Guyana chronicle emancipation suppliment 01 08 14

Happy

Emancipation Day!

EMANCIPATION was the most important break in the chain of bondage; the first step towards many other great things in Guyana, including the move towards the goal of nation building.

Freedom Day marks the anniversary of that very first Emancipation Day, August 1, 1834 when the heinous system of slavery was outlawed in the British West Indian colonies.

Emancipation is a celebration for all Guyanese, but even more so for our African brothers and sisters as their foreparents fought for freedom 250 years ago in the Berbice Revolt led by Kofi; 190 years ago in the Demerara Revolt inspired by Kwamina; 179 years ago in the Essequibo Revolt led by Damon; and in so many other places at many other periods in our history.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Emancipation fever grips the city in wild jubilation

By Alex Wayne

THIS time around, it appears as if, for some strange reason, a certain ‘Emancipation Fever’ has taken a hold of the entire city, as was evident in the wild jubilation and festivities that have erupted in almost ever corner of Georgetown.

The drummers from Victoria, Buxton and other areas have come out in their numbers, filling the air with the almost sensual rhythms and pulsating beats that seem to stir up a broiling response as the drums beckoned and teased the very inner soul.

Churches have also come out to unfurl the African traditions and beliefs with great drumming and singing of old African folks songs as large crowds gather to witness the dances of the Congo, the moves of Ethiopia and prancing from Ghana, shaking the earth to its very bowels with a vast celebration of Mother Africa.

Strangely, the minibus parks are now transformed into an ‘Emancipation Melee’, with conductors, drivers and touts alike dancing and celebrating to riveting drum beats coming from stereo sounds on which the ‘Call of Africa’ was recorded on CDs. The celebrations had engulfed the Plaisance and Sophia Bus Parks, but were at its climax on the East Coast Bus Park that accommodates buses plying the Georgetown to Berbice routes, and those operating the Georgetown to Victoria, Ann’s Grove and Mahaica routes.

Almost every vehicle was blasting ‘Emancipation sounds’, and persons liming on the bus parks or awaiting transportation were treated to intriguing drumming at the hands of traditionally clad drummers from the East Coast of Demerara.

As was noted, passers-by were throwing dollar bills into boxes provided with gleeful satisfied smiles, signalling that they were in absolute approval of the fact that the drummers were celebrating and taking the African tradition to the next level.

On the East Coast bus park, a new form of entertainment was being conjured up by the bus driver/conductors, in that they blasted music from a medium-sized stereo, and faced off

–bus parks erupt

with each other to decide who can best perform the traditional dances of Africa. And onlookers were treated to quite a spectacle when at least three ‘junkies’ began arguing about who can best perform the Dance of the Congos.

To still the raucous laughter, bus drivers decided to have

‘Supa Kirt’, left, and his drummers keep the Emancipation tradition alive outside the East Coast Bus Park

them engage in a ‘Bus Park Emancipation Face Off’, which dictated that the one who performed the best would be the one that onlookers would cast more coins and dollar notes for.

This in itself drew quite a large crowd, since two junkies having no apparent experience with the drums plunged into some theatrics that had some women gleefully questioning if they were being chased by

ghosts or bitten by a nest full of ‘red ants’. Loud wailing and laughter rang out for miles around, as the men turned up the heat, executing some comical moves that made them appear as if they were going into a fit, or caught in the grips of incessant vomiting.

Some spectators cheered the contenders on, while most of the gathering was laughing until tears streamed down their cheeks. Others were clutching their sides, which must have been definitely aching from hysterical laughter.

However, one ‘jet black junkie’ the drivers referred to as ‘Black Stallion’ stayed connected to his African roots, and put on a showcase of quite excellent dancing customarily associated with Emancipation celebrations here in Guyana. Of course, he was declared the winner, and received the most monetary donations, as the crowd applauded and took photos of him on their cellular phones.

Stopping to chat with ‘Supa Kirt’, who was the lead drummer in a group from Buxton, this publication was informed that the drummers were proud of showcasing their African traditions, and took pleasure in being able to please their fans and other spectators.

He explained that while they indeed accepted cash incentives from persons, they were however more concerned with keeping the Emancipation festivities alive in the city. “This is what we do, and we really enjoy doing it,” ‘Supa Kirt’ said, adding: “The drums keep us alive and keep us connected to our African roots. Being a drummer for over ten years, I have become married to the drums, to the beats, and to the African rhythms.

“Through the sound of the drums, we stay connected to Mother Africa, and manage to share and promote our African beliefs. Now that its Emancipation time again, we are more than excited to be able to bring the sound of the drums to the city.

“African people need to keep focused, and believe in their traditions. We are not here for the money, since we enjoy what we do; but we do accept it when persons throw a ‘small piece’ into the money boxes. At least it rewards us for a job well done.”

And as I trekked through the city of Georgetown, I could not help but tingle at the beat of the African drums, and smile endearingly at the many persons who were gaily attired in their customary Emancipation wear. Emancipation 2014 is definitely in the air!

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Man’s unconquerable mind

By Parvati Persaud-Edwards THE Guyanese nationality is a rich amalgam of diverse cultures and religions woven into a complex tapestry, of which the common denominator is the suffering that foreshadowed our emergence into a Republic.

The abolition of slavery preceded the introduction of the indenture system to British Guiana, and the cessation of both should be celebrated in a national context, because this was the genesis of the Guyanese nation. Our past, present, and future endeavours are intricately interwoven and cannot succeed without an ethos of unity.

After the slaves were freed, the colonials imported contracted workers, including Africans.Our sharing of events began even before the Guyana experience, for it is in Africa that the greatest Indian of all times, Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhiji, began his freedom struggle by fighting for liberation against the discriminatory apartheid system.

Sustaining livelihoods through farming and marketing produce after the abolition of slavery

out by the Colonials to the African slaves has few parallels.

Sugar cane was discovered in the year 325 BCE, during the invasion of India by one of Alexander the Great’s soldiers. The Arabs brought it to Egypt, Persia, and Spain when they conquered that country in the eighth century. From the latter country, Columbus, on his Second Voyage, brought cuttings which were planted in the Dominican Republic of the West Indies. He had made another important discovery in the form of a climate and soil perfect for growing sugar cane.

The Spanish tried to enslave the indigenous people (whom we today call Amerindians) of these colonies, but their freedom-loving spirit would not allow this; so, in 1510, the Spanish King, Ferdinand, sanctioned the transportation of a large vessel of African slaves, commencing a dark period of dehumanisation which lasted over 300 years.

Tyranny will always find a ready defence, and as one noted English political personality of the period opined, “The impossibility of doing without slaves in the West Indies will always prevent the traffic from being dropped. The absolute necessity of carrying on must, since there is no other, be its excuse.” And, with the secure knowledge of the complicity of African tribals, who bartered their own countrymen for baubles, one British

Scars from his “massa’s whip

dah Equiano, who used his mighty pen to fight his people’s battle; the maroons of Jamaica, who defied the Colonials by running away and forming the first black community in the colonies; and our own Kofi, Damon, and others, who flow through history like the Nile through Egypt.

Longfellow wrote in the ‘The Slave’s Dream’, Verse 1 of which reads: “Beside the ungathered rice (cane) he lay, his sickle in his hand/His breast was bare, his mattled hair was buried in the sand/again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,

On the auction – “For sale, a man”

Slavery is a relative term. One can be enslaved by love, hate, societal mores, the defects in one’s own psyche and within the boundaries of one’s limitations; but an enslavement where one human being is levelled to the equal, and below, of a beast of burden is a degradation both to the oppressed and the oppressor, for while one allows the bestiality of his physical being, the other displays bestiality of a mind, domineered by a greed and godlessness which, perhaps, is a worse enslavement.

The history of the middle-passage is much written of and well-documented, but it is our foreparents whose forbearance and courage in the face of domination and attempted domination of their physical, mental, and spiritual beings with whom we are concerned and honouring today.

In 1829, a 300-ton sailing ship weighed anchor from a port in Mozambique on the East Coast of Africa, bound for Cuba with its priceless cargo of bartered items: 800 men, women, and children, naked, shaven, branded, and chained, with all packed, spoon-wise, in the hold and above deck. 800 souls that, prior to the shattering of their dreams and their lives, had been fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, all reduced to units of miserable flesh that had value now only according to their work-capacity. All other factors that made them individual members of the human race had been eradicated by their capture and enslavement.

Conditions aboard lent themselves to a situation where, before the ship reached port, 320 priceless lives had been lost to the dreaded scourge of smallpox.

Slavery was not a new development then; it had been a recurrent evil in the annals of history. But the brutality meted

Lord boasted, “As to the supply of Negroes, we have such a decided superiority in the African trade that it is allowed we have slaves one- sixth cheaper.”

A nation which calmly accepted the enslavement and inhuman treatment of its own innocent children were not a people noted for their overwhelming humanity, but the English, having descended to the levels of the perpetration of the greatest evil, also ascended to the heights of the greatest good. And it is outstanding Englishmen and women whose bitter opposition led to the abolition of the slave trade, and the eventual emancipation of those already enslaved.

They used every possible means in their efforts toward this end, and as one advertisement read: “B Henderson Warehouse respectfully informs the Friends of Africa that she has on sale an assortment of sugar basins labeled in gold letters East India Sugar Not Made by Slaves.”

It continued, “A family that uses 5 lbs of sugar per week will, by using East Indian instead of West Indian for 21 months, prevent the slavery or murder of one fellow creature.

Eight such families in 19 ½ years will prevent the slavery or murder of 100.”

The landscape of the African Diaspora is emblazoned with a constellation of stars such as Henri Christophe, whose sword cleaved a way to his country’s freedom; Toussaint L’Ouverture, of whom Wordsworth wrote, “There’s not a breathing of the common wind/Thy friends are exultations, agonies/ and love, and Man’s unconquerable mind;” Olau-

he saw his native land/” and verse 6,7 and 8 which read, ”At night he heard the lion roar, and the hyena scream/and reeds beside some hidden stream/and like a glorious roll of drums, through the triumph of his dream. “the forests, with their myriad tongues, shouted of liberty/ and the blast of the desert cried aloud, with a voice so wild and free/That he started in his sleep and smiled at their tempestuous glee/.

“He did not feel the driver’s whip, nor the burning heat of day/ For death had illuminated the land of sleep, and his lifeless body lay/freed of the iron fetter that the soul had broken and thrown away.”

In a situation where dreams and death occasioned the only freedom from utmost cruelty and abject servility of the total being, perhaps none of us could possess the depth of insight to visualise the sheer guts, to put it vulgarly, yet graphically, it took a people, born into conditions of subjection and degradation, to rise above their own traumas and courageously carve a path of freedom whereon their descendants could stride with pride and dignity.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

The end of slavery THE campaign for the end of slavery gained momentum in Great Britain, and it was expected that slaves in the British colonies would soon be set free.

Finally, on August 28, 1833, the House of Commons in England approved the Emancipation Bill which was earlier introduced by Thomas Buxton.

cipation Order, that precipitated the slave revolt of 1823.

Governor Smyth, however, had informed the slaves of the freedom date fixed

by Britain even before that Act was pub-

Emancipation Act was the condition which bound most of the freed slaves to their former masters until 1840, and which required them to work on the masters’ estates seven-and-a-half hours each day, for

The final Act, which would come into effect on August 1, 1834, stipulated that: 1. Immediate and effective measures would be taken for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies.

2. All children born under the passing of the Act, or under the age of six, shall be free.

3. All slaves over the age of six years would have to serve an apprenticeship of six years in the case of field slaves, and four years in the case of others.

4. Apprentices should work for not more than 45 hours per week without pay, and any additional hours for pay.

5. Apprentices should be provided with food and clothing by the plantation owner.

6. Funds should be provided for an efficient stipendiary magistracy, and for the moral and religious education of the exslaves.

7. Compensation in the form of a free gift of 20 million English pounds should be paid to the slave owners for the loss of their slaves.

The Emancipation Act successfully ended one phase of a long and bitter struggle against a system which transformed people into beasts of labour, with absolutely no human rights. Actually, slave society regarded the African slaves as mules, and even referred to the offspring of a European and an African female slave as a “mulatto”, meaning literally a “young mule”.

FREEDOM, AT LAST! As one phase of Guyana’s colonial society came to an end, an equally difficult period began. The slaves were told of their forthcoming freedom, and waited with eager joy to throw off their cruel chains and, in some cases, even more cruel masters.

It will be recalled that the East Coast Demerara rebellion of 1823, led by Quamina and implicating Rev. John Smith, was largely fuelled by the feeling that the planters were deliberately withholding news of the impending freedom of the slaves. In 1833, however, Governor James Carmichael Smyth did not make the same mistakes as John Murray did ten years earlier when he failed to make public a circular from Britain, proposing certain improvements in the conditions under which slaves lived and worked in British colonies. It was this document, which the slaves mistook at that time for the Eman-

A section of the Emancipation Bill

lished in the colony on October 19, 1833.

However, he did not explain clearly to the slaves the implications of the apprenticeship system, which was to succeed slavery.

There were some planters who were unwilling to comply with the Emancipation Act. Some Berbice planters announced their intention to remove their slaves immediately to Nickerie in Suriname before the Emancipation Act came into force, so as to avoid its effect. Suriname did not abolish slavery until 1863.

It must be noted that attached to the

six days each week of the year. On news of their emancipation, the slaves were either too overjoyed to note this binding condition, or did not fully understand what it meant.

Their masters, who were generally bitter about it, and in opposition to emancipation, avoided all discussions and preparations for the changed status of the slaves on August 1, 1834.

A RUDE AWAKENING The long-awaited day, Friday, August

1, 1834, finally arrived. It was a public holiday, and many Africans who were now Christians attended religious services. Others danced in their homes, in their yards and in the streets, and the merry-making continued late into the night.

But a rude shock awaited all the exslaves early the following morning when they were ordered back to the fields and other workplaces. This caused great confusion, since they failed to understand how they could have gained their freedom and still be forced to work in their detested old posts.

But this condition was part of the Emancipation Act -- an Apprenticeship period of six years -- where the freed slaves were compelled by law to serve their old masters just as they had done when they were slaves. The masters were required to provide moral and religious education for the ex-slaves, but the planters’ hostility to the Emancipation Act as a whole really meant that they would treat this six-year period as an extension of slavery, even though the working hours were greatly reduced to seven-and-a-half hours a day instead of the nine and ten hours they formerly demanded of each slave.

There was disorder on the East Coast of Demerara, and grumbling throughout the colony in this first week of August.

The Governor appeared personally in various places to address workers, and explain the obligations which now fell upon them.

The planters called for marital law, no doubt hoping to by-pass the Emancipation Act altogether. But Governor Carmichael Smyth refused this request.

Confusion and disorder broke out on the West Coast Demerara, and on August 8, four women were sentenced to the treadmill for riotous behaviour and refusal to work. Five men were sentenced to two days each on the treadmill, and thirty-nine strokes with the cat-o’nine-tails.

The Governor visited West Coast Demerara, and brought some amount of order and understanding to the workers.

COMPENSATION With the end of slavery, the plantation owners in Guyana received very high compensation from the British Government for the “loss” of their slaves. For each slave, they received an average of 52 English pounds, which was the highest amount paid in any British colony. For a headman or driver, slave owners received as much as 230 English pounds. On the other hand, the ex-slaves, who had laboured to produce wealth for the planters and the colonial Government, received not a single cent in compensation.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

The Museum of African Heritage…

Come, enjoy the ‘African Experience’!

ARE you interested in learning about African styles and traditions that have been brought to Guyana and adapted to the environment? Then come, enjoy the ‘African experience’ with a visit to the Museum of African Heritage that sits at Lot 13 Barima Avenue, Bel Air, Georgetown.

Formerly called the Museum of African Art and Ethnology, the museum was founded in the year 1985 with the purchase of the collections of African Art of Mr. Hubert H Nicholson and Mrs. Desiree Malik.

These collections were annotated and accessioned through

UNESCO by Dr. William Seligman, Curator of African and Oceanic Art, Brooklyn Museum.

In 2001, the Museum was renamed in order to open its doors to a wider audience, and begin to fully address the African experience in Guyana.

It seeks to promote and make the museum accessible to students, researchers, and the general public; market the museum in the African Culture; provide proper storage for the collections; and expand the collections in keeping with the mission statement of the museum.

Inside the Museum of African Heritage

“The Museum of African Heritage is a non-profit institution, created by the Government of Guyana to collect, preserve, exhibit and research art and artifacts relating to Africa and the African experience in Guyana, and to disseminate this knowledge through its out-reach programme,” reads the Mission Statement.

Donations from the local community have included art and craft brought from African Communities right here in Guyana.

The central figure is a kneeling woman with a child on her back. On either side are kneeling women holding their breasts as a sign of respect and devotion. Carved above them are figures of Shango on horseback

The Museum has collected pieces from the Burrowes School of Art, and other day-to-day artifacts from local communities.

The existing collection includes many examples of African Art, mostly West Africa, from the Wooden Mask, to the carved door of secret societies. Much of the art in the collection is an example of the kind of art objects found in West Africa, and help to educate as to the meanings and reasons behind African art traditions.

Also in the collection are more practical pieces like the brass weights used for measuring gold dust, drums, musical instruments, games and clothing. More recent donations include a wooden replica of the 1763 Monument.

Researchers and visitors are welcome anytime during normal opening hours, but school tours must be organised in advance by letter or on telephone number 226 5519. The opening times are Monday to Thursday 8:00 - 16:30hrs, and Friday 8:00– 15:30hrs.

The African Museum of Heritage is the first of its kind in the Caribbean. (Telesha Ramnarine)

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Don’t

lose sight of real meaning of

THE First of August Movement of Buxton (FAM) salutes African Guyanese on this 176th Emancipation anniversary. Despite many challenges since 1838, African Guyanese have persevered, and have made an equal contribution to Guyana, the Caribbean, and the world.

As we celebrate this historic occasion, we must not lose sight of the real meaning of Emancipation: Freedom from servitude.

Since 1838, Africans in Guyana and the rest of the Diaspora have had to contend with the consequences of the long years of enslavement. Although slavery formally came to an end in 1838, the institutions and culture that nurtured slavery remained intact, albeit in modified forms.

All Guyanese should use this Emancipation anniversary to recommit ourselves to a society free from servitude and oppression of any kind, and one that lives out, in word and deed, the Emancipation covenant of equal freedom and justice.

As a Village Organisation, the FAM is deeply concerned about the state of Villages. Many villages have deteriorated into a state of disrepair -- physically, socially, economically and culturally. This, we feel, is a desecration of the Emancipation spirit and intent. We feel that Villages, which came into being as a direct consequence of

Emancipation

Emancipation, still have a role to play as economic units and socio-cultural centres.

We, therefore, use this Emancipation anniversary to urge Villagers all over Guyana to launch a Village Renewal drive aimed at restoring our villages, which are our ancestors’ gift to us, to their former glory.

The First of August Movement will set the

–FAM

ball rolling with a Forum on the State of our village, Buxton, and the State of African Guyanese in general.

This Forum, which is organised in collaboration with the Cuffy 250 group, will be held on August 17 at the Friendship Primary School, beginning at 1 pm.

It will bring together Village leaders and

other African Guyanese leaders and thinkers to lead the discussion on subjects such as Education, Economics. Violence and Youth Empowerment.

David Hinds, First of August Movement of Buxton (FAM) Emancipation

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Reflections on Emancipation

By Tota C. Mangar THIS month of August, 2014 marks the 180th anniversary of Emancipation. It was on August 1, 1834, that the despicable system of slavery was abolished in all British colonies including Guyana, the former British Guiana.

Such a development emerged as a consequence of intense and persistent struggle, sacrifice and resistance by the victims themselves, along with the valiant efforts of energetic supporters such as religious leaders, humanitarians, politicians and enlightened individuals of the day.

Our history tells us that our Afro-Guyanese forefathers were first brought here to provide enslaved labour during the early decades of the 17th Century by the Dutch in their quest

for settlement and colonisation. This was part of a wider and forced movement of people from the continent of Africa to the West Indian islands and the Americas which started more than a century earlier.

Slavery in the New World was institutionalised by the Europeans, on the grounds of economic necessity through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The end-result was that millions of Africans were uprooted from their homeland through trickery, kidnapping, raids, bribery and other forms of deception, and taken, against their will, to these parts where they found themselves in the monstrous system of plantation slavery.

In order to justify their actions, Europeans quite arrogantly argued that slavery was in existence in Africa even before they made contact with that continent. But, let me hasten to say that

the slavery which existed in Africa before the advent of New World slavery was a completely different system; it was more or less a social institution. Africans saw it as an honour and obligation to give service to their rulers in the army, in agriculture, in construction works and other areas of development.

It was a relatively humane system, which permitted upward social mobility, and enhanced dignity and pride.

On the contrary, the slavery that emerged in the West Indies and the Americas, due to European imposition, was characterised by greed, injustice, cruelty and gross exploitation. There was nothing humane about the system, and the victims were reduced to the status of ‘properties or things’ of their masters.

It is little wonder that prominent African scholar, Dr. Ajayi, aptly states that it is absurd to use the same word “slavery” to describe the two systems: The humane social institution in existence in Africa, as against the very oppressive economic institution which unfolded in the New World as a consequence of European imposition.

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade and plantation slavery were degrading, demoralising and dehumanising to the victims in every sense of the word. From the very outset, it required supreme sacrifice, and valiant struggle to survive this obviously harsh and oppressive system.

It was not surprising, therefore, that resistance quickly became an integral part of the system. Our fore-parents resisted capture on the African continent itself; they adopted innovative methods of resistance on board the overcrowded slave ships while crossing the Middle or Atlantic Passage; and on the plantations, they justifiably intensified their resistance to the system of enslaved labour.

Those varied forms of passive and active resistance clearly demonstrated their determination as a people, and their non-compliance with the evils of bondage and oppression.

Malingering, feigning illness or ignorance, hunger strike, deliberately doing poor work, self-inflicted actions, damage to master’s property, maroonage, and slave rebellions were all part of the strategy to undermine the economic, social, political and cultural dominance the master class enjoyed at the expense of the victims.

The 1763 Berbice Revolt, and the heroic efforts of Cuffy, Atta, Accabre and others must certainly have been an inspiration to many in the cause of Emancipation. The same could be said of other slave rebellions, including the 1823 East Coast Insurrection, which vividly illustrated the slaves’ desire for freedom.

These very actions of the enslaved Africans undoubtedly instilled fear and uncertainty in the minds of the plantocracy.

Above all, they contributed significantly in complementing the efforts of those within the Anti-Slavery Movement to sensitise and mould public opinion in the furtherance of Emancipation.

In the final analysis, the ongoing struggle, sacrifice and resistance bore fruit, as the British Emancipation Act was passed in 1833, and came into force on August 1, 1834, bringing to an end the atrocious system of slavery, which, for centuries, had brought so much pain, suffering and bitterness.

As a matter of fact, at midnight of July 31, 1834, an estimated three-quarters of a million men, women and children Turn to page IX

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Reflections on... ceased to be slaves. In the case of Guyana, it meant that approximately 85,000 enslaved Africans became ‘partially freed’ in 1834. It was considered ‘partially freed’, because, in reality, it was not ‘full freedom’ in the initial stage.

The Emancipation Act catered for a period of transition, called the apprenticeship system, under which the ex-slaves were apprenticed to their former masters. This apprenticeship system lasted for four years (1834-1838), before ‘full freedom’ was achieved.

During this period, the apprentices had to provide compulsory unpaid labour to the extent of three-quarters the working week for their former masters, while the remaining quarter working week they were expected to earn wages.

By opting for the apprenticeship period, the British Government intended to have a smooth transition from slavery to full freedom. It also wanted to ensure a continuous labour supply to plantation owners, thereby ensuring the survival of the dominant sugar industry.

Indeed, the piece of legislation which ended slavery hinted at momentous, far-reaching changes in the society. It transformed the legal status of more than 80 per cent of the population by abolishing the legal oddity of property in person, and by substituting equality for all before the law.

It altered the labour base of the society by substituting a wage labour system for unpaid slave labour. It outlined the basis for the existence of a greatly enlarged body of free persons, by removing the legal authority which had, over the years, enabled a small elite group (the planters) to exercise unlimited arbitrary power over the activities and lives of the overwhelming majority (enslaved Africans).

In reality, Emancipation and Apprenticeship created numerous problems. The ex-slaves, quite rightly, could not understand why they had to be apprenticed to their former masters, and at the same time being told that they were free.

Planters made life more difficult for them by adopting an increasingly hostile attitude. They wanted to extract as much labour out of the apprentices before the period was over. They arbitrarily deducted wage rates, and even withdrew basic supplies. They indulged in unjust provocation, and apprentices had to fend for themselves. They brazenly practised many features of slavery.

This state of affairs led to the heroic passive resistance by Damon and his followers on the Essequibo Coast in 1834, and by labourers elsewhere. It was not surprising, therefore, that the system of Apprenticeship came to a premature end in 1838, and full freedom was eventually achieved.

Undoubtedly, the ex-slaves had high hopes, aspirations and expectations with the coming of Emancipation. Their mass exodus from the plantations during the critical period of “crisis, experimentation and change” is testimony to this.

Several decades of cruelty and injustice under the slavery system had resulted in the plantation being seen as the symbol of dehumanization, degradation and demoralization as far as the victims were concerned.

They quite naturally wanted to rid themselves of planter class social, cultural and political domination and at the same time they were very keen to assert their economic independence largely through agricultural activities. They wanted to start life afresh and with dignity and pride.

In spite of the tremendous difficulties these freed men faced it was with great determination and enthusiasm that they embarked on the village movement commencing with the admirable communal purchase of Northbrook (now Victoria) and other abandoned estates countrywide. Through their laudable efforts many communal and even proprietary villages emerged.

Within a few years after emancipation the African village population had by far outnumbered that of the estates. Associated with this was their cash crop cultivation which resulted in a vibrant and rapidly expansive peasantry.

In the face of planter class antagonism, inadequate finance for capital investment and infrastructural development, periodic flooding and destruction of crops, exorbitant land prices and high rentals, virtually non-existent transportation and marketing facilities, restrictive ordinances and some unsympathetic administrators, the ex-slaves and their descendants persisted in the 19th century.

It was the free village life which initiated development in many rural communities such as the establishment of churches, schools, roads, bridges, sea defence structures, drainage and

From page VIII

irrigation canals and of added significance, village management. The latter was local democracy in its infancy stage.

Emancipation Month is certainly an occasion for rejoicing and at the same time one for sober reflection. Our Afro-Guyanese fore-fathers who endured slavery with all its viciousness have paid the supreme sacrifice through their toils, perils and lives to help lay the foundation for our country’s development.

Their descendants have over the years given, and continue to give, invaluable contribution to every sphere of activity including the social, economic, cultural and political fields.

Some of our very prominent politicians, religious leaders, trade unionists, professionals, agriculturalists, miners, sports personalities, businessmen, artistes, industrialists and the like, are descendants of those Africans who dedicated their lives for betterment.

This is clearly a time for us to take inspiration as we strenuously strive for full national unity so necessary for our country’s continued progress and the well-being of all Guyanese.

We should be heartened by the active roles of our local and regional Reparatory Committees in the furtherance of reparatory justice and within the framework of development cooperation during the last few months. Only last week Caricom Reparations Commission Chairman and Pro Vice- Chancellor, UWI Cave Hill, Professor Sir Hillary Beckles , in addressing the House of Commons in the British Parliament ,argued that Great Britain has a moral obligation to compensate Caribbean nations for the evils associated with slavery.

I salute our African brothers and sisters and indeed all Guyanese on the occasion of our 180th Anniversary of Emancipation. Happy Emancipation month to one and all!

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Victoria was the first village in Guyana to be bought by the combined re

VICTORIA VILLAGE:

By Alex Wayne Victoria is a village with serene simplicity and a rich historical background.

Musing over the features of the many beautiful villages secluded in the nooks and crevices of our breath-taking Guyana, we decided to visit Victoria on the East Coast of Demerara.

A historic entice

place.

A memorial tablet was placed in the church honouring William Africa Baptiste, known as ‘Boss Africa’, who became accepted as the Father of Victoria Village. Despite his literary limitations, Boss Africa became the first school master of the village and began teaching in the Wilberforce Church. He died in 1881 at the age of 92 years. There is a plaque

ance and distinct aura of simplicity of Victoria Village.

A natural quiet seemed to envelop the entire village, even though there were a few groups liming here and there, some chatting by the roadside while others waiting for minibuses to take them to the city of Georgetown.

And that was not all, there seemed to be such satisfaction and contentment on the faces of villagers as they went about their chores or busied themselves in their little kitchen gardens.

There was no fuss or bitter complaints; and many, on realizing that members of the media were in their village, made extra effort to ensure we were well received, even escorting us around the village.

As we moved around, we were hailed by young men playing cards under tamarind trees, and they seemed not to have a care in the world, judging by their gruff masculine chatter and raucous laughter.

Little girls were either purchasing kerosene oil at the Guyoil Gas Station on the Public Road, or rushing to the many small stalls to purchase egg balls, pulouri, or channa under their mothers’ watchful eyes.

Everything about this village was simple and eye-catching. From its quaint little shops to its giggling breadfruit selling mothers, or merry laughter of young children chasing each other in the sun, Victoria was certainly an enticing spectacle for those who adored the simpler side of life and the quaint, quiet existence.

Food vendor Yonette Graham is content with her humble profession for the past seventeen years

Location and history

Victoria is located on the Atlantic Coast of Guyana, 18 miles east of Georgetown. It is bordered by the villages of Cove and John to the west, and the now well established Belfield to the east.

It was the first village in Guyana to be bought by the combined resources of Africans who had recently won their freedom from slavery.

The community was initially established as a plantation called Northbrook.

In November 1839, eighty-three ex-slaves from five nearby estates (Douchfour, Ann’s Grove, Hope, Paradise and Enmore) pooled their resources and bought Plantation Northbrook for 30,000 guilders or $10,283.63. Each of the eighty-three owned one lot of land.

After its purchase, Plantation Northbrook was renamed Victoria, presumably in honour of the English Queen Victoria, although some suggest it may have been named as such in honour of the freed slaves’ victory.

Victoria is credited with one of the first codes of local government in Guyana, established in 1845. The village grew up to become one of the leading exporters of products made from coconuts and cassava.

The first church built there, a Congregationalist church named after William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was erected in 1845 in a breezy north-easterly spot of the village, and named Wilberforce after the English gentleman who was prominent among those who strove for the liberation of slaves. It still stands to this day, and to ensure this church remains a historical landmark, several bodies, with the help of Victorians, have dismantled the former wooden building and erected a concrete structure in its

Not so long ago, through interventions of the Victoria Resuscitation Group, a koker was built through collaboration with a European Union (EU) Programme totalling some $10M, which allowed for fairly good drainage of Victoria and a few other surrounding villages.

And if one can make comparisons with years gone by, many of the small and somewhat shabby houses in Victoria are being replaced by elaborate and posh buildings these days.

Villagers are now investing their hard-earned dollars to open small grocery shops and other businesses.

Government has, over time, built several bridges in the village, now allowing easier access to certain locations, and a much simpler manner of entering and exiting the village.

Several access streets have been paved with asphalt, so gone are the days of the mud tracks in Victoria when the rain falls heavily.

However, there are still a few streets left to be completed in the village. The famous Side Line Dam used by many is now a proper road, and not the muddied spectacle it used to be before.

Amazing simplicity

We were indeed amazed at the contentment and simplicity of almost every Victorian.

Throughout our entire visit, there was no unnecessary fuss and bitter complaints, like we may have experienced in several other villages visited.

Victorians seemed more prone to ‘fixing things’ in their village than on waiting on related authorities, or for miracles to happen.

dedicated to him in the Wilberforce Church.

In the course of time, churches also became places of learning. Governmentprogrammed classes were first carried on in the Methodist and Congregational church buildings, and later in the Roman Catholic Church.

When the slaves were finally emancipated in 1838, there was an exodus from the estates. According to Historian Vere T. Daly in his work ‘The Making of Guyana’, the slaves, who had been paid for their overtime work during the days of apprenticeship, had saved their money by the African custom of ‘throwing box”. With this money, they now proceeded to purchase land, for it is only in this way that they could be free of the tyranny of the planters, who sometimes deliberately destroyed provision grounds.

Purchase of Victoria

Selling water coconut, fruits and vegetables, is a way of life in Victoria

It is now almost 172 years since Victoria Village was purchased by the former slaves of British Guiana. William Arno, in the work “A History of Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara”, wrote: In November, 1839, 83 persons, including two women, bought what was then Plantation Northbrook for the sum of 30 thousand guilders ($10,284.63c). It was the first village bought by freed African slaves.

In recognition of, and in gratitude for, the part played in the abolition of slavery by the then reigning monarch, Queen Victoria, the purchasers renamed the property Victoria.

Our arrival

Getting off the minibus amidst noisy chatter from Victorians disembarking, we were immediately struck by the quite serene appear-

Developing

In years gone by, one could have recognised Victoria as a village in which poverty evidently plagued most residents. That also was further aggravated by the poor drainage and irrigation system that was causing great damage to crops and livestock owned by residents.

Today, things are not as bad, and the drainage system has been altered considerably with work done by the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) in the area and other outside entities.

Chatting with several women manning small food stalls on the road corner and in the village, it was realized that these ladies were quite content with their ‘self-created professions’, and smiled with contentment throughout our conversations.

Ms Yonette Graham has been selling at her food stall for the past seventeen years, and her ‘countryside delicacies’ are greatly anticipated by persons traversing the Victoria Public Road.

Being a wise woman, she operates just at the junction of the Public Road and the access street leading into the Railway Line, since all

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esources of Africans who had recently won their freedom from slavery.

ement for the simple at heart the minibus drivers solicit passengers in this area. This location accommodates the Guyoil Gas Station and is normally the busiest joint in Victoria.

“I have been doing this job for over seventeen years; and trust me, I do enjoy it! I mean, sales can be up and down at times, but I know ‘every day is not Christmas. This is what I do, and it pays me also. Our entire country has an unemployment problem, and if everyone (were to) come up with simple ways of earning an honest dollar, then it would not impact on them so significantly,” she said.

Ms Wendy Osmond, another food vendor, almost wholeheartedly endorsed Graham’s statements.

“This has been my profession for over eight years, and I am content with what it brings me.

It doesn’t get me a big fortune or anything like that, but it keeps my head above the water. I mean, all over the world people have to work to earn, and it would be a stupid thing to sit and frown about the unemployment crisis in one’s country when there are so many things an individual could do to earn legally,” she declared.

Football team strives despite challenges Victoria has been known to produce some of the country’s more rated sporting personalities, and its present football team (Victoria Kings) will always be remembered for its distinguished exploits in the sport. Today, this team continues to shine, despite many challenges.

Speaking to team members yesterday, we realized that they possessed an intense love for football and would continue regular practice and fun games between themselves even though they are faced with grave financial constraints, preventing them from having the associated gear and equipment.

That apart, the Victoria Community Centre Ground is in a ‘run down’ condition, making the football team’s games and practice sessions very difficult. Nevertheless, team members are keeping the faith and hoping that, “betta mus come wan day”, as they all belted out on completion of the interview.

In days gone by, sporting groups in the village would customarily host various fund-raisers to aid their group’s development, and this helped a lot. Today, they cannot do that because the community centre is in dire need of repairs. This was the location used for all Victoria’s entertainment activities, but the centre now has no electricity, and the building has gotten old and is disintegrating.

The toilet facilities are all falling to pieces, and just a few promoters brave the odds and attempt ‘open air activities’ in the centre yard, providing they borrow electricity from other sources.

Keeping their tradition alive

As we continued our trek through the village, the reverberating, throbbing sound of drumbeat could be heard so pulsatingly that it tugged at my heart strings… It was quite a battle to stop my hips from naturally gyrating and my feet from jumping to the catchy beat.

Rounding a corner, we saw members of the ‘Fire in the Land’ masquerade band in a rehearsal session, their muscles bulging and bodies twitching as they seemed to just soak up the drum

beats with a far away look in their eyes.

This band surprisingly dethroned the ‘Joker is Wild’ band in December 2012 when it competed at the annual Masquerade Competitions hosted in Victoria by the Guyana Cultural Association (GCA) of New York.

Visitors to the Mangrove Reserve Tour at Golden Grove/Belfield, East Coast Demerara are now being entertained with drumming, dancing and singing by the ‘Joker Is Wild’ masquerade band.

Based in Victoria, a village which will celebrate its 175th anniversary of existence this year, the band captures the rich history of that village in its folk songs.

How masquerade works

It’s been quite apparent that, over the years, the masquerade art form has been slipping from society, and since Victoria was one of the villages in which masquerade has been prevalent, both the ‘Joker is Wild’ and ‘Fire in the Land’ masquerade The new Wilber Force Congregational church bands are making it their duty to preserve the art form.

Although the masquerade band has been a significant feature in society throughout the year, many have decided that the art form has lost its impact and authenticity, since those participating are more interested in soliciting vowed that her band is more focused on precash than providing fun and entertainment for senting masquerade as it should be displayed, and is not too much concerned with the surplus spectators.

Jacqueline Waldron, head of the Fire in it brings.

Each recitation is followed by the shout the Land band, noted that she would normally conduct sessions with her band members to of “Ban!”, which is a signal to the band to instill the importance of keeping masquerade resume playing the music, which usually stops to allow the vocal performance. The music is alive and sustaining its authenticity.

She noted that while in older times mas- a very fast-paced rhythm played by a boom or queraders left audiences spellbound with su- bassdrum, a kettle or kittle drum played with perb dance performances, consensus is that the sticks, and a flute (a folk instrument called a traditional feature has disintegrated in terms of “fife” in Jamaica) which improvises but often entertainment, sparkle and crowd appeal. She plays the melodies of known songs, including Christmas carols.

The Jamaican jonkunnu is a much larger and more elaborate affair, and there are variations in Belize and in the Bajan Tuk Band.

It is highly unlikely, however, that any of those performances would be witnessed today in Guyana, where the participants who are seen today never learnt the skills. In the past, spectators would throw coins to the band, and the art of flouncing included the dexterity of picking those coins up from off the ground in fluent movements, which must be executed without breaking the rhythm or flow of the steps and the dance.

The stiltsmen dance with high skills and balancing acts, while the mad cow (bad cow) charges and frightens the crowd. While Victoria is known for its knowledge of masquerade skills, the more worthwhile performances at present are said to be found on the Essequibo Coast.

The Caribbean masquerades have their origins mainly in West Africa, but there are also European roots and influences, as well as forms and charThe Masquerade tradition is alive acteristics that evolved in in Victoria the Caribbean, including several that developed out of the

local social environment.

Several African roots have been identified

by Sylvia Wynter, Kamau Brathwaite, Martha Beckwith and Judith Bettelheim, who provide thorough accounts of Jamaica’s jonkunnu and its various roots. It was first described by Sir Hans Sloane in the 17th century as an African derivative, but by the 19th century it had accumulated several influences from the literature, legends and politics of Europe, in addition to elements arising from contact with the local society.

These various causal combinations resulted in the evolution of different forms within the tradition, some of them remarkable in their appropriation of European literary and cultural performance, integrated with African theatrical form or religious ritual and Caribbean performance.

These and many other powerful factors were dramatic characteristics of the masquerade tradition, including that of Guyana, which many symposia, workshops and exhibitions are seeking to revive.

Frolic and fun

Watching at the young children frolicking in the sun or splashing in the nearby drains made me reminisce on my childhood days. Their peals of mirthful laughter filled the air, sometimes halted by wails of pain as one fell, bruising a knee or shin bone.

This will be followed by a busty mother waving a piece of stick menacingly as she investigated the happenings. Most times the fun- filled party breaks up and scatters in different directions as a mother begins to rain lashes on her child, who will prance and wiggle to escape the blows.

Young girls seemed contented to sit on the steps and style their weaves, while some young men rode bicycles at alarming paces through the streets, or gathered in groups, playing domino and sipping cool down (cold fruit juice in plastic bags).

On leaving the village, we felt as if we were leaving a piece of our beings behind. And with forlorn faces and feelings of regret, we finally boarded a minibus and left for Georgetown.

Little Victoria is certainly a brilliant historic village, affording a simple existence to those of simple means.

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CULTURE consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products human action of which may be inherited, that is passed on from generation to generation independently of the biological genes.’ (Parsons) At different stages of an individual’s life, various kinds of socialization take place and through that socialization, culture is absorbed.

Those values eventually pass onto the next generation through concepts of moral values, traditional folklore, food and clothing, and it is by those methods that an individual’s cultural identity begins to be formed.

The earliest forms of cultural socialization are taught to children during feeding and nurturing by their mothers.

Before the globalization of fast food restaurants, the foods people ate were linked to the cultural identity of their ancestors.

In Guyana, this link manifests itself in foods such as

fufu, conkey and cou-cou, whose Ghanaian name is banku.

Cou-cou, made from cornmeal and okra, is usually eaten with a fish stew.

This dish is popular throughout Ghana and Togo, where

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

banku and okra soup is a traditional recipe. Moreover, among to Ga people living along the coastal areas of Ghana, banku is usually accompanied with a fish stew.

Fufu another Guyanese staple was made from boiled green plantains, which had been pounded in a mortar to make it pliable. Nigerians, Cameroonians, and Ghanaians, all eat fufu, according to regional variations.

Yet another cornmeal dish is conkey. Conkey derives from kenkey, made from fermented maize, which is normally cooked in banana leaves. Kenkey is eaten throughout Ghana, Togo and Benin and in other countries in Western Africa.

Another way in which traditional beliefs are passed down is through folklore. Normally a mother first introduces her

child to such stories and in doing so, pass on specific cultural practices and beliefs.

Brer Nancy, backcoo’s, and jumbies are all elements of Guyanese folklore. A backcoo is a small malevolent man with magical powers who resides in a bottle and feeds on bananas and milk.

There are several possibilities about the roots of the backcoo, all originating in West Africa. Baku in many West African languages means little brother or short man. It is also related to the word Bacucu meaning banana.

In parts of West Africa, people believed that the short races such as the Baka of Cameroon and Gabon had such magical powers. In Yoruba tradition, Abiku is the spirit of a child that dies before puberty.

In addition, it is also an evil spirit that manifests itself by its extreme thirst and hunger. Given the lack of adequate food and high infant mortality during slavery, it is easy to see why this concept would have significant meaning to enslaved people.

Anancy, the spider trickster, was originally Ananci Krokoko (the great spider), the Ashante-Akan’s god of wisdom.

This Ashante god was renown throughout West and Central Africa Other pranksters were hares, which featured in Yoruba folklore, and tortoises that featured in Igbo story telling traditions. In West African tradition, animal tricksters were usually small vulnerable creatures who managed to outsmart bigger animals.

Oral traditions and customs have influenced many African Guyanese and in so doing, are identifying marks to their African heritage. (Social Anthropologist – Scherin Barlow Massay)

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On preserving African heritage in Guyana…

A look at the African kwe-kwe THE vibrancy of African culture is Guyana is not disputed, despite having been dealt the disadvantageous blow from its earliest existence in this country; considering that Africans were ripped from their homeland and forced to leave the precious many traditions that identified an entire people.

From religious to food, music is one of the more interesting aspects of African tradition.

Singing and dancing to kwe-kwe songs is an important part of some African Guyanese pre-wedding celebration.

The songs are sung in the Guyanese Creolese language which is derived from several Central African and West African languages combined with the languages of the

Europeans who enslaved Africans. The kwe-kwe prewedding celebration does not seem to have a corresponding ceremony in any present-day African nation which suggests it was probably derived from a combination of African ceremonies. After all, the Europeans who enslaved Africans went to great pains to ensure that they separated the Africans to make it difficult for communication in a common language. The Europeans were afraid that if there were many Africans from any particular nation on their plantation they would foment rebellion and the Europeans would be caught unprepared. However, African Trinidadian professor, Maureen Warner-Lewis, in her 2002 book, “Central Africa in the Caribbean: Transcend-

ing Time, Transforming Cultures”, compares aspects of the Guyanese kwe-kwe to pre-wedding ceremonies in ancient Kongo (Congo.) Professor Warner-Lewis who is also the author of the 1999 book, “Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory”, where she traces remnants of the Yoruba language in Guyana and Trinidad, lists the music and songs among the evidence that links kwe-kwe to the Kongo celebration.

Jane engage and she tink nobady like she Jane engage and she tink nobady like she Run a kokah dam someting bruk away Run a kokah dam Jane engage and she walk the village wid style O run a kokah dam someting bruk away Run a kokah dam (From Guyanese kwe-kwe song “Jane Engage”)

The songs sung during the kwe-kwe are varied, including instructions for the soon to be married couple, the relatives and community to support the couple, and also social commentary. The greeting song, “Goo nite aye” and “Come to my kwe-kwe”, invite the entire village to enjoy the celebration. “Nation ah whey yuh nation?”, another popular kwe-kwe song urging identification with African nations, is recognition of the scattering of Africans during slavery.

The kwe-kwe opens with the pouring of libation by sprinkling liquor (Guyana white rum or high wine) on the floor, around the doors and windows. There is usually a

leader who will “call out” the song to be sung and will signal the end by instructing “bato, bato”. The singers and dancers are usually accompanied by the music of drums, shak-shaks and/or the sounds of clapping and the rhythmic stamping of feet moving to the irresistible beat of voices raised in joyful celebration.

Kwe-kwe with its accompanying dance and songs is a unique ceremony derived from the experience of Africans who were enslaved by Europeans in what was once British Guiana. African-American spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rock and roll, the African Central and South American cha cha cha, salsa, samba, mambo, meringue and rumba can also be traced to the African continent. During this last week of Black Music Month 2012, a search of the Internet shows that the contributions and influence of Africa and Africans to world music, art, dance and other cultural “norms” of today continues to be recognized and celebrated. Unfortunately celebrations like kwe-kwe are losing ground and the kwe-kwe celebration is not as popular as it used to be and there are predictions that it may become a museum display or reduced to occasional “cultural” performances.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, considered the father of modern Pan-Africanism, said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” In the 1993 movie, “Sankofa”, an African elder says to an African-American fashion model who did not know that she was African: “Go back to the past, to the source”.

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Emancipation Day...

On the coasts of Africa, where men were freed and alike Till that day sea coughed up a terror, a man with skin so white

They took the men, and raped our women They burned the houses down and enslaved the children

On the ships, they packed them in two by two wooden bed They looked to the sky for answers, but only saw wood above their heads They fed them like animals, just so they wouldn’t die And not a single man felt paid to see the African cry

Days hot and hard, in this their new home As the slave master, lived up to his name and worked them to the bone With the whip upon their back, and the dirt in their face They cursed their god for putting them in this place

They say the free m an is the one who won’t give up And the fighting for their freedom never stopped Some were killed, some lived and some just passed away But those who fought that proud hard fight, we remember them on Emancipation Day. (Anonymous)

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A time to celebrate a culture of self-liberation Emancipation Day...

By Angela Lewis EMANCIPATION, or Freedom Day, is marked as an important day not only in the Guyanese calendar, but also on the entire global perspective.

What was established as a trading link or an

open-door policy for Guyana in the 1830s has now assumed a global outlook. Every year, on August 1, we remember this day as one that marks the abolition of slavery.

I was not there. Even now, I do not fully understand its true implications. I have no memories of

my parents or grandparents ever being slaves. For me, then, this is a thing of the past.

Notwithstanding, I will appreciate this day and join in celebrating the elimination of the scourge of slavery that has caused those who went before me to suffer.

I asked my grandson the other day what he knew about Emancipation, and he simply reached for my cell phone, put the word ‘emancipation’ in the browser, and Google gave him this definition, among others, which he shared with me. It read: “Emancipation is a broad term used to describe various efforts to obtain political rights of equality.”

Somehow, the irony of this response is that the ‘hammer has hit the nail right on the head’. Thank God for modern technology!

VILLAGE MOVEMENT I guess that some people either don’t know, or have forgotten that this same freedom which we are now celebrating has resulted in freed men and women becoming owners and developers of villages and communities, of which we are so proud today.

Friendship, on the East Bank of Demerara, is one of them. Gibraltar, known for its successful cultivation of ground provisions, fruits and fish, and commonly referred to as the bread-basket of the Corentyne Coast, is another. Three ex-slaves -Figaro, Chandlier and Hercules—bought Agricola on the East Bank of Demerara in 1842. It is now referred to as an African village, and is well known for its farming of cash crops.

Hopetown, a village on the West Coast of Berbice, approximately 97km from Georgetown, was bought by 11 men. Today, it is still standing, is well populated, and is a good example of entrepreneurial achievement.

Every year, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) celebrates one of these villages. This year, its focus will be on Hopetown.

It would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention Victoria as the first and oldest village that was bought by freed slaves. First called Northbrook, it has been renamed Victoria in recognition of the part Queen Victoria played in the abolition of slavery. Victoria has also earned a reputation for its peacefulness.

It is also said that Victoria and Nabaclis, a mere 57km from Georgetown, have had strong links as far back as 150 years ago. They shared primary and secondary schools, a potable water supply system, a market, and a cottage hospital among other services.

Other villages bought by freed slaves are Ithaca, Lichfield and Belladrum on the West Coast of Berbice; and Golden Grove on the East Coast of Demerara, where the once famous President’s College (once considered the highest secondary institution of elarning in Guyana) is housed; Bagotville, West Bank Demerara; Plaisance, East Coast Demerara; and Sandvoort in West Canjie, East Berbice, Region Six. Turn to to XIX

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The African Medicine Chest

By Shirley Thomas TREKKING around African villages, and engaging in friendly conversation with people of African descent has, over the last few days leading up to Emancipation, been most intriguing and, indeed, quite revealing.

I opted to explore a few villages which had been bought by freed Africans, and it mostly turned out to be a virtual botanical or nature tour, which I relished even as I tried to cope with nostalgic memories of my days at secondary school under the tutelage of renowned science teacher David Osgood, an American Science Master of European extraction.

Dave and Carla Osgood were among the first US Peace Corps teachers who came to offer their services to Guyana. They were deployed to the school I attended, the North West Government Secondary School. Dave was thorough. This great teacher, liked by the entire class, taught us everything we needed to know on the curriculum.

Broad leaf thyme

During those botanical treks, I developed a passion for things natural. We had to know the name and identity of practically every type of leaf; and in very exciting competitions, we went out leaf hunting into the nearby cluster of bushes, each aiming to be the first to get back in classroom, label the leaves we had correctly, then place them on Sir Osgood’s desk.

This time around, it was my pleasure to be taken around African villages and again exploring leaves, but this time at another level. The villagers shared with me their experiences using herbs for various kinds of ailments, and getting amazing results. I was intrigued. It was amazing to realise just how much the villagers were willing to open up and share valuable information relating to their culture, particularly talking about the use of herbal treatments (previously referred to as ‘bush medicine’) and its impact.

RICH CULTURAL LEGACY Farm Village, East Bank Essequibo, is being honoured as the Emancipation Village for 2013. Farm has a rich African cultural legacy, and the distinction of being the last village bought by freed Africans with individual earnings pooled in 1787.

During our tours, the Guyana Chronicle met Mr. Richard Waddell, called ‘Uncle Joe’, a retired village council chairman who, during a most enjoyable discussion, edified us that despite the richness of their forefathers’ heritage, a lot of valuable information in regard to

Carilla

natural cures was pathetically not passed down to their descendants.

At Golden Grove, West Coast Berbice, Dorothy Peters lamented that even though they now have a reasonable amount of information to work with, there are still gaps in some areas of information. The villagers are urging those with such valuable information to come forward and share this wealth, so that other brothers and sisters can be empowered.

‘Uncle Joe’ explained that, to some extent, the ancestors’ failure to make such knowledge public had been due to the fact that, in those days, the colonial police would hound down anyone perceived to be a ‘bush doctor’ to prosecute and incarcerate. “It was an offence to be touted as a ‘bush doctor’, or even for making what was called ‘bush rum’, because if people made bush rum, it would adversely affect business for the liquor manufacturers,” he reasoned. And this explains why ‘bush doctors’ and ‘bush rum makers’ had to go into hiding, and not be open about what they were doing, even though the bush doctors meant well.

RECOMMENDED REMEDIES Today, we bring our readers some herbal tips shared with us by ‘bush doctors’ in the villagers we visited: ► Cure for men experiencing problems with back pain and/or erectile dysfunction: There is a variety of herbal treatments one can use, but the ‘stimmer bush-pot’ (a combination of about six different kinds of herbs, including man grass and grannie finger, with steel drops added) has proven most effective, villagers say. This potion is prepared exclusively by ‘Uncle Joe’, who hails from Farm.

Apart from relieving men of back pain associated with osteoarthritis, it has a reputation for “replacing he smile on the faces of many depressed men”. ► For prostate cancer; stoppage of water and other urinary tract infections, stinging nettle bush is best used.

Boil the young plant and drink the water, or use as a tea. ► Thrush in babies: A mixture of money bush and bird pepper along with olive oil, when prepared and administered, brings about remarkable relief.

Sister Daniels (called Danny) from the Georgetown Ward of West Ruimveldt advised on the following cure: ► For thrush in babies: First, clean the Soursop baby’s anal area thoroughly. Take a cotton swab (Q-Tip), immerse in (Canadian) Healing Oil, then dip it in honey and insert as far as possible into the child’s rectum, thereby allowing the potion to do its job. Ensure the cotton wool is removed, and a positive result is a must.

Glerie Fraser of Belladrum, West Coast Berbice, had this to say about treating pip in fowls or chicken: Open

the mouth of the chicken and throw one single bird pepper down its throat. Within a few days, the bird will be sprightly and well again.

Dorothy Peters of Golden Grove, West Coast Berbice said that for diaper rash in babies, mothers or nannies should use a herb called ants bush because it works most satisfactorily. And for biliousness or the ‘cleaning out process’ at weekends or so, persons should use a combination of the blossom from the Carrion Crow Bush (that yellow flower on the plant) and coconut milk. Mix the two to “purge out” the system. That would give a person a good motion and keep the colon clean.

Donna Adams, of Stelling Road, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo said that for biliousness in children who use a lot of sweet and develop sores because they need a ‘clean out’, instead of boiling carilla bitters, just use the bitter stick in wine.

“I prefer (using) pomegranate wine. If you don’t use or have wine, soak a piece of the bitter stick in water or whatever you have, and drink a Schnapps Glass (of the concoction) early in the morning for about three mornings. You don’t have to use (it) a lot, just once at weekends.”

Adams also advised that high blood pressure (Hypertension) can be handled as follows: Use soursop. Boil especially the heart of the soursop, and drink an 8-oz glass per day. She also advised that the Tulsi is a good remedy for the common cold; it makes a nice herbal tea as well, and is good for marinating and seasoning meats.

Moreover, Adams advised that for a person wanting

Physic Nut leaves

to break curses on their life, the African ancestors used Physic Nut leaves. They got up early in the morning, before 6:00 o’clock, and cut the plant; that was reputed to have a positive effect on demonic possession. The method of use was to soak the physic nut in water and drink one Schnapps Glass of the water at a time. It was felt that that would keep bad spirits away.

But, don’t get scared! she said. Years ago, if ever you cut the plant before 6:00 o’clock on a Good Friday, you’d see blood oozing out of its stem. This phenomenon occurred only on Good Friday, she advised. “I heard that from the old folks, and I saw that for myself,” she said.

Adams also advised that a treatment for sores or liver spots was to use the Money Bush. For anybody with sores or liver spots about their body, crush up the money bush (it’s soft), add a pinch of salt, and rub it about the body.

You may also crush it up by rubbing it in the hands, then adding it to your bathing water. It keeps your skin clean, she said.

Avril Jordan, of Stelling Road, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo advised that for painful, cramping and heavy menstrual periods, women should boil Inflamation Bush or Broad Leaf Thyme in about two pints of water, and drink about 8 ounces per day for three days.

Shelly Goodman, better known as ‘Mango Lady’, of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo, said that for a heavy chest cold or threat of pneumonia, one should use Daisy. “Daisy is found in almost every village,” she said. “Pick and leave the vine of leaves out in the sun until the leaves begin to quail, or the sap is dried out.

Boil for about ten minutes, allowing sufficient water to cover. The water should be dark in colour by then.

Cover the pot, and leave it to cool. It’s very effective by the second day, after which you can expect to begin coughing up the phlegm (what we call cold).”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

Prominent African personalities –shaping culture globally ALTHOUGH knowledge is not always transmitted in written form in Africa, there is a widespread culture of opening the doors of perception for the rest of the world through personalities whose roots were embedded in Africa.

These personalities, who assisted significantly in shaping global culture, would sometimes be forgotten or go unnoticed.

As we reminisce on where we came from, let us reflect on some of the influential African persons who played a part in shaping the world we live in today!

For the only great men among the unfree and the oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor.” ― Dr. Walter Rodney

‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear’ –Nelson Mandela

Dr. Walter Rodney, a distinguished Guyanese scholar, authored ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, which was published in 1972. In it he described an Africa that had been consciously exploited by European imperialists, leading directly to the modern underdevelopment of most of the continent. The book became enormously influential as well as controversial. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was groundbreaking in that it was among the first to bring a new perspective to the question of underdevelopment in Africa. Rodney's analysis went far beyond the heretofore accepted approach in the study of Third World

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1942.

For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, nonviolent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. In 1962, he was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the State, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. He served 27 years in prison.

In 1993, Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country’s apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. In 2009, Mandela’s birthday (July 18) was declared “Mandela Day”, to promote global peace, and celebrate the South African leader’s legacy. He died at his home in Johannesburg on December 5, 2013, at age 95.

underdevelopment.

On the 13th June, 1980, Dr. Rodney was assassinated by an explosion which occurred in his car at John and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown. Dr. Rodney was, at the time of his death, an eminent political leader engaged in democracy and social justice in a struggle against authoritarian rule. There have been calls for a full investigation into the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, which have received broad support.

After his assassination, Rodney received several honours posthumously, among them, in 1993 the Government of Dr. Cheddi Jagan conferred on him the country’s highest National Award, the Order of Excellence (OE) and the Walter Rodney Chair in History was created at the University of Guyana.

‘I don’t stand for black man’s side, I don’t stand for white man’s side, I stand for God’s side’ –Bob Marley

Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. In 1963, Marley and his friends formed the Wailing Wailers.

The Wailers’ big break came in 1972, when they landed a contract with Island Records. Marley went on to sell more than 20 million records throughout his career, making him the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World.

He died in Miami, Florida, on May 11, 1981.

‘It is both the duty and responsibility of the world’s fortunate few to help fulfil the legitimate aspirations of the unfortunate many’ - Haile Selassie Haile Selassie was born in Ethiopia in 1892. He was crowned emperor in 1930, but exiled during World War II, after leading the resistance to the Italian invasion.

He was reinstated in 1941, and sought to modernise the country over the next few decades through social, economic and educational reforms.

He ruled until 1974, when famine, unemployment and political opposition forced him from office.

‘I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart’ –Rosa Parks ` Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. Both of her grandparents were former slaves, and while growing up on their farm, Rosa was strongly influenced by their advocating of equal rights.

Rosa became active in the civil rights movement along with her husband. She served as a youth leader for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and she worked as a secretary to E.D. Nixon, president of the NAACP through 1957.

On December 1, 1951, on her way home from work, Rosa Parks and three other African passengers were requested by the driver to give up their seats. Rosa refused, and was arrested for this. Following her arrest, the NAACP organised a bus boycott in support of Rosa and racial equality.

‘A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things’ –Barack Obama Barack Obama, the 44th and current president of the United States, was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a civil-rights lawyer and teacher before pursuing a political career.

He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, serving from 1997 to 2004. He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008, and won re-election in 2012 against Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

President Obama continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis.

‘I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt’ –Maya Angelou Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a writer and civil rights activist known for her 1969 memoir, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman.

In 1971, Angelou published the Pulitzer Prize-nominated poetry collection, ‘Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die’. She later wrote the poem, “On the Pulse of Morning”, one of her most famous works which she recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993.

Angelou has received several honours throughout her career, including two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009.

She died on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States.

‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that’ –Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s.

Among many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honours. King was assassinated in April 1968, and continues to be remembered as one of the most lauded African-American leaders in history, often referenced by his 1963 speech, “I Have a Dream.” (Compiled by Ravin Singh)

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014

A time to celebrate a...

AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS In those days, most of these villages were agriculturally inclined, and grew cash crops, vegetables, ground provisions, coconuts, rice and coffee.

In the case of Bogotville, some cattle and poultry rearing, fishing, and copra making were also engaged in, and with some diversification, farming still exists today.

The people in those villages had a great desire for church worship also, hence the emergence of religious communities, and the rise of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Brethren, Wesleyan, Lutheran, Apostolic, Jordanite and Seventh Day Adventist churches. Such was their thirst for religious knowledge that pilgrims have been known to travel for great distances, 11 miles or more, to fellowship at Le Ressouvenir, or with other denominations of their choice.

There was also great need for secular education.

We could never forget that freedom gave freed men and women the opportunity to become educated.

Before emancipation, proprietors and those sympathetic to the slaves were punished for attempting to educate the slave population, and it was only after emancipation that the afro-Guyanese community in particular turned to education as a means of salvation. How else would they have been able to read the Bible?

One of the well-known politicians has posited that the fall of slavery in 1834 occasioned a radical change in the colonial life, as many former slaves swiftly departed the British plantation. Some of them moved to villages and towns with a feeling that field labour was degrading and inconsistent with freedom, whereas others accumulated their resources and purchased their resources and purchased the estates which were abandoned, thus helping in the creation of village societies.

NEW BEGINNINGS In this way, new communities were formed, and, in their wake, gave rise to new ethnic groups. It is said that the amount of Chinese people coming into the colony between 1853 and 1912 was just approximately 14,000 and just like ancestors of the Portuguese, they forsook plantation work for retail trading, quickly assimilating into the Guyanese communities and this all came about because of the declaration of emancipation or freedom of enslaved Africans in 1834.

I would really like to celebrate the positive effects that Emancipation has had on the Guyanese mosaic as a whole, apart from its bringing a significant end to slavery. It has also boosted the liberalisation of trade and today freedom day is celebrated in a variety of ways. It is no more confined to the freedom of enslaved people, but now has widespread strongholds in almost every sphere of work, from technology to economic activities.

It has a different meaning to every sphere, both at home and internationally.

Freedom Day continues to be observed as a public holiday. Today, emancipation is not only celebrated over whelmingly by some segments of society , like ACDA, bit it has sheer significance and value for all Guyanese people and the world alike, without regard to race, colour or creed.

The archive is replete with facts that slavery was

a life from which few entertained hopes of ever escaping. The Guyana experience, as well as those of people in the West Indies, showed a prevailing pattern of a vicious cycle of punishment, resistance, escape and capture. The masters acted cruelly and without conscience; and the slaves, who could not be restrained, reciprocated with escape, sabotage and revolt.

It is noteworthy that the 1980 constitution of Guyana, in its preamble, pays homage to “indomitable spirit and conquerable will” of our forefathers who, “by their sacrifices, their blood and their la-

From page XVI

bour”, bequeathed to us this dear land of Guyana.

As on write puts “it emancipation) salutes those “immortal leaders who, in the vanguard of battle, kept aloft the banner of their courage, their fortitude, and their martyrdom”.

Let us all spend Emancipation Day reflecting on all the positive developments that have taken place in our country since the chains of slavery have been broken. Let us look forward, with enthusiasm, to the bright future ahead! Let this freedom be a blessing of god’s humanitarianism.

Happy Emancipation Day!

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Employees at several offices turned out in their traditional African wear yesterday (Cullen Bess-Nelson photos)

GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday August 1, 2014