example, train excursions became very popular. British Guiana had the very first railway system on the continent of South America. The Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) railway systems from Georgetown to Rosignol, and from Vreed-en-Hoop to Parika were utilised by Peoples of African Descent for Emancipation excursions on “First of August Monday”.

Revellers would pack their lunch baskets with all sorts of goodies, which certainly included conkee, cook-up, pepperpot, mauby and ginger beer among other treats.
In riverine communities such as Marlborough and Martindale on the Pomeroon River which have large populations of Peoples of African Descent, they would travel up-river to Charity, where, with others, they would celebrate the freedom gained by their ancestors.

In more recent decades, residents of the lower Essequibo Coast, Wakenaam and Leguan travel to Tiger Island (the northern-most island in the Essequibo River) and there have the time of their lives celebrating Emancipation.
There is, however, an interesting element to the Emancipation celebrations on the eastern beach of Tiger Island: Over 70% of those celebrating Emancipation at that venue are Guyanese of Indian Heritage!

Another element of note is that the Emancipation celebration on Tiger Island is always on the “First of August”. I’ve had the pleasure of attending that Tiger Island “First-of-August” Emancipation celebrations twice, and observed at first hand Guyanese engaged in “Social Cohesion” without political instructions.

As Guyanese continue to celebrate “First of August Monday” and other holidays of ethnic background, especially the way we observe Phagwah, Diwalli, Mashramani and Emancipation, one can say that we are slowly but surely going “Onward, Upward” to Social Cohesion and a Land of Genuine Happiness.