AUGUST 1 is one of the most, if not the most important anniversaries in Guyanese History. On that day in 1833, the British Parliament passed the Emancipation Act freeing the slaves in then British Guiana and other parts of the British Empire. The Act came into force on August 1, 1834. In Guyana, however, full freedom did not come until 1838 since the slaves had to serve a period of “Apprenticeship” until August 1, 1838, whereby they were compelled to keep on working on their plantations in a condition of semi-slavery, though they were paid a small wage.

On the night before full freedom was declared in 1838, there was an all-night vigil and continuous drumming. On the arrival of morning, from 5 o’clock, the children and young people of the villages went from door to door knocking and calling out to sleepers to rouse themselves and join the celebrations. This custom continued until very recent years.

Emancipation Day was spent visiting friends and relatives and feasting; the same customs and fare have continued until today. The fare consisted of Metamgee and ground provisions, including cassavas, eddoes, tannias, sweet potatoes, breadfruit, and plantains served with salted fish or sometimes meat. Cookup rice, which is today an obligatory item of the Emancipation Day menu, became an item only after 1860 when rice became available on the local market from the production of Indian Indentured immigrants. The sweet served was konky, made largely with corn flour, cassava, and pumpkin pones.

After August 1838, most freedmen had decided to remain on their plantations but they were paid such low wages that in the 1840s, they were constrained to strike. Their strikes failed and the freedmen, with courageous resolve and fortitude, left the estates without knowing how they would be able to survive.

Just at this time, Britain had begun to adopt a policy of Free Trade with consequent abandonment of protection of Caribbean sugar and this, together with the absence of workers, caused many estates to go bankrupt with their owners abandoning them and putting them up for sale.

The freedmen saw an opportunity, formed themselves into cooperatives and with the money they had saved from their sales at the Sunday markets and the wages they had received as Apprentices, bought several of these abandoned plantations. The money paid for these properties was in the form of small coins like “bits” and shillings and had to be fetched in wheelbarrows.

The purchase and transformation of these abandoned plantations into villages is considered an element of Emancipation and is known to historians as the “Village Movement.” The Village Movement is one of the greatest moments of Guyanese history not only because it provided a constructive accommodation for the workers who had left the estates, but also because it gave a formula and blueprint to the world of a methodology of how poor and oppressed people could get out of poverty and move into an existence of self-respect and dignity.

The creativity of the freedmen was unique. They built new communities from scratch. They laid out the infrastructure of the new villages — the streets, the allotments to various owners and the construction of thousands of houses. They established village governments which were able to supply basic municipal services. Farmlands were laid out in the backlands where they produced plantains, bananas, breadfruit, and various ground provisions such as cassava, eddoes, tannias and sweet potatoes and various fruits such as mangoes and avocados; they raised flocks of sheep and goats and poultry.

Many supplied the services of tradesmen such as carpenters, tin and gutter smiths, tailors, vat makers and so on, not only to their villages but to the two towns; though most freedmen were illiterate, they were conscious of the value of education and invited the churches such as the Congregationalists to establish schools, teach the great Christian religions and establish churches.

In a few years, this resulted in these villages becoming the oases of learning and culture in the colony. They first relied on folk medicine, but when women and girls began to be employed in the hospitals and some of them were trained as nurses, they brought Western medicine to the villages. Many of the names chosen for the new villages had some reference to freedom and Emancipation. For example, Buxton was named after the English Humanitarian who struggled in Parliament for the abolition of slavery, and Victoria and Queenstown were named for Queen Victoria, in whose reign Emancipation was declared.

Emancipation Day is not only a time of fairs, pageants, feasting and other celebrations; it is a time when all Guyanese and in particular Afro-Guyanese, must reflect on and internalize the great lessons which Emancipation has taught: In the first place, there is Saving. The freedmen were prepared to make the sacrifice of deferring the gratification of today for the betterment of tomorrow and thus they painstakingly saved small sums of money which accumulated into capital which they invested in the purchase of abandoned plantations. This culture of Saving needs to be resuscitated for personal and community progress.

Then there is the culture of taking Calculated Risks. When the freedmen left the plantations, they took a courageous risk, leading them to purchase the abandoned plantations and establish the villages. Without taking risks, entrepreneurship and economic and social development could not happen.

Modern Guyanese people tend to move away from the land and agriculture. Land and agriculture were the bases of the survival and development of the freedmen. Now that the state is very supportive of agriculture, it is easier to be committed to it. Try to purchase and own your own land.

The villages were once oases of learning and intellect and were the seedbeds of the professional classes. If education again becomes a deep aspiration of both adults and children, upward mobility and economic betterment are bound to follow. Be again committed to education.

Part of the success of the Freedmen resided in their commitment to Religion and Moral Law. Young people in the villages must re-affiliate with their churches and follow the teachings. This will result in more stable families and give morale to be able to overcome all difficulties. Such commitment would prevent any drift to crime or negative social behaviour.

It is because the freedmen were self-reliant and did not hope or expect help from any source that they were successful. Today, this culture of dependence on the state or other sources to help one with one’s problems must be eschewed and Self reliance should be the beacon. With self-reliance, one becomes master of one’s destiny.
If such virtues associated with Emancipation are recaptured, it would be easier to successfully navigate in the new oil-rich Guyana.