— President Granger tells Berbice Emancipation celebrants

SPEAKING to a multitude of Guyanese who turned up to celebrate Emancipation at Union, Number 53 Village, Berbice, President David Granger said the occasion represents the single most important day in Guyanese history.

It is a culmination of an experience that was the greatest crime against humanity, he told the garthering.

“The enslaved Africans in Berbice and Demerara and Essequibo never accepted their enslavement, they rebel constantly, they fought against enslavements and in so doing, Berbice hold a proud place – Berbice holds an unsurpassable place in the achievement of Emancipation. As we celebrate Emancipation, we pay homage to those people Kofi, Quamina and Damon who led revolts to make us free but Emancipation is not only about revolts but the determination of the people who won their freedom.”

The President related that Emancipation was not all about rebellion nor revolts but was also about the necessity for ensuring there was economic freedom, freedom from the plantation system and freedom from enslavement.

“All hone their talents in their villages, making Guyana a richer, more diverse economy so it was Emancipation that lit the spark to economic freedom; it was the most important development of freed Africans in the western hemisphere. Economic Emancipation was very important; every society, every community has the best of an economic , but the greatest gift of Emancipation, in my view, was the gift of education,” he said.

EDUCATION
President Granger stressed that under the United Nations resolution to address the challenges facing people of African descent globally, Guyana, which is a signatory to the UN declaration of International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD), called on all nations to come together to overcome the prejudicial discrimination which still exists to this day.

He further related that among the programme of activities for IDPAD, strong attention is paid to education.

“Your government, in accordance with the UN injunction, is committed to safeguarding the legacy of Africans and in particular to ensuring that the objective of the International Decade and for that reason for the next 10 years when we return to office 2020-2029, it will be a national decade of development for Guyanese and we are going to place emphasis on education. We don’t have to be told this by the UN, we will do this ourselves,” President Granger said.

He said profits from the petroleum industry will be used to further develop education as well as to offer free education from nursery to university since every citizen has a right to education.

“Our expected petroleum profits, apart from what will be devoted to our Sovereign Wealth Fund, our expected petroleum revenue will help us to restore free education in accordance with our Constitution. Petroleum is not to enrich a few; it is to educate the many. Let that be understood that those resources belong to the future generations and the future generations will benefit from the profit,” the President told the gathering.
Emancipation, he said, means education.

“If we want to pay homage to them let us imitate their drifts and their intelligence by ensuring that every village has a school, every family has a home. The first Emancipation covenant, as I like to call it, of 1838 gave everyone a right to live in a society free from enslavement,” the President said, adding that the new covenant today should be that every Guyanese must live in a country free from ignorance.