BRIGHT colours, the sounds of drums and the voices of ancestral songs, and the story of one of Guyana’s many people. Every year, Afro-Guyanese come together to observe Emancipation, as we witnessed this past week. Many would say that August 1 is more than a holiday; it is the celebration of a people. As well-known and widespread the event’s festivities are, there is certainly more than meets the eye when it comes to Emancipation. 

This week, the Pepperpot Magazine took a trip to the village where residents consider the birthplace of Emancipation celebrations, Bagotville. Home to several hundred people, Bagotville is a village on the West of Demerara said to have been built by freed slaves. This year, the community hopes to reignite the passion for tradition that they say was started there by their ancestors so many years ago. With races, competitions, music and good food, the birthplace of Emancipation hopes to come alive once again with traditions, love and the utmost unity.

The birthplace of Emancipation celebrations 
A subtle vibrance is one of the best ways to describe the community of Bagotville. The village, located several miles south of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, has something incredibly interesting to boast about. Residents say that the community is known by many as the birthplace of the emancipation celebrations we know and love today. A bold but exciting claim, Ashton Crawford told the Pepperpot Magazine the story of the community he has known and loved since his birth, as he stated, “I was born in Bagotville in the year 1950, October 2. I will be 74 years old this year, October.”

For most of those years, Crawford has dedicated himself to learning and preserving the history of the community he calls home. Sharing some of his years of knowledge with the Pepperpot Magazine, Crawford retold the origin of the community. “This village was started in 1848 or sometime around there. It got the name from a man named Bagot, who gave over the lands to some freed slaves. He gave over the lands, and they called the place Bagotville in honour of him.” Said Crawford. The past and history of the village are common knowledge of the people of the village, with the story still being told to children of Bagotville.
From Ghana Day to Emancipation: Birth of a celebration

However, a deeply captivating and lesser-known story is how the famed Emancipation holiday we know now was developed. Among a few other sources, Crawford shared that Emancipation began as a celebration called Ghana Day, a much smaller event in Bagotville. However, over time, the people of Bagotville sought to create a day to celebrate their roots beyond food, dancing and a few songs. With the involvement of numerous people, ‘Emancipation’ blossomed into a month-long affair seeking to keep countless traditions alive. “They built a community centre. That community centre was built because you had a man from Africa came here. He was named King Ezi. King Ezi came here. You didn’t have no centre or anything. They built a shed with coconut branch and these kinds of things, and built it. And from that day, you call it Ghana Day,” Crawford shared.

In its earliest days, Ghana Day was not well known and was considered a community occasion rather than a national holiday. As Crawford explained, it all began with the Bagotville Song Circle, a small African cultural group. “We didn’t have Emancipation Day in Guyana. But we started with the Bagotville Song Circle. Every year, we used to keep something at the centre. We used to get the Emancipation Celebration every year. And we continued and more people started to come out. But it wasn’t so widely known, but then it grew and spread all over the country. The Emancipation celebrations started here in Bagotville.”

Our Roots and the Future: Harambee
Emancipation, like all of our cultural holidays, is more than a day set aside to remember. It is the act of returning to one’s roots and remembering a time long gone. And in the ever-changing world of today, that is something unique. Bagotville knows all about change. The village has developed from a community bought and built by slaves, into a lively community driven by entrepreneurship. But above all else, the people of the village strive to preserve the past, as Crawford states, appealing to others to cherish their culture. “We don’t really appreciate what we have. We allow our culture and traditions to go. After a while, we might remember what we used to do and bring it back; but then it goes again.”

This year, Bagotville residents hope to reignite the new generation’s enthusiasm with various activities slated for the month of August, with everything from libation to competition. As Bagotville celebrates more than a hundred years of Emancipation, Crawford is urging Guyanese everywhere to remember one of the main principles of the occasion. That is Harambee, a Swahili word which means pull together. As Crawford stated, “I would say Harambee Guyanese people. I won’t say Bagotvilians, but I would say Guyanese people, Harambee, pull together.”