EMANCIPATION DAY has been celebrated in Guyana and across the former British Empire on August 1st for as long as everyone alive in The Commonwealth can remember, with this morning’s annual libation ceremony observing the 188th anniversary of that day in 1834 when enslaved people of African descent were legally declared as free across.

Emancipation came following Abolition of Slavery by King George III, but the total freedom of the enslaved was conditional upon serving at least four years of Apprenticeship, during which they were to give free labour to their former masters.

Emancipation and Apprenticeship were followed by Indentureship, which opened the way for Indian labourers to provide the equivalent of slave labour lost through Emancipation.

But Emancipation didn’t come about just because King William IV awoke with a good heart on the morning of August 1. Instead, it’s because the French Revolution of 1789 and the Haitian Revolution in 1804 had led to countless irreversible revolts in the British Empire and it was clear slavery’s days were numbered.

Apprenticeship, too, was not about preparing the ex-slaves for new lives without chains, but instead it gave enough time for the British to find a new way to replace slave labour, leading to Indentureship, the start of which revolved heavily around British Guiana.

The infamous ‘Gladstone Experiment’ resulted in the arrival of the first 396 Indian immigrants in British Guiana on August 5, 1838, who were distributed not only to John Gladstone’s two West Demerara estates and Belle View, West Bank Demerara, but also to faraway ones like Highbury and Waterloo, East Bank Berbice and Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast.

Emancipation and Indentureship were clearly just two schemes to ensure continued exploitation of human labour to keep the profits of the slave trade coming despite abolition, even though the Indian Indentured labourers were supposed to have been enticed by five-year ‘contracts of industrial residence’.

Emancipation, Apprenticeship and Indentureship were therefore different parts of the same system that kept slavery going without chains and guaranteed the profits of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade would still be made by the British planters.

Emancipation was therefore sold by the enslavers as an event worth celebrating with an annual holiday across the Empire, while it meant conditional freedom for the ex-slaves and was a stopgap measure to change the mode and model of exploitation and production.

With what we know now about why Emancipation came and what it meant to the enslavers and the enslaved, the question is: Is Emancipation worth celebrating?

It’s not an easy question to answer, but while some narratives invent divisions and differences between the experiences of enslaved Africans and Indentured Indian labourers, Guyana has shown, even before independence, that the descendants of both (enslaved and indentured) can co-exist peacefully and work together in common interests.

Unfortunate historical circumstances coloured by partisan political considerations have, over time, led to violent clashes between Guyanese of African and Indian descent, but all the rest of the Republic’s history has shown that when left to live together, Guyanese of all racial and ethnic backgrounds do see themselves as part of one Guyana.

PPP/C administrations have always lent full support to national activities for every August 1st Emancipation Day celebration since 1992, including facilitating the hosting of ceremonial African royalty and a warm Guyanese welcome from Prime Minister Brigadier-General, Mark Phillips. And it was a PPP/C administration, in 2013, that signed-up Guyana to CARICOM’s call for reparations for slavery and native genocide.

And successive PPP/C administrations have maintained support for CARICOM’s Reparations demand, as often repeated by President, Dr Irfaan Ali, at every opportunity at home and abroad, like when he met then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London last April or during his meeting last week with US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of the US Congressional Black Caucus and champion of the longstanding HR-40 bill pursuing Reparations for African Americans.

The racial/ethnic balance in Guyana is almost equal, unlike South Africa where the imbalance is more pronounced, resulting in continuing distrust of the minority by the majority – again, unlike Guyana, where the more-equal balance has led to greater levels of peaceful co-existence — until racial, ethnic and cultural tensions are uprooted for partisan political and electoral reasons and considerations.

This everlasting but often-interrupted demonstration of Guyanese people’s ability to live side-by-side and work together is, unfortunately, a hidden element of a reality some would prefer not to admit. But while reality can change, truth cannot be erased — and history has truly taught that Guyanese have always had what it takes to live and work together in national unity and common harmony.

All that said, here’s to a happy, peaceful and fruitful Emancipation Day observance for all Guyanese!