I HAVE always argued throughout my life that a historian’s approach to people, places, events and life is different from all other skill sets. The difference is the historian is driven by the obsession to leave things to history that become indelible. Historians are obsessed with wanting people to leave something to history.
A good example is a photograph. You show someone a photo of a great human on a beach front, and they would appreciate what they saw but the historian would ask questions about the background that a non-historian would not be interested in.
Simply put – the historian wants to record history which is not what a non-historian is usually interested in. For this reason, I have this thing about my country that Guyana needs to put down a historical template full of people who shape the Guyana we are part of today and who contributed in prodigious ways to the modern existence of Guyana.
I studied at two universities in Canada and every library in two schools was named after someone who was an achiever at the two universities. In the outside world, people tend to take a more than superficial interest in history than us in Guyana. In the outside world, there is a rush to name things after a nation’s great contributors.
The colonials did it. They left their legacies, however tarnished, for us colonial subjects to swallow and those contorted legacies are ubiquitous in Guyana. I grew up in Wortmanville on Hadfield Street and D’urban Street. All three places were named after colonial officials.
The former founder of the Stabroek News, David DeCaires once took objection to colonial emblazons being changed. He argued that in doing so, you are tampering with Guyana’s past. I don’t accept that. DeCaires overlooked the origin and context of the colonial appellations. Why should a country invaded by a European empire, suffered slavery, indentureship and colonial pillage have permanent names of the brutal exploiters that will remain forever? We did tamper with history when Burnham rightfully changed Murray Street to Quamina Street. Murray hanged slaves. Quamina fought for the freedom of slaves. That tampering was justified.
One of the nicest Guyanese and one of the most wonderful politicians I have ever met was the former Minister of Public Works in the premiership of Cheddi Jagan, EMG Wilson. He once commissioned a ferry not with champagne but the cracking of a coconut. Everyone in the PPP, from Premier Jagan to his wife to the ordinary member called him Coco.
Who knows Coco in today’s Guyana? So, Hadfield Street remains. D’Urban Street remains. But there is no EMG Wilson Street. How can we treat our history so flippantly? A former colony cannot and should not do that. I once asked a young reporter in Kaieteur News if she knew who Father Andrew Morrison was. She said she didn’t. He remains one of Guyana’s most admirable and courageous journalists.
I would not want to see the Railway Embankment change. That is our history. The train ran through that pathway when Guyana was a colony. But I cannot see why we continue to refuse to honour our outstanding achievers. After 60 years of Independence, we have to capture and preserve the names that remain obscured but deserve to be highlighted.
The injustice being done to Guyana’s phenomenal humans should come to an end. We have to respect 60 years of Independence by leaving the imprints of those who walked tall in this country. There are meaningless names of main arteries in Georgetown that should go. It is time they go.
Think of North Road and South Road. Former president, Desmond Hoyte forsook the official state residence and lived at his personal home on North Road as President. Name the street after him. There must have been some outstanding Guyanese that once lived on South Road; gave the street his/her name.
There can be no deeper injustice than what currently happens to Janet Jagan. She came to this country as a young woman and stayed here for the rest of her life eventually becoming President. Mrs. Jagan has few rivals in the world as an indomitable woman that fought against colonialism and post-colonial autocracy. Guyana has to name something after her.
I thought when St. George’s School and Christ Church School were rebuilt after being destroyed by fire, we would have changed their names. There must be some profound achievers in education whose names should adorn the face of those two schools.
To achieve transparency and accountability, the government should set up a committee comprising a wide cross section of the society to select Guyanese and foreigners that should have streets, highways, and public places named after them. There should be prestigious scholarships in their names too. It is time to do so.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
