National Mourning:- Honoring Freedom Fighters and Martyrs

Aug 16, 2008 National Mourning:- Honoring Freedom Fighters and Martyrs I firmly believe the people of Guyana must be made aware that they need to start a program of education aimed at raising awareness of our freedom fighters and martyrs in the struggles which resulted in the granting of political independence on May 26, 1966 to the colony of British Guiana. National Martyrs' Day I firmly believe the people of Guyana must insist that their government set aside a day, a Week, perhaps the entire month; during the month of August for a Day, Week, or as the scenario may require perhaps a month of National Mourning. This must be done to honor the memory of our freedom fighters. They are the real Martyrs of The Demerara Slave Revolt in August 1823. I am absolutely convinced John Smith is no martyr of Black life and culture. I know I could not by any imagination regard John Smith and John Wray as heroes of my people, our people. During the days of slavery; the missionaries could not be on the side of the people who were of a different ethnicity than they were. Certainly; that was not at all possible. The missionaries were beholden to their ethnic group. They were hell-bent in keeping my representatives in the nineteenth century in check, in servitude, in slavery in the colonies of Demerara and British Guiana and those in the Caribbean Basin and on the West African Coast. Today the word marginalized is used to define the image and condition of Black people in Guyana and elsewhere on this planet. My position today is similar to that as it were in the nineteenth century. I believe mourners should assemble at Plantation Le Ressouvenir and march to the location where the freedom fighters were massacred and buried in the Bachelor's Adventure-Paradise District. I also believe it is up to the people to demand our heroes be recognized for what they were and are. I propose a national referendum on this subject, immediately. Perhaps a petition is best way to catch the attention of your inept and selfish politicians there in Guyana. How about it? Where do you stand? The struggle continues… hotep. "The slave may have appeared in a profit and loss account as an item, a thing, a piece of property, but he faced his new situation as an African, a worker, and a man. At this level of perception – It is quite irrelevant to enquire from which tribe or region a particular African originated"… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942 -1980) Dares Salaam Tanzania October 1969 "The similarity of African survivals in the New World points not to tribal peculiarities but to the essential oneness of African Culture; that culture was the shield which frustrated the efforts of Europeans to dehumanize Africans through servitude"… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942-1980) "The slave may have appeared in a profit and loss account as an item, a thing, a piece of property, but he faced his new situation as an African, a worker, and a man. At this level of perception – It is quite irrelevant to enquire from which tribe or region a particular African originated"… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942 -1980) Dares Salaam Tanzania October 1969 "The similarity of African survivals in the New World points not to tribal peculiarities but to the essential oneness of African Culture; that culture was the shield which frustrated the efforts of Europeans to dehumanize Africans through servitude"… Walter Anthony Rodney (1942 -1980) "The kind of ancestors we have is not as important as the kind of descendants our ancestors have"… Dr. Phyllis Ann Wallace (1920-1993) 4:09 PM · Comment