FROM the time of Emancipation in the 19th century, August was always considered a month of celebration and commemoration of the African past and a time to review present African conditions and chart the way forward. The month begins with celebrating the freeing of the slaves, Emancipation Day, which legally occurred on August 1, 1834, but factually, only on August 1,1838 with the ending of the Apprenticeship System.

The celebration began with sunrise church services and families having a heavy lunch of various African dishes, including metemgee with konkey and cassava and pumpkin pones as dessert. Drink was usually lime swank, ginger beer, sorrel and jamoon wine. In Georgetown and New Amsterdam, fairs were usually held with the ladies wearing colourful African robes, African dancing and drumming, sale and display of various African arts and craft and sale of various foods. Children were particularly prominent at these fairs.

There was also an intellectual element to these celebrations with newspaper articles and television discussions on the African and Afro-Guyanese past and present. The theme of reparations from the colonial powers for their part in slavery now features prominently in all these commemorations.

In 2023, attention was focused on the 200th anniversary of the Demerara Slave Rebellion, which occurred on August 18, 1823 and there were two notable programmes to commemorate this event. Firstly, a Bicentennial cultural festival organised at the newly constructed Lamaha Promenade on the Railway Embankment and secondly, a commemorative event based in the Congregational Church in which the Prime Minister of Guyana, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips and a number of prominent persons participated.

The Bicentennial cultural event took place on the afternoon and evening of Saturday, August 19 and was very well attended. The Guyana Defence Force Band, the Kunjaz steel ensemble, the National Dance Company, the National Drama Company, the Yoruba Singers, the Kaieteur Folk Singers, Jackie Jaxx and the Heatwave Band and other well-known performers entertained the audience. Afro-Guyanese Art, craft, and cuisine were on sale and exhibition and Jennie Ealy of the African Heritage Museum had on display a number of books on subjects such as African empowerment. This event is expected to be part of the repertoire of future August commemorations.

The Congregational Church at Beterverwagting, supported by the Guyana Congregational Union, the Guyana Reparations Committee and the Council for World Mission of Zambia, held a large commemorative service. Rev. Dr Roderick Hewitt of Jamaica delivered the sermon and Prime Minister Mark Phillips was the main speaker. He pointed out the importance of the role of the Congregational Church, both before and after Emancipation. After Emancipation, it helped to organise the Village Movement and equipped the freed Africans with the necessary tools and values to build village economies. It built churches in the new villages and provided schools for the education of children. Prime Minister Phillips ended his address with this important injunction: “. . .let us recognise the responsibility we carry to continue this legacy of education, empowerment and community-building.”

Though we expect to carry a full article on the Congregational Church, one could not speak of the 1823 Slave Rebellion without mentioning the involvement of this church. The leaders of the rebellion were all members of this church or were associated with it. Thus, with varying degrees of certainty, the planter community blamed the Congregationalist missionary devoted to missioning the slaves for either helping in organising the rebellion, or at least having foreknowledge of it. The fairly newly arrived Missionary, Rev John Smith, was accused of being complicit in the rebellion and was arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. While in prison awaiting a decision on his application to the English Courts for reprieve, he died. His death came as a terrible shock to everyone and he was thereafter known as the Demerara Martyr. His death caused people in the colony and England to seriously weigh the pros and cons of slavery in their minds. In any event, slavery was legally ended in the British Empire within 10 years in 1833.