THE month of August is known in Guyana as the month of Emancipation. It was on August 1, 1838 that our African ancestors who were brought to our shores to provide slave labour on the sugar plantations obtained their freedom. This is indeed a milestone event, one that is deeply etched in our collective memory and one that will continue to live on until eternity.
Without a doubt, it is one of the most significant dates in our history. The day is observed annually in recognition of the enormous contributions and sacrifices made by our fore parents of African descent in the fight for their freedom and those who came after them.
To say that our African foreparents were instrumental in obtaining our freedom and subsequent development will be a gross understatement. Indeed, the social and economic prosperity we enjoy today is inextricably linked to a much broader struggle ignited by our fore- parents. Many lives were sacrificed in that struggle, but they remain immortalised in the collective memory of the Guyanese people.
Several monuments have been built in honour of those courageous men and women to remind us of the contributions they made to our freedom, the most prominent being the 1763 Monument which is a testimony to the Berbice Slave Rebellion of 1763.
Another hero of our freedom struggle was Damon, an African slave in whose memory a bronze monument was erected at Anna Regina. There is also the 1823 Emancipation monument situated along the Seawall Road which was unveiled in 2013 in recognition of the fallen heroes. These and the several other monuments and memorials stand today as a lasting tribute to those who blazed the trail for liberation and who laid the foundation for modern-day Guyana.
As we reflect on the sacrifices and contributions made by our ancestors, we must also spare a moment to do some serious introspection on how well we have fared as a nation and some of the challenges we face as we seek to come to terms with a gruelling and cruel past. Unfortunately, we are still to fully liberate ourselves from the legacy of our colonial past, which partially was responsible for the continuing divisive and adversarial nature of our politics. We cannot continue to carry that burden of the past which remains a drag on our capacity to realise our full potential as a nation and as a society.
President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali during his speech at the launch of a Commemorative Centenary Stamp in honour of former president Mrs. Janet Jagan could not have put it more succinctly when he said: “Today, I ask all of Guyana, especially within our political landscape to assume individually and collectively the role of achieving the unification of our people and I assure you every single day of this government’s life will be spent dedicated to this task; it will be achieved, it must be achieved. We have to break down the invisible walls of disunity and bring our peoples together. We owe this to the legacy of those who work tirelessly and selflessly; we owe this to our future generation and we have to fix it now and fix it in this generation and we do not leave this burden upon those who will come after us.”
These are indeed profound words of a leader who is passionate about us leaving our past behind and finding a new pathway to prosperity based on mutual respect, shared values and a common vision of a society; one in which all of us, regardless of our politics and the colour of our skins must be equal participants in this exciting task of nation-building.
August 2, 2021 will also be exactly one year since the swearing in of Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali as the 10th Executive President of Guyana and the accession to office of the PPP/C administration. It has been an eventful year characterised by monumental progress and solid achievements, for which the President and his Cabinet must be commended.
