GUYANESE of all ethnicities and backgrounds, in the Greater Toronto Area, converged at the Consulate General of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana in Toronto, on Tuesday evening, in observance of Emancipation Day.
Emancipation Day, which marks the anniversary of the declared end of the enslavement of Africans by European Colonial powers, was being held at a time when Guyana’s diverse population was already galvanised in support of the victims of the recent national tragedy in Guyana, sinking of the MV Barima ferry, that took the lives of over 100 Guyanese, including many children.
Honorary Consul Mr. Mani Singh led the audience in a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the MV Barima tragedy.
The featured speaker, Guyana-born veteran Educator and University of Guyana Alumni, Mr. Reginald Thompson, delivered a moving and inspiring presentation on the lives of Guyana’s African ancestors, who were forcefully brought in chains to lands in the Caribbean, North America and other parts of the world to endure hundreds of years of captivity as mere property/chattels of various European colonial masters; their names, culture, religion, history, and freedom, all willfully stripped away from them forever.
Diaspora stalwart, Ms. Gillian Williams, who emceed the proceedings, read the Land Acknowledgement and a heartfelt poem written by the outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, titled, ‘Dance for Drums of Freedom’.
Honorary Consul Singh, who brought greetings on behalf of President of Guyana, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, reflected on the brutal and cruel Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the eventual abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom Parliament in 1833, and in the United States some three decades later in 1866.
Singh noted that the evil system of slavery by European colonisers was ongoing for about 400 years in Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, and other parts of the Caribbean, and can be described as one of the worst examples of “Mankind’s cruelty towards their fellow men.”
The Honorary Consul noted that it is fitting that August 1 is a national holiday in Guyana and other parts of the world, so that the pain and sacrifices the African ancestors experienced should never be forgotten.
Among those attending the event were the parents of President Ali: Mr. Osman Ali and Mrs. Bibi Ali; many leaders of various diaspora organisations in the GTA and Guyana-born, Mr. Ashmeed Khan, Mayoral Candidate for the Town of Ajax— a community just outside of Toronto.
