By Elvin Carl Croker

THE African community, on Saturday, gathered at the Seawall Bandstand to pay homage to their ancestors in observance of Holocaust Day 2019.

Addressing the annual event, African culturist, Johnathan Adams, said the occasion comes at a time when Guyana’s reset button is being pushed.

Held under the theme “Remembering the past: lest we forget”, Adams told a gathering of about 100 people that the suppression of Africans, which started by the Europeans on September 12, 1492, has been fully extinguished.

This is evident, he said, when the African community is forced to constrain themselves from speaking the truth about their true needs and the realities of their daily existence.

This must not happen, he said. “We must seek every opportunity to be fully involved in the resetting of the society. We must act in such a way that sweet songs of hope echo from the seabed, rather than memories of injustice,” he told the gathering which listened with keen attention.

He also said that Africans must embrace their culture, identity and organisations as only then they will be united as a people. On that note, he urged all young Africans to vote at the upcoming March 2 general and regional elections.

The remembrance ceremony, which lasted just over an hour, concluded with a procession to the Atlantic Ocean led by leaders of the House of Santeria and his worship, Mayor of Georgetown, Pandit Ubraj Narine.