THE mining town of Linden recently observed the 54th death anniversary of the Son Chapman massacre victims.

Relatives of the deceased, community leaders and residents of Linden, last Friday gathered at the Christianburg site on Burnham Drive, Wismar, Linden to be a part of the Son Chapman Massacre Memorial Ceremony hosted by the Commemorative Committee of the Regional Democratic Council.

Delivering the key address was Regional Chairman of Region 10, Rennis Morian, who gave the audience a feel of the socio-economics and political atmosphere during that time that led to the Son Chapman explosion which claimed the lives of 43 persons.

“In the 60s, 61 going on to 1962, it is a time when the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was seeking to have GAWU represent the sugar workers and that had its’ own struggle. It was a time when the PPP was leading heavily to take Guyana into a Cuban style revolution and the political culture which was not favoured by the super conscious at that time the UK and America. It was a time when the fight was not on race but on political independence and economic development. It suits the PPP mission to make it a race issue,” he noted.
Morian highlighted the mission of Guyana’s present government, which is to construct a cohesive society. “We don’t want a country like that, we want to be free and that is what this government is pushing, together we are better, respecting each other, working in harmony, building a cohesive society. So I’m saying as we remember and we commemorate with some amount of pain…our message to the younger generation should be never again,” Morian added.

Chairman of the Commemorative Committee, Charles Sampson referred to the Son Chapman tragedy as one of the worst terrorist acts that has ever been committed in the Caribbean.

Sampson said, “When you compare Son Chapman tragedy and you look at those people who are coming up from Georgetown to Linden and areas along the Demerara River, they were probably sitting in the launch taking a nap, playing…They were innocent people.”
Sampson recalled seeing body parts thrown all around and smelling the rank scent of the Demerara River as a teenager.

“I was in my early teens…I was around right here on the Wismar shore when the news hit us. Sometimes they say something hit you like a ton of bricks, that didn’t hit the Linden community like a tonne of bricks, that hit the town of Linden like a million [tonnes] of bricks,” he expressed.

According to Morian, the 2019 Budget will include funding for commemoration.
“The regions would be allowed to itemise the things that they want to do in relation to commemoration,” he noted.

Friday July 6, 2018, marked 54 years since the ill-fated Son Chapman launch was bombed on its journey with passengers travelling from Georgetown to Linden. The launch sunk immediately resulting in 43 persons losing their lives. This was one of the gruesome acts of political violence which was perpetrated during the 1963 to 1964 disturbances. The Son Chapman was a wooden launch owned by the late Norman Chapman that plied the Mackenzie/Georgetown route transporting passengers and cargo.