THIS is the first Emancipation Day since the September 2025 general elections. Those elections have unleashed a phenomenal transformation in the political temperament of African Guyanese. The 2025 election results have shown how deep three changes Guyana have seen over the years.
One is that demographic movements in the Guyanese population have given birth to an ocean of young people. The African population in 2025, like the Indian population, is not tied any longer to the apron strings of their parents. This young population is now living inside a zeitgeist that has no resemblance to the 1970s and 1980s. They are not susceptible to race-baiting. What happened in 2025 among Africans was that the issue was more important than the race of the candidate.
The second change is that African Guyanese no longer see the PNC as the embodiment of their instincts. Two factors could be responsible for this. One is the mountainous failure of the PNC to effect far reaching changes in the Guyanese society for the five years it was in power from 2015-2020. The other factor is the pessimism that has crept into the minds of African Guyanese about the future of the PNC.
Finally, the third changing thing in Guyana is the rejection of a school of African leaders (PNC, WPA, AFC, ACDA, UG lecturers, journalists and a number of professional individuals) that the young African population realised how barefaced these leaders were in fooling them. The 2025 election results demonstrated the extent to which African Guyanese were disgusted with their leaders.
The current set of young Guyanese we have cannot be so easily fooled and by some weird psychic contortion, these African leaders that seek to deceive them feel that they can spin the most fabled, idiotic stories and African Guyanese will believe them. There is no parallel in modern post-Independence Guyana that matches this theatre of clowns and carnival of vulgarity.
Just two examples should suffice. African spokesperson, Henry Jeffrey, noted that in the 2020 election, the PPP rigged the voting in nine of the ten Regions in Guyana in which the percentage started from 30 percent to seventy percent. Aubrey Norton told his interviewer that the PPP rigged the 2025 election.
Now, which moron will believe Norton since the PPP rigged it and gave WIN a whopping 16 seats. Which African Guyanese believes Jeffrey and Norton? What they believe is that both men just wanted to fool them. In this context then, Emancipation Day 2026 has seen the liberation of the African race in Guyana.
The emancipation of the African Guyanese from failed leaders which began in 2025 will see some unsavory moments as the years unfold. The entire gamut of failed African leaders has not recovered from the devastating trauma of 2025. What we see in them is false attempt to appear normal. But they cannot. The electoral massacre was too psychically piercing. It is going to take a long time to recover.
In order to stave off the increasing disappearing of their existence, these failed leaders will hold on to anything they can get to keep them alive. My contestation is that tragedy big or small, disaster big or small, national controversies big or small, these events will be used by these disappearing leaders to make a pitch for resuscitation. Take Nigel Hughes. He was silent since the September 2025 election. Now we see Nigel making statements about the murder accused in the MV Barima tragedy.
I had no doubt in my mind that the ferry tragedy was a golden moment for them. The opposition had absolutely no intention of entering parliament, bowing their heads in prayer and talking to the nation about the tragedy. The plan was hatched days before. Move in, create confusion and get maximum publicity. Last Monday’s pyrotechnics in Parliament had nothing to do with the victims of who perished in the ferry incident.
Last Wednesday’s display in Parliament was about staying alive. Maybe someone in the gallery should have taken his mobile stereo and while they were parading, play the Bee Gees’ mega-hit, “Staying Alive” from the movie Jesus Christ, Superstar. Guyana in 2025 witnessed the emancipation of the African mind. No one in the young African population takes David Hinds seriously. No one in the young African population thinks Aubrey Norton is a competent political leader. No one in the young African population thinks David Granger was an effective president.
And so, the story goes; the age of Forbes Burnham, Hamilton Green, Desmond Hoyte, David Granger, the WPA, ACDA, mo fyaah/slo fyaah, cussing down other people because of their races are all gone. It is anyone’s guess which next event these disappearing African leaders will milk in order to stay alive.
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.
