Lammy T. Sancho, Allick Sancho, Christy Sancho, Charles Sancho, Bentinck Sancho, Sarah Sancho, Robert J. Sancho, Swanson B. Sancho, Ann Sancho, Bourne Sancho, George Sancho, Gilbert Sancho, Joseph Sancho, Mars Sancho, Dada Sancho, Benjamin Sandy, Mary Sandy, M. Sandy, Mrs. Elliott, Tappin Elliott, Thomas Elliott, were all residents and/or were associated of Golden Grove and Nabaclis.
David Sancho, Margaret Sancho (died July 18, 1895, a daughter of Susan Peters), Susan Peters, Charlotte Sancho (formerly Charlotte Adams), and William Sancho were residents of the villages of Buxton and Friendship.
Sancho (Goedverwagting), Ghowrie Sancho, Emily Callighan, Mary Callighan, and William Callighan (butcher, and Constable, Rural Constabulary) of Victoria Village; Sancho Adams (Ann's Grove), and Princess Sanco (perhaps Princess Sancho Clonbrook); were also residents in the communities on the East Coast of Demerara.
Cornelius Sancho, Elizabeth Sancho, Emanuel Sancho, Frederick Sancho, James Sancho, John Sancho, and Manoel Sancho were connected to Georgetown.
William Frederick Sancho (Plantation Rose Hall, Canje), Andrew Sancho (Berbice), Dat Sancho and Sarah Sancho of Fyrish, Smart Sancho, and Georgie Downer/George Sancho (Courtland, Corentyne), James Sancho ( No# 70 Village, Corentyne), Mrs. S. Sancho(Corentyne);
Returns of the Gold Industry show the following were miners; James Sancho and John Sancho, A. Sancho and Others, Sancho and Gilbert, Simon and Sancho, Sancho and Simon, J. S. Sancho, Douglas and G. Sancho, P. A. Montague, J. A. Sancho, J. Sancho and J. Granville
Lammy Sancho Phillips, (perhaps Golden Grove), Sancho Brandis (Kortberaad, East Bank Berbice) and Robert Sancho Daniel (Chemist and Druggist, Sick Nurse and Dispenser),
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Lammie T. Sancho v. Charles McKenzie the Demerara Daily Chronicle Thursday, January 19, 1882: page 3 column 3.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – An Irritable Village Overseer - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Friday, February 23, 1883: page 4 column 2.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Petty Debt Court - the Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 15, 1886: page 4 column 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Petty Debt Court - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, August 19, 1886: page 3 columns 5 & 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Source: An Incident At Belfield Sports - the Daily Chronicle - Saturday, October 2, 1886: Page 3 Column 2.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Source: Execution Sales - The Chronicle, Tuesday, March 13, 1888: Page 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Source: Execution Sales - The Chronicle, Tuesday, October 9, 1888: Page 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO – Source: Execution Sales - The Chronicle, Wednesday, November 7, 1888: Page 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Emily Busby v. Lammy T. Sancho - Inferior Civil Court - Georgetown, - Cases fixed for Hearing - the Daily Chronicle - Thursday, November 28, 1889: Page 4 Column 4.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Emily Busby v. Sammy J. Sancho - . Inferior Civil Court - Georgetown-the Daily Chronicle - Friday, November 29, 1889: Page 4 Column 3.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Emily Busby v. Lammy T. Sancho - Inferior Civil Court - Georgetown, - Cases fixed for Hearing - the Daily Chronicle - Thursday, January 16, 1890: Page 4 Column 4.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Police News - Belfield Source: Unlawful Making Strays - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, November 12, 1892: page 4 Column 2.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The New Village Ordinance - The Daily Chronicle. Friday, February 10, 1893: page 3 Column 3.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Village Notice -Village Councils Ordinance 1892 - the Daily Chronicle - Sunday, March 5, 1893:.page 1 column 4.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Meeting of Village Councils - the Daily Chronicle - Saturday, March 11, 1893:.page 3 column 7.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Village Notice - the Daily Chronicle - Saturday, July 15, 1893:.page 1 column 5
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Beharrysingh v. L. T. Sancho, Petty Debt - Police News - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, July 15, 1893: page 4 Column 1
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Source: Police News - Belfield - ASSAULTS - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, December 22, 1894: page 4 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO Source: The Law Courts -Inferior Civil Court - The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, March 30, 1887: page 4 column 5.
LAMMY T. SANCHO The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, April 1, 1887: page 4 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO Source: Police News - Petty Debt - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, March 29, 1888: page 4 column 2.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - Source: The Law Courts - Inferior Civil Court - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday March 29, 1888: page 4 column 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, March 30, 1888: page 4 column 1.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - source: Village Notices - The Daily Chronicle, Sunday March 5, 1893: page 1 columns 4 & 5.
LAMMY T. SANCHO Source: Police News - - Assaults --The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, July 21, 1894: page 4 Column 3.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, March 23, 1888: page 4 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, February 28, 1889: page 4 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, March 1, 1889: page 4 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, November 18, 1892: page 3 column 6.
LAMMY T. SANCHO - -Important to Land Owners- The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, January 22, 1890: page 3 column 6.
ALLICK SANCHO, Police News - Belfield A Juvenile Offender - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, March 5, 1885: page 3 column 7. (ALLICK SANCHO, 12 years’ old)
ROBERT J. SANCHO, Golden Grove, Source: Execution Sales - By The Provost Marshal - Counties of Demerary and Essequebo -First Publication -The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, October 9, 1888: page 1 Column 3.
SWANSON B. SANCHO, and ANN SANCHO: - Source: Execution Sales - The Chronicle, Georgetown, Wednesday, October 31, 1888: page 1 Column 3.
SWANSON B. SANCHO, Golden Grove, and Source: Execution Sales - The Chronicle, Sunday, April 24, 1892: page 1 Column 3.
CHARLES SANCHO, child of BENTINCK SANCHO and SARAH SANCHO Source: Administrator General Notice - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, March 19, 1885: page 1, columns 6 & 7.
ANDREW SANCHO, Berbice, Registrar’s Notice - the Daily Chronicle - Friday, March 25, 1887: page 1 column 2
BOURNE SANCHO, Golden Grove, Source: Plantain stealing on the East Coast - The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, April 25, 1888: page 3 Column 7.
CHARLOTTE SANCHO, Buxton, and (formerly CHARLOTTE ADAMS of Buxton) Source: Inquest - The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, February 24, 1897: page 3 Column 4.
CHARLOTTE SANCHO, Buxton, and (formerly CHARLOTTE ADAMS of Buxton) Source: Buxton and friendship notes - The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, February 16, 1897: page 4 Column 1.
CHARLOTTE SANCHO, Buxton, (formerly CHARLOTTE ADAMS of Buxton) Source: Police News - Vigilance, Petty Debt -The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, October 3, 1893: page 4 Column 5.
CORNELIUS SANCHO, The Law Courts - Supreme Criminal Court - Georgetown, The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, December 5, 1888: page 6 column 1 & 2.
DAVID SANCHO, Buxton, Source: Murder At Friendship - Corner's Inquest - Manoel Marques found guilty - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, August 29, 1891: page 3 column 5.
EDWARD C. SANCHO, Rose Hall Village, Source: Police - Rural Constables -The Daily Chronicle, February 12, 1899: page 2 column 7
ELIZABETH SANCHO, - Police News - Georgetown, Thefts The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, March 11, 1890: page 4 column 7
ELIZABETH SANCHO, Police News - Georgetown, Thefts The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, March 18, 1890: page 4 column 7
EMANUEL SANCHO - Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Friday, June 20, 1884: page 4 column 4.
EMANUEL SANCHO - Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Saturday, September 20, 1889: page 4 column 5.
EMANUEL SANCHO - Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Friday, April 27, 1890 page 4 column 4
EMANUEL SANCHO - Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Saturday, December 12, 1891: page 4 column 5.
FREDERICK SANCHO Petty Debt Court - Dismissed - Georgetown - the Demerara Daily Chronicle Friday, November 16, 1888: page 4 column 3.
GEORGE SANCHO - Source: Police News - Vreed-En-Hoop - Miscellaneous - The Daily Chronicle, Sunday, September 15, 1889: page 4 column 2.
GEORGE SANCHO (Golden Grove Village) Source: Police News - Belfield Miscellaneous - , Thursday, September 15, 1889: page 4 column 4.
GILBERT SANCHO (Golden Grove Village) source: Police News - Belfield - Threatening Language - Saturday, March 14, 1896: page 4 column 3
GHOWRIE SANCHO (Victoria Village) source: Police News - Belfield - Friday, February 5, 1892: page 4 column 3
JAMES SANCHO - REMNANT CASES - Cases fixed for hearing -Berbice Court - The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, May 12, 1885: page 4 column 2.
JAMES SANCHO, Institute of Mines and Forests v. Rocket Company, Source: Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, September 7, 1894: page 3 column 6.
JAMES SANCHO, Gold Miner died December 7, 1898.
JOHN SANCHO Source: Police News - Vigilance -The Daily Chronicle, Sunday, January 10, 1886: page 4 column 1.
JOHN SANCHO Source: Petty Debt Court - Georgetown -The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, November 26, 1892: page 4 column 7.
JOSEPH SANCHO - Source: Killing a Sow - Police News - Belfield The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 15, 1886: page 4 column 1.
JOSEPH SANCHO - ALLEGED INDECENT LANGUAGE - Source: Police News - Sparendaam -The Daily Chronicle, Friday, April 16, 1897: page 4 column 3.
MANOEL SANCHO, Source: Petty Debt Court - Georgetown - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, March 26, 1892: page 4 column 7.
MARGARET SANCHO Source: Death By Drowning - the Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 25, 1895: page 3 column 4.
MARS SANCHO - Source: Police News - Belfield - An Unfortunate Family - The Daily Chronicle Friday, July 10, 1891: page 4 column 3 & 4.
MARS SANCHO - .
MARS SANCHO - Source: Police News - Belfield - Threatening Language - The Daily Chronicle Sunday, May 5, 1895: page 4 column 6.
MARS SANCHO -April5, 1889: page 4.
PRINCESS SANCO (Probably PRINCESS SANCHO of Clonbrook) Source: Police News -Magistrates' Courts - Mahaica Judicial District Belfield Assaults the Demerara Daily Chronicle Thursday, March 30, 1883: page 3 column 4.
SMART SANCHO (Courtland, Corentyne) Source: Pound Notice – Albion Pound –the Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, December 18, 1888: page 1 Column 4.
SMART SANCHO -. Source: Pound Notices – Albion Pound –the Daily Chronicle, Friday, December 21, 1888: page 1 Column 1.
SMART SANCHO - Source: Pound Notice – Albion Pound – The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, December 27, 1888: page 1 Column 3.
ANN SANCHO, Golden Grove, Source: Execution Sales -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, October 31, 1888: page 1 Column 3.
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Police News -Providence - Thefts-The daily Chronicle Wednesday June 23, 1886: page 4 column 7
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Demerara Criminal Session - The daily Chronicle Sunday July 18, 1886: page 3 column 7.
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Thefts of Batteaux - The daily Chronicle Wednesday, July 21, 1886: page 3 column 7...
WILLIAM SANCHO - Sentences. The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 29, 1886: page 3 column 7.
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Registrar's Notice, The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, August 7, 1886: page 1 column 3.
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Police News -Georgetown - Breach of Contract - The daily Chronicle Sunday, December 9, 1894: page 8 column 7...
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Breach of Contracts - Police News -Georgetown, the Daily Chronicle, Thursday, April 25, 1895: page 4 column 3.
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: Police News -Vigilance - Breach of the Peace - The daily Chronicle Tuesday October 8, 1895: page 4 column 2...
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: The Law Courts - Supreme Criminal Sessions - Robbery at Buxton - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, January 16, 1896: page 3 column 4...
WILLIAM SANCHO - Source: The Law Courts - Supreme Criminal Sessions - Second Court - Wednesday The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, January 16, 1896: page 3 column 4...
WILLIAM SANCHO - . Source: The Law Courts - Supreme Criminal Sessions - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, January 17, 1896: page 4 column 3...
WILLIAM FREDERICK SANCHO - New Amsterdam Judicial District - The Daily Chronicle, January 26, 1886: page 1...
WILLIAM FREDERICK SANCHO - Source: - New Amsterdam Judicial District - The Daily Chronicle, January 28, 1887: page 1.
WILLIAM FREDERICK SANCHO - Source: New Amsterdam Judicial District - The Daily Chronicle, January 28, 1888: page 1.
WILLIAM FREDERICK SANCHO - Sergeant, Rural Constabulary, Plantation Rose Hall, Canje, Berbice - Source: New Amsterdam Judicial District - The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, January 31, 1889: page 2 column 1.
WILLIAM FREDERICK SANCHO - Source: Police - Rural Constabulary - Deaths - The Daily Chronicle. Thursday, March 29, 1894: page 1 column 2...
Mrs. S. SANCHO - Corentyne, Berbice - Suriname Source: Post Office Notice - Unclaimed Postal Matter -the Daily Chronicle, Thursday, August 23, 1894: page 1 Column 3
MINERS –
A. SANCHO & others - Source: The Gold Industry -The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 8, 1897: page 3 column 5.
SANCHO & GILBERT - Source The Gold Industry -The Daily Chronicle, Sunday, March 14, 1897: page 5 column 2.
SANCHO & SIMON - Source: The Gold Industry -The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, June 15, 1897: page 3 column 4.
SIMON & SANCHO - Source: The Gold Industry -The Daily Chronicle, Thursday, July 8, 1897: page 3 column 5.
SANCHO, DOUGLAS & SANCHO: - Source: The Gold Industry -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, August 18, 1897: page 3 column 7.
J. A. SANCHO, J. J. DOUGLAS & G. SANCHO,
J. S. SANCHO, J. J. DOUGLAS & G. SANCHO, Source: Daily Chronicle, Sunday, February 12, 1899 Pages 2. Col.2. . .
J. S. SANCHO, J. J. DOUGLAS & G. SANCHO, Source: Sale of Claims - Department of Mines - Daily Chronicle, Sunday, March 5, 1899 Page 3. Col.1.
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, August 18, 1895: page 3 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, November 27, 1895: page 4 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, December 1, 1895: page 3 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, December 8, 1895: page 2 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, February 19, 1896: page 3 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, March 27, 1896: page 3 col 7...
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, May 8, 1896: page 3 col 7
P. A. MONTAGUE, J. A. SANCHO, J. SANCHO & J. GRANVILLE - Source: Claim -The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, December 1, 1896: page 3 col 7...
SANCHO: - Source: Police News -Georgetown - Assault - The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, August 27, 1895: page 3 column 5.
SANCHO: - Goedverwagting - source: Police News - Sparendaam - Larceny, Friday, August 20, 1897: page 4 column 1.
ELLIOTT - Source: East Coast Notes - The Daily Chronicle, Saturday, November 4, 1893: page 4 column 5.
WILLIAM CALLIGHAN - Source: Miscellaneous - Proposed transfer of License - The Daily Chronicle, Sunday, April 10, 1887: page 1 column 6.
WILLIAM CALLIGHAN - Source - Miscellaneous - Official Notice -The Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, February 18, 1890:page 4 Column 7 WILLIAM CALLIGHAN, EMILY CALLIGHAN, and Eugene Fredericks Miscellaneous -Police News - Belfield, The Daily Chronicle, Friday, December 11, 1891: page 4 Column 4
WILLIAM CALLIGHAN - Police News - Belfield - Assaults - The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, January 25, 1893: page 4 Column 5
EMILY CALLIGHAN - MARY CALLIGHAN, Source: Police News - Belfield, Alleged Assault - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, February 5, 1897: page 3 Column 4
SANCHO ADAMS - The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, April 17, 1888: page 1 Column 5
SANCHO BRANDIS, The Daily Chronicle, Wednesday, November 10, 1891: page 1 Column 4
ROBERT SANCHO DANIEL - Source: Demerara Criminal Session - the Post Office Frauds - Demerara Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, November 15, 1881: page 3 Column 4
ROBERT SANCHO DANIEL - Demerara Daily Chronicle, Tuesday, February 11, 1882: page 3 Column 4
LAMMY SANCHO PHILLIPS - Cow Stealing October 31, 1884: page 3
HECTOR SANCHO MINNIS
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Revolution That Failed in Berbice - Torch of Liberation Hoisted by Slaves
Revolution That Failed in Berbice - Torch of Liberation Hoisted by Slaves - Meaning of Earthquakes by Sydney King
“A rebellion is taken to be more or less organised armed resistance against authority with the primary intention of forcing a change of policy, or even of removing individual rulers.
But when the same rebellion takes into its head to bring about, not a change of government but a change of a regime, to smash once and for all the whole basis of relations between a ruler and ruled; to replace the people identified as rulers by a group hitherto identified as ruled, the movement is a revolution.”
So writes Sydney King in this challenging interpretation of the Berbice rebellion which occurred in 1763 when Berbice was under the Dutch. Buxton-born Sydney King is perhaps the most revolutionary figure in Guiana. He was Assistant General-Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party and was detained at Atkinson during the crisis 1953. He subsequently became Secretary of the People’s National Congress, schoolteacher by profession, he is principal of the County High School at Buxton. Buxton-born Sydney King is perhaps the most revolutionary figure in Guiana. He was Assistant General-Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party and was detained at Atkinson during the crisis 1953. He subsequently became Secretary of the People’s National Congress, schoolteacher by profession, he is principal of the County High School at Buxton.
CHALLENGING INTERPRETATION
The Berbice Slave Rebellion was an episode of worldwide historic significance. In order to be of worldwide significance an episode needs only to present new historical qualities that are at all significant. The magnitude of the event is not of the first importance. It is sufficient that in quality the event is a new, or contains a new historical precedent.
Yet, where a small number of human agents are able, all things taken into consideration, to achieve a result that is astonishing to reasonable men, historical magnitude has been produced.
Where a unique clash of forces has taken place, where unique, economic, social, spiritual and emotional factors are present, and then the historical significance cannot be hidden in “gaulin” waist coat pockets. The rising of the Berbice slaves is, on these conditions, a challenge to historians to place a major episode in an obscure country and involving an “obscure” people in its proper historical setting.
FEATURES
The rising of ‘63 took place before the revolt of the thirteen colonies in North America, before the Haitian revolution, a hundred years before the Paris Commune, a hundred and fifty years before the October revolution and nearly two hundred years before the launching of the Cuban perpetual revolution. It contains in embryo features of all these revolutions and it foreshadowed, as many other uprisings have done, some of Lenin’s revolutionary formulations. It could teach lessons to the Haitian slaves, to the Paris Communards, to the Castro guerrillas, the American rebels, and the October Bolsheviks. On the other hand, it is quite distinct from the English Revolution, the French Revolution, and the German Revolution of 1919. An attempt will be made on this bicentenary of the glorious Berbice Rising to put the rebellion in the place due to it in history. The attempt does not profess to say the last word, nor claim complete originality or accuracy. It is an attempt to draw what appears to be fair, human conclusions from the bare naked chronicles that give little help indeed to the writer that dares to interpret and not merely to record.
CONVULSIONS
The Juxtaposition of the Berbice Rising to the other armed explosions of the oppressed, the nearness or the relative historical distance of these uprisings, tell eloquently that the event took place in the context of world convulsions when the established order stood in jeopardy every hour and was to remain so eternally. The spirit of man, awakened by the Reformation, refined by the Renaissance and made vigilant by the industrial revolution was in the quest of liberation. It would be strange indeed, if Africa, the cradle of civilisation, could be untouched by this earthquake of uneasiness. And even if the “slumbering giant” had been drunk with the old wine of isolation, his sons, packed and shipped to the West Indies, so organically a part of the industrial Revolution, could not fail to be sensible of a salient and odious bondage. Slaves could be completely dehumanised, corrupted by terror, denationalised, crammed with self-pity, and self-hate, have the spirit broken to powder so that it ceased sighing; they could be deprived of their gods as they had been deprived of their goods, made to sink, sink, in the suck sand of despair. This undoubtedly happened to slaves, to thousands of slaves, to millions of slaves. But “Cuffy took death to them”
COMPETITION
The economic basis of the slave trade was the practice of capitalism in general and the mercantilist ideology in particular. The whole history of the traffic shows in sharp relief the competition of growing European nationalism. The system of Negro slavery developed with the rise of march antiales ideas and the decay of the system coincided with the decline of mercantilist ideas and the rise of Free Trade.
In 1763 when the Berbice slaves revolted, mercantilism was not dead, but dying. It was still strong enough to crush rebellion. It is disquieting to reflect that the decline of mercantilism did not put an end to the imperialist gunboat. crush rebellion. It is disquieting to reflect that the decline of mercantilism did not put an end to the imperialist gunboat. The Rebellion was an effective challenge to mercantilism in general and to the system of slavery in particular. It predated that greatest challenge of all which was to shake mercantilism to its very foundation, the revolt of the thirteen colonies in North America. A European idea expressed in economic policy, or uneconomic policy, was being challenged in precisely those places where it had been justifying itself. This is one aspect of the historical significance of the Berbice Rising.
PROPERTY
Before drawing the next conclusion, it is necessary to define the West Indian slave as an economic factor of production in his given historical context. He was a slave in so far as he was the property of another, in so far as he utterly lacked rights and surfeited in wrongs, in so far as he worked for nothing, there being no element of contract or consent in the subsistence rations which his master shovelled into him in order to keep up production. But in so far as he constituted the labour force for a capitalist enterprise, in which money was invested for profits, in so far as he was a slave without property of his own, the west Indian slave was a proletarian. He was the infant son of the modern industrial proletarian in one sense, and in another sense he was its father. The rebellion against his owners was not only a rebellion of property against property. It was a rebellion of proletarians against property owners.
There were present all the essential prerequisites of a proletarian revolution, eighty years before the publication of the Communist Manifesto. It was perhaps the first proletarian revolution in the history or capitalism and certainly the first in the western Hemisphere. Again, it is because they were true proletarians that they revolted.
It is necessary to explain for the casual reader the use at times of the term “revolution”
A rebellion is taken to be more or less organised armed resistance against authority with the primary intention of forcing a change of policy, or even of removing individual rulers. But when the same rebellion takes into its head to bring about, not a change of government but a change of a regime, to smash once and for all the whole basis of relations between a ruler and ruled; to replace the people identified as rulers by a group hitherto identified as ruled, the movement is a revolution. That is why it is here claim that the Berbice Rebellion was the first proletarian revolution in the history of capitalism, at least in the Western Hemisphere. This second aspect of the historical significance of the Berbice Rising.
PRODUCTION
Is it necessary to argue this point? In 1763 capitalist productions in agriculture was bloom in the Guiana settlements, as in all the West Indies. The joint stock owners or private owners invested in land, in tools, in slaves, and in equipment and made a profit out of the employment of these factors of production. They could not carry on this production without a dispossessed labour force. It was not merely surplus production, but in the context of a money economy, it was production for profit. It was not factory capitalism, but it was capitalism nevertheless. It was capitalism in the age of mercantilism, and that is what account for the fact that this glaring contradiction of slave labour in the context of capitalism was possible. In the Age of Free Trade capitalism dropped slave labour and began to recruit a labour force that was formally and physically free.
The Berbice slaves revolted against private property when the more advanced European counterparts, precisely because they were free and perhaps more because they were involved in the nation to extent that the Berbice slaves never were, could not conceive of a revolution. Could only vex the system with bitter and spasmodic rebellion?
GREATNESS
When the rebellion began it was perhaps no more than a rebellion against the immediate masters of the insurrectionists. But because they had taken the first step, and because they represented a sentiment that was so widespread among their brethren the uprising became a revolutionary movement against owners of property, for the slaves had come to realise that there could be no turning back after their challenge
When the force of the rebels grew from 150 to 900 and, then twice that number, as greatness of the moment gripped the Africans, and when, as a result things had come to the stage that the territory of Berbice, east of the Berbice River, was in hands of the rebels, when the slave leader could conceive the idea of a Treaty with the Dutch enemy, the Berbice rebellion took on the complexion of a national revolution. Cuffy's Letter to Van Hoogenheim was a declaration of Independence, a powerful claim to self-determination. Cuffy and his partisans were boldly attempting to build a nation.
The rebellion had made them potentially a nation. It forced them to recognise that it was impossible to realise the rights they claimed while they and their oppressors lived on the same territory. They were not a nation when the revolution began, but the realities of the struggle forced them to take up a national position. They could not realise the necessary proletarian aspirations of the uprising outside of the national context. So that the torch of national liberation was raised in the Western Hemisphere by the Berbice slaves. To accuse them of apartheid or of separatism is to forget, that they knew white men only as masters, capitalist, and imperialist oppressors. They showed no desire to expel those white soldiers who had deserted to their ranks and left the ranks of the company officials.
The third aspect of the historical significance of Berbice is the fact that a proletarian rising sought a national tent in order to be free to work out its own salvation. It was the apparent father of national revolutions in the Western Hemisphere.
The question may now be raised whether the revolution had it been let to live, would have pursued what could be identified at that time as proletarian aims and proletarian policy. It is hardly likely that such a course would have been followed. The most likely outcome was, that the slaves, torn as they were from their native environment and confronted with the management of plantations organised in a certain way, would imitate the state organisation of the Dutch West India Company.’
Cuffy had already styled himself, the Dutch governor of Berbice. This is probably contradicted by the history of the Bush Negroes of Surinam, But it appears that the Bush Negroes had escaped from the plantations whereas the Berbice slaves had taken control of them and would have to decide how to organise production. Unless they could very soon make a commercial nation, they might be forced to abandon sugar cultivation and turn to subsistence farming. It is true that 80 years after, the liberated Africans, after the Act of Emancipation, were able to create a new civilisation, the village system, showing a genius for cooperative enterprise. What they would have done if they had the old plantations to manage, considering the example open to them, is a matter of speculation.
The Berbice slaves were extremely resourceful and creative during the ten months that shook Berbice. Its hard core, or party, learning from the failure of ‘62, took the offensive from the very start, adumbrating guerrilla tactics in their use of forest and savannah; They had the enemy on the run. The principle that the defensive is the death of any uprising was clearly understood by them much Moore than? By the Paris commundaries who wanted in as vague a way as the Berbice slaves to change society but “did not want to start a civil war”.
The Berbice rebels took the offensive and overcame plantation after plantation. The Berbice whites were in total disarray. Their wisdom and their forts seemed to avail them nothing. Even after the arrival of the warship “Betsy” from Surinam, the revolutionaries remained on the offensive. When the Africans caught up with the Dutch again they, the Dutch, were concentrated at Plantation Dageraad which soon became the focal point of the war. It seemed to be one of the plantations on which the Dutch could find something of an African base.
In May, the rebels launched an attack on the Dutch, throwing all they had into the battle. Repulsed, the revolutionaries withdrew to their base and reconsidered their strategy. It was now time to throw diplomacy into the war, diplomacy in its best sense. The slave leadership wrote to the Dutch Governor a letter outstanding for its statesmanship and humanity. Cuffy proposed Peace with Honour and at the same time he began to prepare for an all out attack on Dageraad
THE SPLIT
It has happened so many times that an external factor has decided the fate of a movement and has proved to be the life and death of a cause.
When the revolutionary High Command split, doubtless on questions of strategy and tactics, the fate of the revolution, so far as it aimed at controlling the plantations, the property of the capitalists, was already decided by the arrival of the Dutch warships and soldiers. Still, it is possible that the split in the High Command, due in part to the new military situation, put the whole revolutionary movement on the defensive and made it easier for the imperialist troops to crush the rising. The Berbice rebellion has kindred features with the Haitian revolution, because Berbice, like Haiti, was a rising of slaves for rights to which they considered themselves entitled. Berbice had kindred features to the American revolution because Berbice was in effect a challenge to mercantilism and because in its later development it raised the banner of self-determination. It is unlike the American revolution because the revolt of the thirteen colonies was a revolt of property owners. It raised strikingly many of the questions which confronted the Russian proletariat in 1917 and guerrilla fighters the world over then to now.
Official historians of all trends are likely to scoff at many of the claims and judgments made for and in respect of the Berbice Revolution that failed. Disproving them or refuting them, however, may not be an easier matter. It is only to be hoped that
In the interests of the truth, trained historians, and even amateurs like the writer, will pitch into the discussion, with or with polemic and with all heat not unattended by light. May the discussion serve as a serious attempt to give to the Berbicians of ‘63 nothing more and nothing less than the place they have won for themselves in the history of men dying valiantly in order to live?
Source: Revolution…torch of Liberty Hoisted by Slaves: Berbice Slave Rebellion Sunday Chronicle, March 3, 1963: page 13
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“A rebellion is taken to be more or less organised armed resistance against authority with the primary intention of forcing a change of policy, or even of removing individual rulers.
But when the same rebellion takes into its head to bring about, not a change of government but a change of a regime, to smash once and for all the whole basis of relations between a ruler and ruled; to replace the people identified as rulers by a group hitherto identified as ruled, the movement is a revolution.”
So writes Sydney King in this challenging interpretation of the Berbice rebellion which occurred in 1763 when Berbice was under the Dutch. Buxton-born Sydney King is perhaps the most revolutionary figure in Guiana. He was Assistant General-Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party and was detained at Atkinson during the crisis 1953. He subsequently became Secretary of the People’s National Congress, schoolteacher by profession, he is principal of the County High School at Buxton. Buxton-born Sydney King is perhaps the most revolutionary figure in Guiana. He was Assistant General-Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party and was detained at Atkinson during the crisis 1953. He subsequently became Secretary of the People’s National Congress, schoolteacher by profession, he is principal of the County High School at Buxton.
CHALLENGING INTERPRETATION
The Berbice Slave Rebellion was an episode of worldwide historic significance. In order to be of worldwide significance an episode needs only to present new historical qualities that are at all significant. The magnitude of the event is not of the first importance. It is sufficient that in quality the event is a new, or contains a new historical precedent.
Yet, where a small number of human agents are able, all things taken into consideration, to achieve a result that is astonishing to reasonable men, historical magnitude has been produced.
Where a unique clash of forces has taken place, where unique, economic, social, spiritual and emotional factors are present, and then the historical significance cannot be hidden in “gaulin” waist coat pockets. The rising of the Berbice slaves is, on these conditions, a challenge to historians to place a major episode in an obscure country and involving an “obscure” people in its proper historical setting.
FEATURES
The rising of ‘63 took place before the revolt of the thirteen colonies in North America, before the Haitian revolution, a hundred years before the Paris Commune, a hundred and fifty years before the October revolution and nearly two hundred years before the launching of the Cuban perpetual revolution. It contains in embryo features of all these revolutions and it foreshadowed, as many other uprisings have done, some of Lenin’s revolutionary formulations. It could teach lessons to the Haitian slaves, to the Paris Communards, to the Castro guerrillas, the American rebels, and the October Bolsheviks. On the other hand, it is quite distinct from the English Revolution, the French Revolution, and the German Revolution of 1919. An attempt will be made on this bicentenary of the glorious Berbice Rising to put the rebellion in the place due to it in history. The attempt does not profess to say the last word, nor claim complete originality or accuracy. It is an attempt to draw what appears to be fair, human conclusions from the bare naked chronicles that give little help indeed to the writer that dares to interpret and not merely to record.
CONVULSIONS
The Juxtaposition of the Berbice Rising to the other armed explosions of the oppressed, the nearness or the relative historical distance of these uprisings, tell eloquently that the event took place in the context of world convulsions when the established order stood in jeopardy every hour and was to remain so eternally. The spirit of man, awakened by the Reformation, refined by the Renaissance and made vigilant by the industrial revolution was in the quest of liberation. It would be strange indeed, if Africa, the cradle of civilisation, could be untouched by this earthquake of uneasiness. And even if the “slumbering giant” had been drunk with the old wine of isolation, his sons, packed and shipped to the West Indies, so organically a part of the industrial Revolution, could not fail to be sensible of a salient and odious bondage. Slaves could be completely dehumanised, corrupted by terror, denationalised, crammed with self-pity, and self-hate, have the spirit broken to powder so that it ceased sighing; they could be deprived of their gods as they had been deprived of their goods, made to sink, sink, in the suck sand of despair. This undoubtedly happened to slaves, to thousands of slaves, to millions of slaves. But “Cuffy took death to them”
COMPETITION
The economic basis of the slave trade was the practice of capitalism in general and the mercantilist ideology in particular. The whole history of the traffic shows in sharp relief the competition of growing European nationalism. The system of Negro slavery developed with the rise of march antiales ideas and the decay of the system coincided with the decline of mercantilist ideas and the rise of Free Trade.
In 1763 when the Berbice slaves revolted, mercantilism was not dead, but dying. It was still strong enough to crush rebellion. It is disquieting to reflect that the decline of mercantilism did not put an end to the imperialist gunboat. crush rebellion. It is disquieting to reflect that the decline of mercantilism did not put an end to the imperialist gunboat. The Rebellion was an effective challenge to mercantilism in general and to the system of slavery in particular. It predated that greatest challenge of all which was to shake mercantilism to its very foundation, the revolt of the thirteen colonies in North America. A European idea expressed in economic policy, or uneconomic policy, was being challenged in precisely those places where it had been justifying itself. This is one aspect of the historical significance of the Berbice Rising.
PROPERTY
Before drawing the next conclusion, it is necessary to define the West Indian slave as an economic factor of production in his given historical context. He was a slave in so far as he was the property of another, in so far as he utterly lacked rights and surfeited in wrongs, in so far as he worked for nothing, there being no element of contract or consent in the subsistence rations which his master shovelled into him in order to keep up production. But in so far as he constituted the labour force for a capitalist enterprise, in which money was invested for profits, in so far as he was a slave without property of his own, the west Indian slave was a proletarian. He was the infant son of the modern industrial proletarian in one sense, and in another sense he was its father. The rebellion against his owners was not only a rebellion of property against property. It was a rebellion of proletarians against property owners.
There were present all the essential prerequisites of a proletarian revolution, eighty years before the publication of the Communist Manifesto. It was perhaps the first proletarian revolution in the history or capitalism and certainly the first in the western Hemisphere. Again, it is because they were true proletarians that they revolted.
It is necessary to explain for the casual reader the use at times of the term “revolution”
A rebellion is taken to be more or less organised armed resistance against authority with the primary intention of forcing a change of policy, or even of removing individual rulers. But when the same rebellion takes into its head to bring about, not a change of government but a change of a regime, to smash once and for all the whole basis of relations between a ruler and ruled; to replace the people identified as rulers by a group hitherto identified as ruled, the movement is a revolution. That is why it is here claim that the Berbice Rebellion was the first proletarian revolution in the history of capitalism, at least in the Western Hemisphere. This second aspect of the historical significance of the Berbice Rising.
PRODUCTION
Is it necessary to argue this point? In 1763 capitalist productions in agriculture was bloom in the Guiana settlements, as in all the West Indies. The joint stock owners or private owners invested in land, in tools, in slaves, and in equipment and made a profit out of the employment of these factors of production. They could not carry on this production without a dispossessed labour force. It was not merely surplus production, but in the context of a money economy, it was production for profit. It was not factory capitalism, but it was capitalism nevertheless. It was capitalism in the age of mercantilism, and that is what account for the fact that this glaring contradiction of slave labour in the context of capitalism was possible. In the Age of Free Trade capitalism dropped slave labour and began to recruit a labour force that was formally and physically free.
The Berbice slaves revolted against private property when the more advanced European counterparts, precisely because they were free and perhaps more because they were involved in the nation to extent that the Berbice slaves never were, could not conceive of a revolution. Could only vex the system with bitter and spasmodic rebellion?
GREATNESS
When the rebellion began it was perhaps no more than a rebellion against the immediate masters of the insurrectionists. But because they had taken the first step, and because they represented a sentiment that was so widespread among their brethren the uprising became a revolutionary movement against owners of property, for the slaves had come to realise that there could be no turning back after their challenge
When the force of the rebels grew from 150 to 900 and, then twice that number, as greatness of the moment gripped the Africans, and when, as a result things had come to the stage that the territory of Berbice, east of the Berbice River, was in hands of the rebels, when the slave leader could conceive the idea of a Treaty with the Dutch enemy, the Berbice rebellion took on the complexion of a national revolution. Cuffy's Letter to Van Hoogenheim was a declaration of Independence, a powerful claim to self-determination. Cuffy and his partisans were boldly attempting to build a nation.
The rebellion had made them potentially a nation. It forced them to recognise that it was impossible to realise the rights they claimed while they and their oppressors lived on the same territory. They were not a nation when the revolution began, but the realities of the struggle forced them to take up a national position. They could not realise the necessary proletarian aspirations of the uprising outside of the national context. So that the torch of national liberation was raised in the Western Hemisphere by the Berbice slaves. To accuse them of apartheid or of separatism is to forget, that they knew white men only as masters, capitalist, and imperialist oppressors. They showed no desire to expel those white soldiers who had deserted to their ranks and left the ranks of the company officials.
The third aspect of the historical significance of Berbice is the fact that a proletarian rising sought a national tent in order to be free to work out its own salvation. It was the apparent father of national revolutions in the Western Hemisphere.
The question may now be raised whether the revolution had it been let to live, would have pursued what could be identified at that time as proletarian aims and proletarian policy. It is hardly likely that such a course would have been followed. The most likely outcome was, that the slaves, torn as they were from their native environment and confronted with the management of plantations organised in a certain way, would imitate the state organisation of the Dutch West India Company.’
Cuffy had already styled himself, the Dutch governor of Berbice. This is probably contradicted by the history of the Bush Negroes of Surinam, But it appears that the Bush Negroes had escaped from the plantations whereas the Berbice slaves had taken control of them and would have to decide how to organise production. Unless they could very soon make a commercial nation, they might be forced to abandon sugar cultivation and turn to subsistence farming. It is true that 80 years after, the liberated Africans, after the Act of Emancipation, were able to create a new civilisation, the village system, showing a genius for cooperative enterprise. What they would have done if they had the old plantations to manage, considering the example open to them, is a matter of speculation.
The Berbice slaves were extremely resourceful and creative during the ten months that shook Berbice. Its hard core, or party, learning from the failure of ‘62, took the offensive from the very start, adumbrating guerrilla tactics in their use of forest and savannah; They had the enemy on the run. The principle that the defensive is the death of any uprising was clearly understood by them much Moore than? By the Paris commundaries who wanted in as vague a way as the Berbice slaves to change society but “did not want to start a civil war”.
The Berbice rebels took the offensive and overcame plantation after plantation. The Berbice whites were in total disarray. Their wisdom and their forts seemed to avail them nothing. Even after the arrival of the warship “Betsy” from Surinam, the revolutionaries remained on the offensive. When the Africans caught up with the Dutch again they, the Dutch, were concentrated at Plantation Dageraad which soon became the focal point of the war. It seemed to be one of the plantations on which the Dutch could find something of an African base.
In May, the rebels launched an attack on the Dutch, throwing all they had into the battle. Repulsed, the revolutionaries withdrew to their base and reconsidered their strategy. It was now time to throw diplomacy into the war, diplomacy in its best sense. The slave leadership wrote to the Dutch Governor a letter outstanding for its statesmanship and humanity. Cuffy proposed Peace with Honour and at the same time he began to prepare for an all out attack on Dageraad
THE SPLIT
It has happened so many times that an external factor has decided the fate of a movement and has proved to be the life and death of a cause.
When the revolutionary High Command split, doubtless on questions of strategy and tactics, the fate of the revolution, so far as it aimed at controlling the plantations, the property of the capitalists, was already decided by the arrival of the Dutch warships and soldiers. Still, it is possible that the split in the High Command, due in part to the new military situation, put the whole revolutionary movement on the defensive and made it easier for the imperialist troops to crush the rising. The Berbice rebellion has kindred features with the Haitian revolution, because Berbice, like Haiti, was a rising of slaves for rights to which they considered themselves entitled. Berbice had kindred features to the American revolution because Berbice was in effect a challenge to mercantilism and because in its later development it raised the banner of self-determination. It is unlike the American revolution because the revolt of the thirteen colonies was a revolt of property owners. It raised strikingly many of the questions which confronted the Russian proletariat in 1917 and guerrilla fighters the world over then to now.
Official historians of all trends are likely to scoff at many of the claims and judgments made for and in respect of the Berbice Revolution that failed. Disproving them or refuting them, however, may not be an easier matter. It is only to be hoped that
In the interests of the truth, trained historians, and even amateurs like the writer, will pitch into the discussion, with or with polemic and with all heat not unattended by light. May the discussion serve as a serious attempt to give to the Berbicians of ‘63 nothing more and nothing less than the place they have won for themselves in the history of men dying valiantly in order to live?
Source: Revolution…torch of Liberty Hoisted by Slaves: Berbice Slave Rebellion Sunday Chronicle, March 3, 1963: page 13
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Monday, November 14, 2011
Sydney King No Part of Burnham’s Plan
Sydney King: No Part of Burnham’s Plan - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, July 21, 1961
At the request of many persons we republish today the statement by Mr. Sydney King expressing disagreement with the independence plan of the leader of the P.N. C. Mr. L. F. S. Burnham
Mr. King said: -
I had just begun to be active again, carrying on the P.N. C. platform an all-out attack on the P. P. P. When a terrible shock came. The P.N. C. Leader, apparently with the consent of the executive, decided that if Jagan won he, Burnham would go with Jagan to London to help Jagan get Independence.
Over the past two months I have swallowed much in order to keep the African people together so that no other race, win or lose, should have jurisdiction over them. Now it is impossible not to speak out. The whole future of the Africans and of race relations here hang on Burnham’s statements and plan. Another Comrade and I, the only two men who understand the situation in all its aspects, have a plan which no true Guianese can oppose. I give it to you with his consent. It can give us all we want - freedom, socialism of a Guianese form racial equality. But first things first - the statements by the Leader.
Speaking at La Penitence on July 10, 1961, Burnham said: the moment voters decide by 6:00 P.M. on August 21 Jagan could take a plane for London and a seat would be reserved for me, I shall be with him to demand independence for a government which the people have put into power - I am not going to oppose independence for British Guiana under the PPP (“Evening Post” July 11, 1961)
On July 1961 at Campbellville, Mr. Burnham returned to the subject. He “emphatically declared”:
“WE DEAD”
“Whether we win or lose the general election we shall not stand in the way of independence after August 21 next. “We will not merge with the P. P, P, or U. F. and we are not interested in coalition Government.”
Mr. Burnham said that there was no question of the United Force winning the elections, and if the P. N. C. Fail to control the Government then they will give full support to the People’s Progressive Party in securing Independence for British Guiana. (“Guiana Graphic” July 14, 1961)
Finally, in a statement to the “Graphic” given on July 14, 1941, Mr. Burnham “clarified” what he had previously been reported as saying: “My support is limited to the demand for independence and has nothing to do with the ideology or programme of any party? Whichever party is returned in a majority either directly or indirectly has got the right to lead the country to independence.” (“Guiana Graphic” July 15, 1961)
In clarifying his position in this way, Mr. Burnham has confirmed our worst fears. The Leader who has warned the people of the dangers of independence under the PPP - “if we lose we done, we dead,” - is now speaking as if we did not live in BG but in England or in Jamaica or in Ghana where more or less a single race is found. Our position is peculiar. This is not a land of one race. But Mr. Burnham is a brilliant man.
WORDS OF PASSION
I wonder if Jagan remembered the rules of old fashioned English constitutional law when he wrote his petition to UNO. Mr. Burnham had asked Vigilance to write on it and this is part of what Vigilance wrote with the Leader’s approval: “Jagan finds words of passion to plead the cause of the East Indian before the U.N.O. He speaks of their “toil and sweat under deplorable working conditions,” “their starvation wages” the noncompulsory education of the East Indian girl, the misery of the Indian of his women and children. Yet never a word on the suffering of the other races. He speaks of the contribution of the East Indian to Guiana’s economy but not a word of the contribution of the other races. He speaks of success and wealth among the Portuguese and Africans. Of the latter he writes, “Numerically, they are the majority in the civil service, and many of them practice the leading professions.” Yet he makes no mention of the wealthy Indians nor of their professional men. Only misery is the lot of the Indian -
This is Jagan’s petition for independence. All in the holy name of freedom. -
“It there anyone who doubts now, Jagan’s plot? “ - Vigilance
this is the same Jagan that our Leader is going to give “full support”
BLOODY BATTLE
Read, Mr. Burnham’s first statement again. What does he mean when he talks of “the people?”
He says that if the PPP wins it will be a Government which the people has put into power. Everyone knows that only the east Indian people will vote Jagan in.
In New Nation of Friday, February 24, 1961, Vigilance quoted Jagan as saying in Thunder: “Is it that Mr. Burnham intends to accept the will of the people and is now planning to have a bloody rebellion if the will of the people be in favour of the P.P.P.?”
Thunder was giving its opinion on a reported statement of Mr. Burnham’s that “if the PPP gets into power the only way we could regain freedom is by a bloody battle.” Vigilance wrote: Is Burnham the Minister of Police, or is it Rai? The P. P, P, distrusts the Police - “necessary part of the machinery of Government.” And for one reason - it is predominantly African.”
Vigilance added. “Let up hope that Jagan believes that the “will of the people” also includes “the will of the Africans.”
Is our Leader now agreeing that the will of Jagan’s people whom Jagan represented at U.N.O. last November is the “will of the people?”
This is what we wish the Africans to realize and the Indians to realize: if either race dominates there will be no peace.
Jagan does not hide his attitude. He wrote of his people as “nationally oppressed” among Guianese. His independence will be only for them. Then the oppressors have to look out. Jagan, when the Halle report was published shouted “injustice!” he said in Berbice: “I told the Governor that in other countries injustices like this are settled by guns.” At La Penitence and again at Buxton Jagan threatened to shoot up the opposition if it won. Our Leader has said publicly, thrice in one week: if P.P. P. Wins I will help Jagan get Independence.
Mr. Burnham is our Leader. I do not understand him, especially after the UNO petition and the Halle report.
At this point I must make my position clear. I am sure that Burnham’s statement is dangerous to the African people and will give Indian racists an advantage over us. Such a plan leads direct to slavery. I cannot be any part of Burnham’s plan. I did not leave Jagan’s party so as to help Jagan get independence for his East Indian people who are nationally oppressed in Jagan’s opinion. Before I give the plan worked out by vigilance, let me remind you of Jagan’s own ideas in his own words in his own book:
“Forbidden Freedom” After discussing the situation under slavery and pointing out the Amerindians as a sort of militia or police became a necessary part of government. Jagan goes on to slander the Africans, only a few hundred of whom could have been in the police force, majority being workers.
In the new situation under the British, therefore, it was the Africans who became the necessary part of the general machinery of Government. Whenever, sugar workers were shot in the Plantations, whether at Enmore, Ruimveldt or Leonora, it was inevitably African policemen shooting Indian workers.”
Jagan is spiteful. He shouted to a crowd at Bourda Green, Georgetown, who asked him why he had closed down the housing programme that employed them. “Al you didn’t put me deh.” (Your votes did not put me in). Burnham is the Leader. His plan is to help Jagan to win Independence. A seat is reserved for him on Jagan’s plane, he boasts, Mr. Burnham knows of Jagan’s plans to settle people from the east in BG half a million Indians are to be settled here. What will the leader do at that stage? What is his big trump card under the table?
ENTIRELY FALSE
A word of warning. You have been told that Vigilance and I have been undermining the Party Leader. This entire false. We were glad that there was someone who liked to work as Leader as neither of us is politically ambitious. Things were going well until the powerful group of middle class Georgetown women asserted itself. It is they who took Odo away from the plan. All his useful gifts will be worth nothing while the petticoat Government of the Party continues. His present advisers, whoever they are have not a single helpful idea. They see the elections as a cricket match. They play into Janet Jagan’s hands. The boundary with Venezuela should be settled before independence, it is not settled yet and Odo is willing to go with Jagan. The boundary is not settled yet and Burnham is demanding the withdrawal of British troops much to the delight of Janet Jagan.
Burnham is your chosen Leader. No one must rival him. It cannot be tolerated in our situation. I feel he is playing straight into Jagan’s hands. He thinks he is going to travel to London with Jagan, Never mind; I am keeping myself free from the election mess and will not be committed to this folly. You MUST vote Burnham. You MUST vote PNC. You have to vote if they put up as candidates a lump of tar in the shape of a man. But if Burnham thinks that, in the cause of defeat, he will hand you over to Jagan and if Jagan thinks he is going to rule you, each of them is making a terrible mistake. It is then that Vigilance and I will break our silence. Vigilance is free. I am keeping out to make myself free to be of real service to you later on. Use the elections to show that you stand fast and firm in a united bloc. After that, if Jagan wins, he has lose so far as you are concerned. And if Burnham wins, Jagan’s plans for the use of guns will be defeated. Now, read our plan and see what you think of it.
NOT DEMOCRACY
Here is what we planned. As this is a multiracial society, with East Indians as the largest and most united group, with Africans coming next, and with other minority groups, a special solution is necessary. Democracy as practice in Britain is not the solution for us at this stage. Jagan who leads the East Indians masks his movement under Socialism so as to defend himself against attack from outside, especially from the Afro-Asiatic group. Together with this he is always at pains to smear the African movement by calling it the agent of imperialism and backwardness. We decided, therefore, to organize the Africans as a strongly counter bloc on a socialist platform and programme that could not be mistaken for a booker’s agency. Our understanding of socialism in British Guiana - Vigilance and I - was cooperative in every field of industry and agriculture. It could mean nothing else here. Vigilance wrote a long essay on Co-operatives for Guiana’s New Road and for the Party’s Guidance. What appears in the New Road now is my composition. The slogan “no man, no old woman and no child shall go to bed hungry” was the brain child of Vigilance. So also our socialist aim “Every citizen shall have the right to full employment,” So too the platform piece that women shall have a free day every week at special camps where the best meals will be cheap. His was the famous declaration of independence containing the political philosophy of the PNC, now forming the introduction to Guiana’s new road. His is the philosophy of industrialization. I myself wrote the sections on Labour Cooperatives and Local government. Vigilance wrote the blue prints of the new city in the interior - a cooperative city.
COOPERATIVES
Together we prepared Burnham for his second famous broadcast of March 27, 1961 working between 1:00 a.m. and 5:40 a.m., with him. We were preparing the people for socialism a system of cooperatives in all fields for all races - shops, restaurants, industries, workshops, fisheries, farms, ranches and so on. This is all socialism could mean here. Jagan’s ideas are fantastic bragging.
We have known all along that the Indians would not trust a black leader and that the Africans would not trust an Indian leader. We could see then that any attempt of the one to rule the other will lead to blood baths. Jagan had spoken of bringing Ghana into our affairs. We are going to advise Burnham to invite India, Ghana and Britain. Britain had offered freedom and we wished her to be associated. We had nothing to hide.
In their presence, Burnham should say to Jagan: You say you are socialist. Our people are organized for socialism, in which all economic development will be plotted along socialist cooperative lines. No anti-religion, confiscation, etc. Let us promote the prosperity of the people and avoid the emergence of wealthy classes of exploiters in either group, thus wiping out conflicts on grounds of rivalry.
SPECIAL SOLUTION
But your people, Jagan, do not trust a black leader: and my people do not trust an Indian leader. Therefore we must find a special solution and not pretend. Our problem is similar to that of India in 1947. Even Gandhi could not prevent what happened. Our case is not far from that of Cyprus. Let us not prevent. You went to UNO and spoke only for your own race. Here is our special solution:
Joint and equal Prime Ministership according to Law, between the Leaders of the Indian and African people.
An independent watch committee established by Law, made up of people of all races and especially the minorities, to supervise the spending of government funds and the benefits derived by various races. The same Committee will keep a watch over Jobs and employment at all levels to see that justice is done to all races.
A socialist system without foreign links: and a state neutral By Law, of Russia and the USA. By socialism must be understood a system of co-operatives in all fields, existing private enterprise and some state enterprise; production for needs; respect for all religions and for the religious tradition of our peoples.
If the power drunk Jagan, wanting to be top dog as usual should agree to this plan, all well and good. If he rejected it, we should refuse to be ruled by him and call for a division of the country, before independence into three Zones - an African Zone, an Indian Zone and a free Zone in which those who wish to live with other races may do so. The cities will be free.
That is the plan. Equality of rights and power for African and Indian as custodians of the whole. Justice by Law for minorities. Socialism without the blackmail of Russian might or American bayonets on either side. Joint and equal Premiership. Partition as a last resort. This plan can end all cause of racial antagonism and mistrust. Our co-ops will lay the economic foundation for better race relations. I repeat: this is our plan. It is a plan for our nation. It is the only plan so far that can work. It asks no one race to be the slave of the other. I am opposed to the leader’s airplane solution. But I cannot confuse the issue. I will reserve myself for later service. If the leader changes his position and puts forward a plan like this or a better one I will ****** my decision not to ******.
Do not ask me to accept slavery and to work miracles. I cannot stand on a platform that wants to hand you over to Jagan. But this is the people’s fight. You must vote PNC, so that when the elections are over your numbers can be counted and a case against your slavery can be made out by those who are free or a case against Jagan’s threats if the PNC wins.
HAND AND FOOT
When I claimed some months ago that the US money raising campaign was somehow tied up with the US Government I was told it was not so. Dr. C. H. Denbow has gone to the US and has just met the Help Guiana Committee. He says it has “full accreditation with the US Government.” How can our leaders force Jagan off the Russian adventure when they tie themselves up with the USA?
Jagan is making close ties with Venezuela. On the eve of our elections, Betanncourt sends best wishes to Jagan. Jagan is encouraging millions of dollars of Venezuelan investment in British Guiana. And these people have designs on part of our country. Jagan is offering, colonial that he is to have our bauxite processed by Venezuelan hydroelectricity! We are to be tied hand and foot and we are asked to help Jagan win independence.
Do not underestimate the dangers of independence under Jagan. No race should make light of it, least of all the African. Vote PNC and show your leader that you are not weak. You will not be sold the election now becomes a bargaining point between two forces, make your side of the bargain heavy by voting for any candidate put up by the PNC we shall do the best we can to turn your solidarity to the best advantage for the Africans so as to give equality and justice to all races, hold fast be like a rock.
RISE FOR BATTLE
I end with a quotation from Vigilance: “Black people of Guiana have pity on yourselves, for no one else will pity you. Pity your children, for who will pity them? Pity the hungry, pity the sick, pity the aged, and pity the erring ones. Pity those of every race who suffer, who cry for bread, for liberty.”
Rise for the battle. We are the vanguard. We cannot sleep. We must not die. The vultures are hovering near. We can hear their harsh, fiendish, soulless cries. Their foul breath insults us. They are sharpening their talons, grinding their beaks, watching, waiting, for us to die, yearning to tear our hearts out. Stand up, comrades. Close ranks. Pierce them with your eyes.
Those who live are those who fight. Vultures fear and flee the living. Then live, comrades! Live!
It is more important than ever to ignore the U.F. since our safety is clearly threatened. There is hope yet for salvation. But your solidarity at the elections must be even greater than before. We shall be waiting, by God’s grace to advance the correct ideas at the right time.” Sydney King
Source: Sydney King: No Part of Burnham’s Plan - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, July 21, 1961
At the request of many persons we republish today the statement by Mr. Sydney King expressing disagreement with the independence plan of the leader of the P.N. C. Mr. L. F. S. Burnham
Mr. King said: -
I had just begun to be active again, carrying on the P.N. C. platform an all-out attack on the P. P. P. When a terrible shock came. The P.N. C. Leader, apparently with the consent of the executive, decided that if Jagan won he, Burnham would go with Jagan to London to help Jagan get Independence.
Over the past two months I have swallowed much in order to keep the African people together so that no other race, win or lose, should have jurisdiction over them. Now it is impossible not to speak out. The whole future of the Africans and of race relations here hang on Burnham’s statements and plan. Another Comrade and I, the only two men who understand the situation in all its aspects, have a plan which no true Guianese can oppose. I give it to you with his consent. It can give us all we want - freedom, socialism of a Guianese form racial equality. But first things first - the statements by the Leader.
Speaking at La Penitence on July 10, 1961, Burnham said: the moment voters decide by 6:00 P.M. on August 21 Jagan could take a plane for London and a seat would be reserved for me, I shall be with him to demand independence for a government which the people have put into power - I am not going to oppose independence for British Guiana under the PPP (“Evening Post” July 11, 1961)
On July 1961 at Campbellville, Mr. Burnham returned to the subject. He “emphatically declared”:
“WE DEAD”
“Whether we win or lose the general election we shall not stand in the way of independence after August 21 next. “We will not merge with the P. P, P, or U. F. and we are not interested in coalition Government.”
Mr. Burnham said that there was no question of the United Force winning the elections, and if the P. N. C. Fail to control the Government then they will give full support to the People’s Progressive Party in securing Independence for British Guiana. (“Guiana Graphic” July 14, 1961)
Finally, in a statement to the “Graphic” given on July 14, 1941, Mr. Burnham “clarified” what he had previously been reported as saying: “My support is limited to the demand for independence and has nothing to do with the ideology or programme of any party? Whichever party is returned in a majority either directly or indirectly has got the right to lead the country to independence.” (“Guiana Graphic” July 15, 1961)
In clarifying his position in this way, Mr. Burnham has confirmed our worst fears. The Leader who has warned the people of the dangers of independence under the PPP - “if we lose we done, we dead,” - is now speaking as if we did not live in BG but in England or in Jamaica or in Ghana where more or less a single race is found. Our position is peculiar. This is not a land of one race. But Mr. Burnham is a brilliant man.
WORDS OF PASSION
I wonder if Jagan remembered the rules of old fashioned English constitutional law when he wrote his petition to UNO. Mr. Burnham had asked Vigilance to write on it and this is part of what Vigilance wrote with the Leader’s approval: “Jagan finds words of passion to plead the cause of the East Indian before the U.N.O. He speaks of their “toil and sweat under deplorable working conditions,” “their starvation wages” the noncompulsory education of the East Indian girl, the misery of the Indian of his women and children. Yet never a word on the suffering of the other races. He speaks of the contribution of the East Indian to Guiana’s economy but not a word of the contribution of the other races. He speaks of success and wealth among the Portuguese and Africans. Of the latter he writes, “Numerically, they are the majority in the civil service, and many of them practice the leading professions.” Yet he makes no mention of the wealthy Indians nor of their professional men. Only misery is the lot of the Indian -
This is Jagan’s petition for independence. All in the holy name of freedom. -
“It there anyone who doubts now, Jagan’s plot? “ - Vigilance
this is the same Jagan that our Leader is going to give “full support”
BLOODY BATTLE
Read, Mr. Burnham’s first statement again. What does he mean when he talks of “the people?”
He says that if the PPP wins it will be a Government which the people has put into power. Everyone knows that only the east Indian people will vote Jagan in.
In New Nation of Friday, February 24, 1961, Vigilance quoted Jagan as saying in Thunder: “Is it that Mr. Burnham intends to accept the will of the people and is now planning to have a bloody rebellion if the will of the people be in favour of the P.P.P.?”
Thunder was giving its opinion on a reported statement of Mr. Burnham’s that “if the PPP gets into power the only way we could regain freedom is by a bloody battle.” Vigilance wrote: Is Burnham the Minister of Police, or is it Rai? The P. P, P, distrusts the Police - “necessary part of the machinery of Government.” And for one reason - it is predominantly African.”
Vigilance added. “Let up hope that Jagan believes that the “will of the people” also includes “the will of the Africans.”
Is our Leader now agreeing that the will of Jagan’s people whom Jagan represented at U.N.O. last November is the “will of the people?”
This is what we wish the Africans to realize and the Indians to realize: if either race dominates there will be no peace.
Jagan does not hide his attitude. He wrote of his people as “nationally oppressed” among Guianese. His independence will be only for them. Then the oppressors have to look out. Jagan, when the Halle report was published shouted “injustice!” he said in Berbice: “I told the Governor that in other countries injustices like this are settled by guns.” At La Penitence and again at Buxton Jagan threatened to shoot up the opposition if it won. Our Leader has said publicly, thrice in one week: if P.P. P. Wins I will help Jagan get Independence.
Mr. Burnham is our Leader. I do not understand him, especially after the UNO petition and the Halle report.
At this point I must make my position clear. I am sure that Burnham’s statement is dangerous to the African people and will give Indian racists an advantage over us. Such a plan leads direct to slavery. I cannot be any part of Burnham’s plan. I did not leave Jagan’s party so as to help Jagan get independence for his East Indian people who are nationally oppressed in Jagan’s opinion. Before I give the plan worked out by vigilance, let me remind you of Jagan’s own ideas in his own words in his own book:
“Forbidden Freedom” After discussing the situation under slavery and pointing out the Amerindians as a sort of militia or police became a necessary part of government. Jagan goes on to slander the Africans, only a few hundred of whom could have been in the police force, majority being workers.
In the new situation under the British, therefore, it was the Africans who became the necessary part of the general machinery of Government. Whenever, sugar workers were shot in the Plantations, whether at Enmore, Ruimveldt or Leonora, it was inevitably African policemen shooting Indian workers.”
Jagan is spiteful. He shouted to a crowd at Bourda Green, Georgetown, who asked him why he had closed down the housing programme that employed them. “Al you didn’t put me deh.” (Your votes did not put me in). Burnham is the Leader. His plan is to help Jagan to win Independence. A seat is reserved for him on Jagan’s plane, he boasts, Mr. Burnham knows of Jagan’s plans to settle people from the east in BG half a million Indians are to be settled here. What will the leader do at that stage? What is his big trump card under the table?
ENTIRELY FALSE
A word of warning. You have been told that Vigilance and I have been undermining the Party Leader. This entire false. We were glad that there was someone who liked to work as Leader as neither of us is politically ambitious. Things were going well until the powerful group of middle class Georgetown women asserted itself. It is they who took Odo away from the plan. All his useful gifts will be worth nothing while the petticoat Government of the Party continues. His present advisers, whoever they are have not a single helpful idea. They see the elections as a cricket match. They play into Janet Jagan’s hands. The boundary with Venezuela should be settled before independence, it is not settled yet and Odo is willing to go with Jagan. The boundary is not settled yet and Burnham is demanding the withdrawal of British troops much to the delight of Janet Jagan.
Burnham is your chosen Leader. No one must rival him. It cannot be tolerated in our situation. I feel he is playing straight into Jagan’s hands. He thinks he is going to travel to London with Jagan, Never mind; I am keeping myself free from the election mess and will not be committed to this folly. You MUST vote Burnham. You MUST vote PNC. You have to vote if they put up as candidates a lump of tar in the shape of a man. But if Burnham thinks that, in the cause of defeat, he will hand you over to Jagan and if Jagan thinks he is going to rule you, each of them is making a terrible mistake. It is then that Vigilance and I will break our silence. Vigilance is free. I am keeping out to make myself free to be of real service to you later on. Use the elections to show that you stand fast and firm in a united bloc. After that, if Jagan wins, he has lose so far as you are concerned. And if Burnham wins, Jagan’s plans for the use of guns will be defeated. Now, read our plan and see what you think of it.
NOT DEMOCRACY
Here is what we planned. As this is a multiracial society, with East Indians as the largest and most united group, with Africans coming next, and with other minority groups, a special solution is necessary. Democracy as practice in Britain is not the solution for us at this stage. Jagan who leads the East Indians masks his movement under Socialism so as to defend himself against attack from outside, especially from the Afro-Asiatic group. Together with this he is always at pains to smear the African movement by calling it the agent of imperialism and backwardness. We decided, therefore, to organize the Africans as a strongly counter bloc on a socialist platform and programme that could not be mistaken for a booker’s agency. Our understanding of socialism in British Guiana - Vigilance and I - was cooperative in every field of industry and agriculture. It could mean nothing else here. Vigilance wrote a long essay on Co-operatives for Guiana’s New Road and for the Party’s Guidance. What appears in the New Road now is my composition. The slogan “no man, no old woman and no child shall go to bed hungry” was the brain child of Vigilance. So also our socialist aim “Every citizen shall have the right to full employment,” So too the platform piece that women shall have a free day every week at special camps where the best meals will be cheap. His was the famous declaration of independence containing the political philosophy of the PNC, now forming the introduction to Guiana’s new road. His is the philosophy of industrialization. I myself wrote the sections on Labour Cooperatives and Local government. Vigilance wrote the blue prints of the new city in the interior - a cooperative city.
COOPERATIVES
Together we prepared Burnham for his second famous broadcast of March 27, 1961 working between 1:00 a.m. and 5:40 a.m., with him. We were preparing the people for socialism a system of cooperatives in all fields for all races - shops, restaurants, industries, workshops, fisheries, farms, ranches and so on. This is all socialism could mean here. Jagan’s ideas are fantastic bragging.
We have known all along that the Indians would not trust a black leader and that the Africans would not trust an Indian leader. We could see then that any attempt of the one to rule the other will lead to blood baths. Jagan had spoken of bringing Ghana into our affairs. We are going to advise Burnham to invite India, Ghana and Britain. Britain had offered freedom and we wished her to be associated. We had nothing to hide.
In their presence, Burnham should say to Jagan: You say you are socialist. Our people are organized for socialism, in which all economic development will be plotted along socialist cooperative lines. No anti-religion, confiscation, etc. Let us promote the prosperity of the people and avoid the emergence of wealthy classes of exploiters in either group, thus wiping out conflicts on grounds of rivalry.
SPECIAL SOLUTION
But your people, Jagan, do not trust a black leader: and my people do not trust an Indian leader. Therefore we must find a special solution and not pretend. Our problem is similar to that of India in 1947. Even Gandhi could not prevent what happened. Our case is not far from that of Cyprus. Let us not prevent. You went to UNO and spoke only for your own race. Here is our special solution:
Joint and equal Prime Ministership according to Law, between the Leaders of the Indian and African people.
An independent watch committee established by Law, made up of people of all races and especially the minorities, to supervise the spending of government funds and the benefits derived by various races. The same Committee will keep a watch over Jobs and employment at all levels to see that justice is done to all races.
A socialist system without foreign links: and a state neutral By Law, of Russia and the USA. By socialism must be understood a system of co-operatives in all fields, existing private enterprise and some state enterprise; production for needs; respect for all religions and for the religious tradition of our peoples.
If the power drunk Jagan, wanting to be top dog as usual should agree to this plan, all well and good. If he rejected it, we should refuse to be ruled by him and call for a division of the country, before independence into three Zones - an African Zone, an Indian Zone and a free Zone in which those who wish to live with other races may do so. The cities will be free.
That is the plan. Equality of rights and power for African and Indian as custodians of the whole. Justice by Law for minorities. Socialism without the blackmail of Russian might or American bayonets on either side. Joint and equal Premiership. Partition as a last resort. This plan can end all cause of racial antagonism and mistrust. Our co-ops will lay the economic foundation for better race relations. I repeat: this is our plan. It is a plan for our nation. It is the only plan so far that can work. It asks no one race to be the slave of the other. I am opposed to the leader’s airplane solution. But I cannot confuse the issue. I will reserve myself for later service. If the leader changes his position and puts forward a plan like this or a better one I will ****** my decision not to ******.
Do not ask me to accept slavery and to work miracles. I cannot stand on a platform that wants to hand you over to Jagan. But this is the people’s fight. You must vote PNC, so that when the elections are over your numbers can be counted and a case against your slavery can be made out by those who are free or a case against Jagan’s threats if the PNC wins.
HAND AND FOOT
When I claimed some months ago that the US money raising campaign was somehow tied up with the US Government I was told it was not so. Dr. C. H. Denbow has gone to the US and has just met the Help Guiana Committee. He says it has “full accreditation with the US Government.” How can our leaders force Jagan off the Russian adventure when they tie themselves up with the USA?
Jagan is making close ties with Venezuela. On the eve of our elections, Betanncourt sends best wishes to Jagan. Jagan is encouraging millions of dollars of Venezuelan investment in British Guiana. And these people have designs on part of our country. Jagan is offering, colonial that he is to have our bauxite processed by Venezuelan hydroelectricity! We are to be tied hand and foot and we are asked to help Jagan win independence.
Do not underestimate the dangers of independence under Jagan. No race should make light of it, least of all the African. Vote PNC and show your leader that you are not weak. You will not be sold the election now becomes a bargaining point between two forces, make your side of the bargain heavy by voting for any candidate put up by the PNC we shall do the best we can to turn your solidarity to the best advantage for the Africans so as to give equality and justice to all races, hold fast be like a rock.
RISE FOR BATTLE
I end with a quotation from Vigilance: “Black people of Guiana have pity on yourselves, for no one else will pity you. Pity your children, for who will pity them? Pity the hungry, pity the sick, pity the aged, and pity the erring ones. Pity those of every race who suffer, who cry for bread, for liberty.”
Rise for the battle. We are the vanguard. We cannot sleep. We must not die. The vultures are hovering near. We can hear their harsh, fiendish, soulless cries. Their foul breath insults us. They are sharpening their talons, grinding their beaks, watching, waiting, for us to die, yearning to tear our hearts out. Stand up, comrades. Close ranks. Pierce them with your eyes.
Those who live are those who fight. Vultures fear and flee the living. Then live, comrades! Live!
It is more important than ever to ignore the U.F. since our safety is clearly threatened. There is hope yet for salvation. But your solidarity at the elections must be even greater than before. We shall be waiting, by God’s grace to advance the correct ideas at the right time.” Sydney King
Source: Sydney King: No Part of Burnham’s Plan - The Daily Chronicle, Friday, July 21, 1961
Janet Jagan Meddling Foreigners Go Home
Janet Backs Insult to Prof. Shenoy - "Meddling Foreigners: My Advice to Him Is to Go Home" - All BG Shocked: Shenoy to Speak Tonight
Mrs. Janet Jagan yesterday came out in support of the violent demonstration against Professor. Shenoy at Port Mourant on Thursday night and admitted that the outrage which has shocked British Guiana was the work of the P. P. P.
American - born, Mrs. Jagan accused Professor. Shenoy of being a “meddling foreigner” and added: “our advice to Mr. Shenoy is to go home"
Mrs. Jagan, commenting on the Port Mourant act of violence, said: “British Guiana is a country known for its hospitality. However, this friendliness and hospitality must not be mistaken for ignorance. As the elections come nearer, several visitors to this country are misusing our hospitality and making attacks on the Government of British Guiana and the people’s representatives.
MEDDLING
Certain political parties are importing speakers from abroad. If these speakers choose to meddle in our internal affairs, they may bring upon themselves indignities which are regrettable.
“The People’s Progressive Party has only recently been expressing its concern **** ***lence at public meetings and cannot condone such acts.”
It is certainly extremely difficult, however, to expect the Guianese people to control their emotions when outsiders deliberately provoke them by slandering their leaders. Guianese is capable of judging the type of Government they want without outside help.
“Our advice to Dr., Shenoy is to go home. We are sure that he has plenty of work to do there.” As stated in yesterday’s “Daily Chronicle” the Professor was attacked at the community centre at Port Mourant - a private meeting to which he had been specially invited. No accusation was made that the PPP was responsible.
Mrs. Janet Jagan’s statement came after a day of messages from all parts of the country expressing deep regret that the professor had been threatened and abused, and expressing disgust at the action.
Many people rang the “Daily Chronicle” asking us to convey to Professor Shenoy their apologies for the incident in a land that prides itself on its hospitality to visitors.
Throughout the day appeals were made to Professor Shenoy and to the “Daily Chronicle” for him to speak again. The Professor has agreed to do so; to show that he appreciates that the demonstration was not the expression of the Guianese people as a whole. A lesser man would not have done this; but the professor will speak tonight at Georgetown Town Hall at 6:15 P.M. in response to appeals that he should not leave the country with the feeling that his presence is unwelcomed. All are invited. Admission is free. Indignation, yesterday, was particularly strong in Berbice. It is felt that the work of hooligans has let down the good name of the district.
Mr. Harold Ramdeholl, businessman and former Mayor of New Amsterdam said the behavior displayed to Professor Shenoy was the most disgraceful thing he has read about for a long time in this colony. He said it appears it was well planned and that the idea behind such behavior was to tell people: “keep out of Port Mourant.”
Mr. Jacob Hanoman, a highly respected citizen of New Amsterdam, who is chairman of the East Coast Berbice Local Authorities and a merchant of New Amsterdam, deplored the behavior handed out to Professor Shenoy. Mr. Hanoman endorsed all that was said by Mr. Harold Ramdeholl.
Source: Janet Backs Insult to Prof. Shenoy - "Meddling Foreigners: My Advice to Him Is to Go Home" - All BG Shocked: Shenoy to Speak Tonight - The Sunday Chronicle, July 9, 1961: page 1.
Mrs. Janet Jagan yesterday came out in support of the violent demonstration against Professor. Shenoy at Port Mourant on Thursday night and admitted that the outrage which has shocked British Guiana was the work of the P. P. P.
American - born, Mrs. Jagan accused Professor. Shenoy of being a “meddling foreigner” and added: “our advice to Mr. Shenoy is to go home"
Mrs. Jagan, commenting on the Port Mourant act of violence, said: “British Guiana is a country known for its hospitality. However, this friendliness and hospitality must not be mistaken for ignorance. As the elections come nearer, several visitors to this country are misusing our hospitality and making attacks on the Government of British Guiana and the people’s representatives.
MEDDLING
Certain political parties are importing speakers from abroad. If these speakers choose to meddle in our internal affairs, they may bring upon themselves indignities which are regrettable.
“The People’s Progressive Party has only recently been expressing its concern **** ***lence at public meetings and cannot condone such acts.”
It is certainly extremely difficult, however, to expect the Guianese people to control their emotions when outsiders deliberately provoke them by slandering their leaders. Guianese is capable of judging the type of Government they want without outside help.
“Our advice to Dr., Shenoy is to go home. We are sure that he has plenty of work to do there.” As stated in yesterday’s “Daily Chronicle” the Professor was attacked at the community centre at Port Mourant - a private meeting to which he had been specially invited. No accusation was made that the PPP was responsible.
Mrs. Janet Jagan’s statement came after a day of messages from all parts of the country expressing deep regret that the professor had been threatened and abused, and expressing disgust at the action.
Many people rang the “Daily Chronicle” asking us to convey to Professor Shenoy their apologies for the incident in a land that prides itself on its hospitality to visitors.
Throughout the day appeals were made to Professor Shenoy and to the “Daily Chronicle” for him to speak again. The Professor has agreed to do so; to show that he appreciates that the demonstration was not the expression of the Guianese people as a whole. A lesser man would not have done this; but the professor will speak tonight at Georgetown Town Hall at 6:15 P.M. in response to appeals that he should not leave the country with the feeling that his presence is unwelcomed. All are invited. Admission is free. Indignation, yesterday, was particularly strong in Berbice. It is felt that the work of hooligans has let down the good name of the district.
Mr. Harold Ramdeholl, businessman and former Mayor of New Amsterdam said the behavior displayed to Professor Shenoy was the most disgraceful thing he has read about for a long time in this colony. He said it appears it was well planned and that the idea behind such behavior was to tell people: “keep out of Port Mourant.”
Mr. Jacob Hanoman, a highly respected citizen of New Amsterdam, who is chairman of the East Coast Berbice Local Authorities and a merchant of New Amsterdam, deplored the behavior handed out to Professor Shenoy. Mr. Hanoman endorsed all that was said by Mr. Harold Ramdeholl.
Source: Janet Backs Insult to Prof. Shenoy - "Meddling Foreigners: My Advice to Him Is to Go Home" - All BG Shocked: Shenoy to Speak Tonight - The Sunday Chronicle, July 9, 1961: page 1.
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