I was an enlisted member of the GDF 1974-1977. I was popularly known as Little Manish Puppy. I interacted with a number of Commissioned Officers. The majority of the officers referred to me as Young Ross. Lt. Boyce was the officer in command of recruit training at Tacama Battle School on the Berbice River. I was in D’ Company, in Pirai Battalion for three years. The commanding officers were; Capt. Victor D. Wilson, Capt. George Arlington Davidson, and Lt. Edward Collins.
OFFICERS ADMIRED
The first two Guyanese Commissioned Officers I admired are Major Raymond Sattaur and Col. Desmond Roberts, then a second lieutenant. I kept clippings of articles which were printed in the dailies which also included their images. The image of Desmond Roberts at the flag raising ceremony was inspiration for me. I decided and often declared there after, that, I was born to be a soldier. I was never fortunate to participate in flag raising ceremonies in Georgetown. However, I lowered and raised the Guyana flag on numerous occasions in remote areas of the country. I always imaged I was doing so before dignitaries in major national events. I smile these days as I reminisce at how naiveté and how nationalistic I was. Well that was until I witnessed Black Venezuelan soldiers on the opposite bank of the Cuyuni River.
I did not possess a high opinion of Colonel Granger. During that three-year period I admired the following commissioned officers; Col. Ulric Pilgrim, Col. Carl Morgan, Col. Joseph Singh, Col. Fairbairn Liverpool, Col. Marcus Monroe, Maj. Brenda Aaron, Capt. Ian C. Fraser, Capt. George Arlington Davidson, Capt. Victor Orlando Wilson, Capt. Compton M. Ross, and 2Lt. Lenny Davis.
ENLISTED SOLDIERS
Cpl. Vibert Sancho, Cpl. “Boonkcum” Ross, Warrant Officer Class 1 Bolton Sutton, Warrant Officer Class 1 “Jungle Jim” Gerrard, L/Cpl. Sugrim, L/Cpl. Moe, L/Cpl. Buck Allen, L/Cpl. Malcolm Grogan, Sgt. Leland Solomon, Sgt. Ewart Reynolds, Dexter Sue-ho, Terry Milne, Bridgelall, WAC King and my squaddies, Herman Reynolds and Dennis Simon are numbered amongst the enlisted, I admired.
It is my contention. It must be made enormously clear that David Granger is a link to the policies of the past. The published reports stating David Granger is interested in being the Presidential Candidate of the PNC in the next general election scheduled for 2011 are not at all surprising. It is a vindication of the accuracy of the oral tradition. It is proof. It is positive proof that, the persistent rumours, especially during the 1970s suggesting David Granger is an operative of the PNC were absolutely accurate. It was my view that David Granger was simply stated a puppet, a crony of the PNC. He is linked to a monstrosity known as the Paramountcy of the Party. Granger is perhaps the greatest catalyst in the process of the politicizing and the policing of the GDF, during the era of Forbes Burnham and his ruthlessness. One must bear in mind, between 1961 and 1977; there seems a propensity of coups by the Military in various regions of the developing world. In fact, on April 21, 1970 Lieutenants’ Raffique Shah and Reginald Andrew Lassalle led a group of soldiers in what became known as Teteron Barracks uprising. It was indeed a short-lived attempt aimed at overthrowing the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. Please note no such attempt was ever propagated in the GDF. Was it the effect of David Granger, the fear of the aftermath of snitching or the fear of being labelled a traitor to the African race? Whatever it was, I am sure several factors contributed to this failure.
I charge the possibility of David Granger being selected as the Presidential Candidate of the PNC is nothing more than reward for services rendered to the PNC, 1966-1992
THE IMAGE OF THE GDF?
What was the image of the GDF? The military was not a singular entity. The military was an arm of the PNC. David Granger was a lackey of the outrageous dictator, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. In the GDF, David Granger was said to be the eyes and the ears of Burnham. The Guyanese electorate must be concerned with such a possibility of David Granger as a presidential candidate. The electorate must be committed to distancing themselves from those associated with the Burnham illegal and dictatorial regime. It’s my contention. David Granger is a facilitator of one of the most brutally repressive periods in the history of Guyanese working class people. Granger is perhaps best remembered as one of the commissioned officers who propagated Paramountcy of the Party in the GDF. Deductions were taken out of the soldiers’ monthly pay. That transaction was referred to as PNC dues. Also, soldiers who were thought to be supporters and/or sympathizers of other political platforms were forced to discard their lifelong dreams of being a career soldier in the Guyanese military. I was shocked when intelligence personnel informed me that I was considered if not a supporter, then at least a sympathizer of the WPA. In that period, although, I revered Eusi Kwayana, the only party which interested me was those in which Sounds Dimension, Mischievous Guys, and Yoruba Singers were providing the musical entertainment. The Guyanese electorate should connect David Granger to destroyed Ballot Boxes, the fraudulent exercises of 1968, 1973, 1980, and 1985 and the murder of several East Indians at No. 63 Village in the aftermath of the deceit of November 1973?
David Granger is a direct connection to the ghost of Forbes Burnham. If David Granger is the candidate the PNC offers - then that platform is in a much more sorry position than I had concluded. Why David Granger? Then, amongst questions Guyanese should require honest answers are; Why not consider females? The political platforms in Guyana have been saying females are not up to the challenge of occupying the highest office in the land. What’s worst? The Guyanese people have supported that scenario for more than 57 years? It is high time. The Guyanese females become militant. They must object to the shenanigans of the political parties. Guyanese females were for the most part at the forefront of every struggle during the colonial era. This is not new. Gertie Woods made such statements in the early 1930s. Guyanese females were certainly not sitting around doing anything but praying for the arrival of the Czechoslovakian Chicago born Jewish Woman to migrate to British Guiana in the 1940s to be crowned the foremost female in history of the Guyanese people. If you accept such notions as factual then obviously you are ignorant of numerous accounts in the history of colonial Guyana.
Why not Cheddi Jagan Jr.? It is known. Forbes Burnham is a godfather of Cheddi Jagan Jr. I believe courting either Cheddi Jagan or Joe Singh would provide an indication that the current PNC is serious about healing and distancing itself from the period 1968-1992. It would be a definitive political move. Such a move or similar that would give every indication that the PNC is making positive steps with respect to correcting and eradicating the persistent problem of ethnicity in Guyana.
MEETING DAVID GRANGER
I simply kept my distance from the likes of David Granger, Keith Ross, Larry London, Hartley Liverpool, Maynard, and Bob Mitchell and numerous other commissioned officers. I am really sure I encountered David Granger on at least three occasions during that period. They are memorable to me because each occasion was progressively worst than the previous.
I recall vividly David Granger asking me a number of absurd questions at Matthews Ridge in 1975, and in the regions of the Venezuelan border at the foot of Mount Roraima in 1976. There I was with five soldiers and little or no ration at an outpost. We had resorted to catching shrimps in the nearby stream. The Venezuelan military planes flying so low over us one could identify the ethnicity of the occupants. A helicopter arrives out steps David Granger. After a few pleasantries, Granger asked me why the soldiers were not shaven. I am somewhat surprised that as angry and as hungrily as I was, I managed to offer up as polite a response to the absurd investigation.
COUP BY MILITARY UNLIKELY
Why wasn’t David Granger interested in occupying the highest office in the land between 1968 and 1992? It is an absolutely difficult proposition for me to associate the word respect with David Granger.
Did David Granger oppose the fact that Burnham placed the policeman Norman McLean at the head of the GDF? That was such a shame. It was reminiscent of Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1921 – 1996), placing his nine-year-old-son at the helm of the military in the Central African Republic. That was such a bitter pill the Guyanese military swallowed. The Guyanese military commanders did not possess the testosterone to necessitate an overthrow of the Kabaka albeit such a slap in their collective faces. The Commissioned Officers of The GDF were satisfied and secure with the trinkets the PNC administration permitted them. The GDF never took a stand in the interest of the Guyanese people. The GDF were certainly Burnham’s army. The GDF were called out against the underprivileged working class people. The GDF were used against strikers. I remember being ordered to cut sugar cane. The cane cutters were on strike. I politely requested not to participate in such an exercise. It was granted. I was simply unwilling and unable to hurt Guyanese people. Unless of course, it was personal matter.
DAVID GRANGER AT BEST
The published reports stated David Granger considered himself a professional. I began to wonder, what was he alluding to? Perhaps he was simply saying he receives compensation for his services. That’s about the truth of the matter. Was David Granger simply saying he is in it just for the sake of financial rewards and material self worth?
I conclude the best thing about David Granger is that he has published historical accounts of the African experience in British Guiana (colonial Guyana). The articles are indeed useful. They are primarily informative. However, those that I have accessed demand further research. They often lack comprehensive approach and analysis. His efforts make truth seekers long for the talents of Norman Eustace Cameron, Walter Anthony Rodney, Tommy Payne, Alvin Thompson and Brian Moore and others of such esteem.
David Granger seems to be a compromised candidate. The business of retreads and disasters such as Robert Corbin, and Hamilton Greene continue. The PNC hierarchy attempting to spray cologne on unwashed bodies is a most ridiculous scenario. The Guyanese electorate must refuse to be bought and sold repeatedly. Election after election the same old story, the same tired situation, the rural communities, particularly those on the East Coast of Demerara have taken serous beating during the last sixty years and has gotten progressively worst year after year, yet the electorate has time and again thrown their support and their votes to the PNC and the PPP and has not reaped any benefits whatsoever. What are the rural communities producing? At the beginnings of my sojourn the Mighty Sparrow used to sing a song which said “one BG plantain full up my belly.” I recently purchased plantains on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. The plantains were labelled products of Colombia and Peru. Don’t you think I would have preferred Guyanese plantains? Between November 1839 and May 1966, the villages of British Guiana were agricultural communities. The people of the rural communities were industrious. The vast majority were farmers. There were numerous District Agricultural and Livestock Shows. I am really quite certain the first such display was held at Golden Grove on the East Sea Coast of the County of Demerara on December 7, 1897. Products of all description were on display. It seemed every tropical fruit and vegetable was available in the rural communities. I am sure the same cannot be said today.
I must also state that petty criminal activity is linked to availability employment and/or the access of a satisfactory financial situation of those likely to participate in such immoral endeavours.
CONCLUSION
No social scientist would dare to favourably compare David Granger with the likes of Thomas Sankara, Yakubu Gowon, Idi Amin Dada Oumee, Douglas McArthur, George Patton, and easily the greatest soldier in the American experience, Antonio Maceo. I suppose David Granger is perhaps, familiar with print media on the lives of the above mentioned and others. I am well aware he fancies himself a historian.
I must call attention to the electorate especially those of the Golden Grove, Nabaclis, Victoria, Buxton and Friendship and other communities, on the East Sea Coast of Demerara, to reject David Granger if ever he is chosen to be the PNC Presidential Candidate. I also demand of the people of the villages of my maternal ancestry to refrain from voting for the PNC or the PPP. I call upon the people of the East Sea Coast of Demerara, and the Corentyne Coast to vote for the AFC.
I call upon the electorate to demand change in the political atmosphere in their communities. The electorate must simply refuse to be repeatedly taken for granted. The electorate must demand development and industry of their communities in exchange for their votes. The electorate must demand that they elect the members of a parliament as they did following the elections of 1953, 1957 and 1961. It is obvious. The political platforms have the authority of choosing the parliamentarians. That’s certainly not consistent with the democratic process they claim to uphold. The electorate must demand that Guiana be divided into numerous electoral districts as it were during the elections of 1953, 1957 and 1961. I charge that’s more in line with the philosophy that each vote is relevant to the process. The electorate must demand the self-government of their communities at the local government level in exchange for their support. It is high time the national government is excluded from village administration. The various administrations of the Government of Guyana have made a mockery of the process of Village Administration. Now, the administration of villages is worst than it was following any ordinance in the last half of the nineteenth century. What’s the agenda of each of the political parties for the people and community of your interest? I further think the Guyanese people must in 2011 abandon the political platforms that have done absolutely nothing during the last 57 years baring the period of the interim Government, 1954-1957. I would prefer to witness the WPA and other parties aligning themselves with the AFC. Wouldn’t you wish to witness a Guyanese of Portuguese, Chinese, and indigenous heritage being elected to the highest office of the land? Would the electorate elect a really Guyanese female as the President of Guyana? I’d love to witness change in the political climate in Guyana. But I doubt I would be alive to witness such an occurrence in Guyana. Chances are, there would be snow storms in Guyana before the Guyanese people change their disastrous practices and elect an administration other than either the PPP or the PNC. Just think about it. It seems the faces change, the names change, the physical appearance change but the politicians are allowed to remain male dominated, male chauvinistic, corrupt, inept, decidedly racist and mediocre. That is simply in a nutshell the horrendous spectre of the political climate in Guyana covering the last sixty years. No change is in sight. There’s no light in the tunnel.
Little Manish Puppy,
Regimental Number 3642
D’ Company, March 1974- November 15, 1977
Friday, October 15, 2010
Lannie Abrams
SANCHO, ABRAMS, GARNETT
I am seeking the relatives of Charles Abrams (Dispenser), Daphne Abrams (his daughter), and Richard Landroy Abrams (his son), and the descendants of Mr. W. O. Garnett
The need is to ascertain how the members of this kinship of Abrams are members of the kinship of Sancho. Whom do I consult?
Charles Abrams was Sick nurse and Dispenser. The Official Gazette dated February 28, 1920 gives the Date of Registration as January 8, 1917. It states his address is Friendship, East Coast Demerara. I am told at some point Charles Abrams was employed at Enmore Estate, East Sea Coast of Demerara, British Guiana (colonial Guyana). In fact his son Richard Landroy Abrams was born on February 25, 1927 at Plantation Enmore.
Ruth is the given name of the wife of Charles Abrams. I am also told Charles Abrams is related to Clarice Abrams of Middle Walk Road, Friendship. He is also related to members of the kinship of Abrams of Mahaica District. The source also stated Charles Abrams is a member of the kinship of Sancho.
It is said Charles Abrams, also had at least two daughters Daphne Abrams and another, a son, Lonnie Abrams. One of the daughters of Charlie Abrams married School teacher Garnett. Mr. Garnett was the First Assistant to Mr. Carlton Paton Browne Melbourne at St. Andrew’s Anglican School located at Cove & John Front Lands, East Sea Coast of Demerara, British Guiana.
Richard Landroy Abrams was educated at Golden Grove Methodist School, Central High School, and Enterprise High School He was employed at Guyana Airways Corporation. He was the Deputy Chairman and the General Manager of Guyana Airways Corporation, 1967-1974. Lonnie Abrams has at least one daughter. He became wheelchair-bound. He migrated to the USA.
Kenneth Winston Cubert Abrams was a Civil Servant. He was born on July 27, 1924. He was an Inspector of Co-operative Societies
Wilfred Astor Gordon was born on June 10, 1921 at Enmore Estate, East Coast Demerara. He was an Electrical Contractor. He was employed at Rose Hall Estate, 1937-1943. He resided at 94 Eccles East Bank Demerara.
PERSONS OF INTERESTS:
I am told the descendants of Louisa Sandy also include members of the family of Dutchin, the family of Marshall including; Faye Marshall, Florence Marshall and Miriam Scott Zephyr, Herman Lowe, Elaine Abrams, Sheila Abrams, Sandra Abrams, Cousin Phelp, Malcolm Spencer and Morris Spencer, Lynette Sandy, Odessa Sandy, Judy Sandy, June Benn; the daughter of Buddy Benn and Lynnette Sandy, Pet Sandy, and Elaine Sandy among numerous others. I am told they are indeed descendants of Sancho by Louisa Sandy. Other relatives include the descendants of Petal Sandy and her daughter Elaine. I am aware; one of the Sandy females died in the Bronx a few years ago.
What is the relationship of Dutchin, Herman Lowe, Elaine Abrams, Sheila Abrams, Sandra Abrams and Cousin Phelp, Faye Marshall, Florence Marshall and Miriam Scott Zephyr, Malcolm Spencer and Morris Spencer, Inez Blair, Odessa Sandy, Judy Sandy, daughter of Buddy Benn and Lynnette Sandy, Pet Sandy, Elaine Sandy to Christopher Bentick Sancho (1875-1956)?
What is the relationship of the members of the kinship of Sandy of Bush Corner to descendants of Christopher Bentick Sancho (1875-1956)?
Mary Johnson and her sister, Miss Johnson,
Leila Layne, relative of Cousin Bobby, resided near the Jeune residence at Bush Corner
Beulla Elliott, Boston, Massachusetts
I would dearly love to communicate with the persons mentioned in this correspondence and/or a number of their descendants and other relatives….
Whom must I contact and consult?
SOURCES: Notice # 91 – Medical Board - List of Registered Sicknurses and Dispensers –the Official Gazette of British Guiana – February 28, 1920: page 133.
Personalities Caribbean Volume five, 1973: page 275
Kay, Ernest (editor) 1970 Dictionary of Caribbean Biography
I am seeking the relatives of Charles Abrams (Dispenser), Daphne Abrams (his daughter), and Richard Landroy Abrams (his son), and the descendants of Mr. W. O. Garnett
The need is to ascertain how the members of this kinship of Abrams are members of the kinship of Sancho. Whom do I consult?
Charles Abrams was Sick nurse and Dispenser. The Official Gazette dated February 28, 1920 gives the Date of Registration as January 8, 1917. It states his address is Friendship, East Coast Demerara. I am told at some point Charles Abrams was employed at Enmore Estate, East Sea Coast of Demerara, British Guiana (colonial Guyana). In fact his son Richard Landroy Abrams was born on February 25, 1927 at Plantation Enmore.
Ruth is the given name of the wife of Charles Abrams. I am also told Charles Abrams is related to Clarice Abrams of Middle Walk Road, Friendship. He is also related to members of the kinship of Abrams of Mahaica District. The source also stated Charles Abrams is a member of the kinship of Sancho.
It is said Charles Abrams, also had at least two daughters Daphne Abrams and another, a son, Lonnie Abrams. One of the daughters of Charlie Abrams married School teacher Garnett. Mr. Garnett was the First Assistant to Mr. Carlton Paton Browne Melbourne at St. Andrew’s Anglican School located at Cove & John Front Lands, East Sea Coast of Demerara, British Guiana.
Richard Landroy Abrams was educated at Golden Grove Methodist School, Central High School, and Enterprise High School He was employed at Guyana Airways Corporation. He was the Deputy Chairman and the General Manager of Guyana Airways Corporation, 1967-1974. Lonnie Abrams has at least one daughter. He became wheelchair-bound. He migrated to the USA.
Kenneth Winston Cubert Abrams was a Civil Servant. He was born on July 27, 1924. He was an Inspector of Co-operative Societies
Wilfred Astor Gordon was born on June 10, 1921 at Enmore Estate, East Coast Demerara. He was an Electrical Contractor. He was employed at Rose Hall Estate, 1937-1943. He resided at 94 Eccles East Bank Demerara.
PERSONS OF INTERESTS:
I am told the descendants of Louisa Sandy also include members of the family of Dutchin, the family of Marshall including; Faye Marshall, Florence Marshall and Miriam Scott Zephyr, Herman Lowe, Elaine Abrams, Sheila Abrams, Sandra Abrams, Cousin Phelp, Malcolm Spencer and Morris Spencer, Lynette Sandy, Odessa Sandy, Judy Sandy, June Benn; the daughter of Buddy Benn and Lynnette Sandy, Pet Sandy, and Elaine Sandy among numerous others. I am told they are indeed descendants of Sancho by Louisa Sandy. Other relatives include the descendants of Petal Sandy and her daughter Elaine. I am aware; one of the Sandy females died in the Bronx a few years ago.
What is the relationship of Dutchin, Herman Lowe, Elaine Abrams, Sheila Abrams, Sandra Abrams and Cousin Phelp, Faye Marshall, Florence Marshall and Miriam Scott Zephyr, Malcolm Spencer and Morris Spencer, Inez Blair, Odessa Sandy, Judy Sandy, daughter of Buddy Benn and Lynnette Sandy, Pet Sandy, Elaine Sandy to Christopher Bentick Sancho (1875-1956)?
What is the relationship of the members of the kinship of Sandy of Bush Corner to descendants of Christopher Bentick Sancho (1875-1956)?
Mary Johnson and her sister, Miss Johnson,
Leila Layne, relative of Cousin Bobby, resided near the Jeune residence at Bush Corner
Beulla Elliott, Boston, Massachusetts
I would dearly love to communicate with the persons mentioned in this correspondence and/or a number of their descendants and other relatives….
Whom must I contact and consult?
SOURCES: Notice # 91 – Medical Board - List of Registered Sicknurses and Dispensers –the Official Gazette of British Guiana – February 28, 1920: page 133.
Personalities Caribbean Volume five, 1973: page 275
Kay, Ernest (editor) 1970 Dictionary of Caribbean Biography
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Emancipation of Slavery
“A God-damned Black son-of-bitch, we gotta keep the Black apes down.”…. Congressman Henderson Lovelace Lanham, Rome, Georgia
The aim of this exercise is to expose the truth as revealed in several sources of information. It is not, however, to take lightly, and/or to disregard the contributions of the other so-called ethnic groups of people to the development of the nation of Guyana.
Sunday, August 1, 2010 marks the one hundred and seventy - second year of the emancipation of physical bondage in the colony of British Guiana.
It is my contention. At least three principal questions are needed to be answered. They must be answered, in the most truthful a manner as humanly possible.
They are;
1.What have Africans in the Guianese experience achieved in that duration?
2.What have they squandered?
3.How they may reclaim what they have lost?
I would be remiss if I failed to point out that in that duration numerous scholars, social commentators, and spokespersons have perpetuated misinformation upon the unsuspecting masses of the Guyanese people. The ACDA is numbered amongst these disrespectful enemies of the Black liberation struggle in the colony of British Guiana. The agents of denigration of Black people claim Thursday, July 31, 1834 was the last day of perpetual bondage in British Guiana. Their claim gives the impression our ancestors were legally freed on Friday, August 1, 1834. More over, it is now 176 years after emancipation. Those claims are as ridiculous as they are all simply false. Those claims are as malicious as they are blatantly disrespectful to the struggle waged by the likes of Damon and the other freedom fighters on the Essequebo Coast and elsewhere in the colony of British Guiana. Lieutenant Governor Sir James Carmichael Smyth, was appointed to superintend the Apprenticeship in British Guiana. On Monday, August 4, 1834, apprentices along the Essequebo coast refused to perform more than half the work done during slavery. Local justices were alarmed and requested the establishment of martial law. The leaders of the disturbances were brought to trial in the Supreme Criminal Court in Georgetown. The indictment accused them of assembling together in considerable numbers and conducting themselves in a riotous and seditious manner. Damon was condemned to hang; four were sentenced to transportation, and 32 awarded corporal punishments. Governor Carmichael Smyth simply refused to pardon Damon. He issued some ridiculous statement that Damon seceded himself under another flag. Damon had run up a piece of clothing upon the flagpole of the church. By June 1835, Damon had been executed and of the four men sentenced to transportation, one had died; the other three remained in the Hulks at Woolwich. Lord Glenelg had become Secretary of State and Stephen employed his original arguments to convince Glenelg to pardon the three men awaiting transportation to New South Wales. The three prisoners were returned to British Guiana to serve out their Apprenticeship [P.P.1835 (278) L. pp. 179-207]. If they were totally freed, certainly, their stand would not have been brought to trial.
Major-General Sir James Carmichael Smyth was the Governor of British Guiana between May 26, 1833 and March 1838. It is clear Sir Lionel Smith acted as the Governor of British Guiana for the month of May 1835. Governor Carmichael Smyth issued no proclamation suggesting total freedom of Africans in the colony of British Guiana. Thus, the simple truth remains total and perpetual slavery was replaced by partial or limited freedom, Apprenticeship, on August 1, 1834. In fact, Apprenticeship, a new system of slavery, was scheduled to commence on Friday, August 1, 1834 and end on Friday, July 31, 1840. This fact informs readers that Saturday, August 1, 1840 was slated to be the first day of the emancipation of slavery in the colony of British Guiana.
Governor Smyth had informed Glenelg that all 15 stipendiaries would be required in British Guiana after the projected transition to freedom in 1840. Their presence, he argued, was absolutely essential to the impartial administration of justice: the Negroes would place no confidence in a system of planter-justices, and unless all of the stipendiaries were retained, the tranquility of the colony and the cultivation of estates would be seriously jeopardized. Governor Light concurred in the need to retain the full body of stipendiaries.
During the final months of Apprenticeship Henry Light succeeded Sir James Carmichael Smyth. However, for various reasons, Henry Light, the Governor of the colony of British Guiana saw it fit to expedite the process of freedom. In July 1838 Governor Light issued his First of August Emancipation Proclamation. Thus, Tuesday, July 31, 1838 became the last day of slavery in the colony of British Guiana.
Slavery as a legal institution was abolished on Wednesday, August 1, 1838 in the colony of British Guiana. Numerous ceremonies were held in various locations marking the occasion in the colony of British Guiana. The Governor Henry Light and other officials of his administration, Ministers of religion and others attended them. The Right Honorable Reverend Mr. John Richard Moore was recalled from Plantation Skeldon on the Corentyne River. He had been banished by the Anglican diocese. On Wednesday, August 1, 1888, Reverend Mr. John Richard Moore delivered the sermon, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation at St. George’s Cathedral in Georgetown.
Despatches and other items found in The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers clearly demonstrated the Africans begun purchasing land well over a year before 83 nationalists including five females, purchased Plantation Northbrook on the East Sea Coast of Demerara on November 18, 1839.
Almost immediately following the emancipation of slavery Africans began to purchase land. The purchases were as small as a few roods, and house lots, and as large as a few acres.
1.In August 1838, Tom Seikirk purchased a piece of land 21 roods from W. Napier
2. In October 1838, the representatives of Saffon sold Thrisby Cuche Lot of land 17 Charlestown
3.In October 1838, Thrisby Cuche sold half of lot 17 Charlestown and a quarter of lot 17 Charlestown to Dirk Willebers and John McIntosh respectively. (P.P. 1841(321): 211). The stated dates are likely those in which transport was passed.
It is beyond my imagination why the academic professionals continue to ignore the land purchases prior to Plantation Northbrook. Further more those conspirators continue to perpetuate misinformation. They continue to stated Africans purchased villages. Nothing could be more false. The simple and unadulterated truth remains’ Africans purchased abandoned Plantations. Those plantations were, for the most part, formerly cotton and plantain estates. It was the colonial authority, with a few strokes of their pens, established the villages. The Village ordinances, as they are called, commandeered the plantations owned by Africans. They turned the plantations into villages managed by colonial officials - such as Stipendiary Magistrates, Central Board of Health and the Inspector of Villages.
The period between November 18, 1839 and December 31, 1852 is referred to as the Village Movement. In that era Africans purchased numerous plantations beginning with Plantation Northbrook. Again, and it bears repeating, for whatever their reasons, the purchases of land, other than the plantations receive no mention whatsoever by the academic community. That’s really sad and perplexing at the same time - for there are ample sources of information - it is very difficult for me to admit that’s it possible for the acclaimed scholars of Guyana are all guilty of gross negligence, irresponsible and deceitful scholarship. Purchases were also made in Berbice as had occurred in the counties of Demerara and Essequebo. Several lots were purchased in New Amsterdam long before Plantation Northbrook was purchased. I know it is noteworthy to state here and now, that the Parliamentary Papers also states;
1.Roderick Merchant and two others purchased seven acres of Plantation Cumberland, Canje on December 27, 1839.
2.On March 13, 1840, John F. L. Cameron purchased one and three quarter acres of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
3.John Monday Kirkwood and three others - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
4.William Alien - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
5.Hector Fothergill - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.(PP 1841 (321): 239 -241).
It is my contention. The purchases of land by Africans between August 1838 and December 31, 1852 are the pillars of the modern nation of the cooperative republic of Guyana. The mouthpieces of the political parties, especially the PPP and the PNC, could attempt to rewrite history all they want, but the facts will always be unflattering indictments of those two personal platforms. The simple fact remains the founders of those two political platforms are not the nation builders, national heroes, and fathers of the nation as perpetuate by their followers and fanatics. The truth is. Our unsung heroes are the real nation builders. Owning land is the true basis of freedom. The freed slaves, the shareholders of plantations understood the Landed Proprietor is as free a man they could ever be under the politics of the colonial system of the British Empire. Our people continued to propagate an agriculture-based economy. Most were self-employed. They were primarily farmers. However, at the beginnings of the twentieth century, principally the second generation after the emancipation of slavery began to abandon the rural communities for salaried positions in the major urban centers in the colony of British Guiana. That in itself set into motion the decline of the village economy. They sold land their ancestors had purchased. It is doubtful that today, they could repurchase those lands. The process of migration from the rural communities did not stop at Georgetown, New Amsterdam, and Linden and elsewhere in the colony. Our people began to emigrate to the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Panama and other political boundaries. The land owners began selling their land to members of the other so-called ethnic groups, prior to the movement of our people to the urban centers and overseas - How then could East Indians, Chinese and Portuguese become owners of land in the African communities in British Guiana? The Africans sold land to others. Yet, whenever they felt slighted, they rioted. Africans rioted three times against the Portuguese. The first was in 1847 on the East Bank of the Berbice River. The second was in Demerara in February 1856. The third was again in Demerara in March 1884.
A worrying feature remains Africans planted their crops. Then sold the produce at wholesale prices to the Portuguese. Then the Africans repurchased the commodities at retail prices from the Portuguese. Yet, the Africans wondered how come the Portuguese rose up to be the major business people in the African Communities. Also, the Africans got drunk at the Portuguese liquor stores. As late as 1872 there was less than 10 identifiable African owned liquor stores in the colony of British Guiana. I am sure I did not recall any with an East Indian name. That’s not saying that they were not such owned by East Indians. After all, in the last half of the nineteenth century, numerous East Indians adopted Eurocentric names.
On April 18, 1917, another important emancipation transpired. It was the abolition of the new system of slavery known as indentureship. The system of Indentured Labourers differed marginally from that of slavery. The Indentured Labourers signed a contract. The contract stipulated a number of conditions were to be met. However, in practice, those contracted labourers caught nothing but pure hell in the colony of British Guiana, 1835 - 1917. I am absolute; no Portuguese, East Indian and Chinese were celebrating any arrival day in British Guiana between 1835 and 1917. For crying out loud; the playing of tajah drums without permission was seen as a criminal offence. Can you imagine that?
I must argue that a third and perhaps, final emancipation is necessary in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. This emancipation must result in the abolition of ethnic cleavage. It must promote the greatest good of the Guyanese people. This sort of emancipation is absolutely necessary to move the Guyanese people into a semblance of national unity. It is my conviction, the ills of Guyana, is predominantly all man-made. They can be eradicated. The key to achieving such is education. The curriculum must be geared to reproduce a Guyanese mind set. The texts must show national interests and not British and/or European as it were prior to May 26, 1966.
Guyanese must emancipate themselves from the propaganda of the PPP and the PNC. I had assumed Guyanese people were intelligent people. Certainly, the slaves and the indentured labourers reacted to their oppression demonstrating self-worth and integrity. During the last 60 years, the facts have proven otherwise. They aren’t intelligent enough to understand that the consequence of 57 years of the PPP and the PNC are as retarding as almost 350 years of European colonization of Guyana. The avenue of migration remains the major form of Emancipation Guyanese has been enjoying over the last 60 years. Migration will continue to be a factor as long as such conditions as one US dollar being equaled to 205 Guyana dollars and more, high unemployment - scarcity of jobs. The skilled and unskilled labour force will migrate to nations where they fancy their chances of economic development are greatly improved.
Black people are the minority in Guyana. This has been the fact since the 1911 census. Black people (Africans) have to make a conscious effort to regain lost prestige. They need to do so not only in Guyana but wherever they dwell upon the face of the earth. The Africans must employ a self-help program. Some do-for-self programs as it were it-is-already-too-late and/or a do-it-right-now philosophy. (Courtesy of Malcolm X). They must examine what they gain by casting their ballots for the PNC. It is high-time, the people of the rural communities, especially those communities which were the leading lights as late as the 1920s analyze the roles of the political parties in their underdevelopment and stagnation. I am referring to those villages such as Victoria, Buxton, Friendship, Plaisance, Beterverwagting, Golden Grove and Nabaclis which continually throw away their vote behind the PNC for they receive nothing but devaluation and underdevelopment during the last 60 years. The Africans must begin to bargain their ballots. What are the Politicians and Political Parties have on their agendas for socioeconomic development of the communities? I am requesting that every rural community demand that the politicians show them what’s on their agenda for development of their community. It is high time, the Guyanese people become sophisticated voters and little by little begins to reclaim their stolen and/or squandered legacies.
I remain very proud of the generations of the nineteenth century. I am not at all respecting of those who supported the personal platforms, 1953 - 1997. I admire those who supported Nelson Cannon, Webber, Robertson, Straughan and others between 1887 and 1931. They laid the foundation for the struggle for political, Constitutional development in the colony of British Guiana. The roles of Bishop William Piercy Austin, the British Guiana teachers’ Association, and the Village chairmen’s Conference must not be underestimated.
The personal emancipation must be to ascertain knowledge of self. By that I am referring to acquiring knowledge of the contributions your representatives made to the development of the nation of Guyana. I support the cliche a man must know and not believe. Did your ancestor participate in the purchasing of land 1838 -1852? Can you identify your ancestors who were residents in the colony of British Guiana on Wednesday, August 1, 1838?
Long live the people of Guyana, everywhere. I pray that one day you will truly emancipate yourself and be freed of all the ills that handcuff you over the years . . . indeed that’s my prayer for all of humanity . . .
Hetep . . . the struggle continues . . .
Sources:
Proclamation - Free Men of the First of August -The Royal Gazette of British Guiana, Saturday, July 21, 1838.
Editorial -The Royal Gazette of British Guiana, Thursday, August 2, 1838.
Parliamentary Papers 1835 (278) L. pp. 179-207.
Parliamentary Papers 1841 Session 1 (321) Papers relative to the West Indies. 1841. British Guiana. Copy of a Despatch from Governor Light to lord John Russell - Enclosure in No. 115 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
1.Transports of land passed to labourers in the counties of Demerara and Essequibo in the Colony of British Guiana, from 1st of August 1838 to 31st of December 1840 pages 211 - 215
2.List of Transports of land passed in the county of Berbice, from 1st of August 1838 to 31st of December 1840, to persons who had previously been apprenticed Labourers. Pages 239 - 241.
3.Return of Estates or Lots of Land purchased by the labourers in District 1, West Coast, County Berbice, as requested by C. H. Strut, Esq., Stipendiary Magistrate, by letter of the 9th December 1840, on the requisition of his Excellency, the Governor- General. Pages 241 - 243.
4.Statement of Transports of Land executed in favour of Purchasers (formerly Apprenticed Labourers) from 1st of August 1838 to 5th April, 1840, exclusive of Lots of Land situated in Georgetown. Pages 113 - 114.
Parliamentary Papers 1842 (479) XIII. Select Committee on the West Indian Colonies, Evidence of John Scoble, 4215.
Chanderbali, David (1994) A Portrait of Paternalism: Governor Henry Light of British Guiana, 1838 -1848. Georgetown, Guyana: Guyana National Printers Ltd., 1994.
Green, William A., (1969), The Apprenticeship in British Guiana, 1834-1838. Institute of Caribbean Studies, UPR, Rio Piedras Campus. Caribbean Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jul., 1969), pp. 44-66.
Payne, Hugh "Tommy" (2001) 10 days in August 1834: 10 days that changed the world. Brooklyn, N.Y. : Caribbean Diaspora Press, c2001.
Roberts, G. W. "Immigration of Africans into the British Caribbean," Population Studies, Vol. VII, No. 3, March, 1958.
Rodney, Walter (1981) A History of The Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905. Baltimore, Maryland. : The Johns Hopkins University Press, c. 1981.
The aim of this exercise is to expose the truth as revealed in several sources of information. It is not, however, to take lightly, and/or to disregard the contributions of the other so-called ethnic groups of people to the development of the nation of Guyana.
Sunday, August 1, 2010 marks the one hundred and seventy - second year of the emancipation of physical bondage in the colony of British Guiana.
It is my contention. At least three principal questions are needed to be answered. They must be answered, in the most truthful a manner as humanly possible.
They are;
1.What have Africans in the Guianese experience achieved in that duration?
2.What have they squandered?
3.How they may reclaim what they have lost?
I would be remiss if I failed to point out that in that duration numerous scholars, social commentators, and spokespersons have perpetuated misinformation upon the unsuspecting masses of the Guyanese people. The ACDA is numbered amongst these disrespectful enemies of the Black liberation struggle in the colony of British Guiana. The agents of denigration of Black people claim Thursday, July 31, 1834 was the last day of perpetual bondage in British Guiana. Their claim gives the impression our ancestors were legally freed on Friday, August 1, 1834. More over, it is now 176 years after emancipation. Those claims are as ridiculous as they are all simply false. Those claims are as malicious as they are blatantly disrespectful to the struggle waged by the likes of Damon and the other freedom fighters on the Essequebo Coast and elsewhere in the colony of British Guiana. Lieutenant Governor Sir James Carmichael Smyth, was appointed to superintend the Apprenticeship in British Guiana. On Monday, August 4, 1834, apprentices along the Essequebo coast refused to perform more than half the work done during slavery. Local justices were alarmed and requested the establishment of martial law. The leaders of the disturbances were brought to trial in the Supreme Criminal Court in Georgetown. The indictment accused them of assembling together in considerable numbers and conducting themselves in a riotous and seditious manner. Damon was condemned to hang; four were sentenced to transportation, and 32 awarded corporal punishments. Governor Carmichael Smyth simply refused to pardon Damon. He issued some ridiculous statement that Damon seceded himself under another flag. Damon had run up a piece of clothing upon the flagpole of the church. By June 1835, Damon had been executed and of the four men sentenced to transportation, one had died; the other three remained in the Hulks at Woolwich. Lord Glenelg had become Secretary of State and Stephen employed his original arguments to convince Glenelg to pardon the three men awaiting transportation to New South Wales. The three prisoners were returned to British Guiana to serve out their Apprenticeship [P.P.1835 (278) L. pp. 179-207]. If they were totally freed, certainly, their stand would not have been brought to trial.
Major-General Sir James Carmichael Smyth was the Governor of British Guiana between May 26, 1833 and March 1838. It is clear Sir Lionel Smith acted as the Governor of British Guiana for the month of May 1835. Governor Carmichael Smyth issued no proclamation suggesting total freedom of Africans in the colony of British Guiana. Thus, the simple truth remains total and perpetual slavery was replaced by partial or limited freedom, Apprenticeship, on August 1, 1834. In fact, Apprenticeship, a new system of slavery, was scheduled to commence on Friday, August 1, 1834 and end on Friday, July 31, 1840. This fact informs readers that Saturday, August 1, 1840 was slated to be the first day of the emancipation of slavery in the colony of British Guiana.
Governor Smyth had informed Glenelg that all 15 stipendiaries would be required in British Guiana after the projected transition to freedom in 1840. Their presence, he argued, was absolutely essential to the impartial administration of justice: the Negroes would place no confidence in a system of planter-justices, and unless all of the stipendiaries were retained, the tranquility of the colony and the cultivation of estates would be seriously jeopardized. Governor Light concurred in the need to retain the full body of stipendiaries.
During the final months of Apprenticeship Henry Light succeeded Sir James Carmichael Smyth. However, for various reasons, Henry Light, the Governor of the colony of British Guiana saw it fit to expedite the process of freedom. In July 1838 Governor Light issued his First of August Emancipation Proclamation. Thus, Tuesday, July 31, 1838 became the last day of slavery in the colony of British Guiana.
Slavery as a legal institution was abolished on Wednesday, August 1, 1838 in the colony of British Guiana. Numerous ceremonies were held in various locations marking the occasion in the colony of British Guiana. The Governor Henry Light and other officials of his administration, Ministers of religion and others attended them. The Right Honorable Reverend Mr. John Richard Moore was recalled from Plantation Skeldon on the Corentyne River. He had been banished by the Anglican diocese. On Wednesday, August 1, 1888, Reverend Mr. John Richard Moore delivered the sermon, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation at St. George’s Cathedral in Georgetown.
Despatches and other items found in The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers clearly demonstrated the Africans begun purchasing land well over a year before 83 nationalists including five females, purchased Plantation Northbrook on the East Sea Coast of Demerara on November 18, 1839.
Almost immediately following the emancipation of slavery Africans began to purchase land. The purchases were as small as a few roods, and house lots, and as large as a few acres.
1.In August 1838, Tom Seikirk purchased a piece of land 21 roods from W. Napier
2. In October 1838, the representatives of Saffon sold Thrisby Cuche Lot of land 17 Charlestown
3.In October 1838, Thrisby Cuche sold half of lot 17 Charlestown and a quarter of lot 17 Charlestown to Dirk Willebers and John McIntosh respectively. (P.P. 1841(321): 211). The stated dates are likely those in which transport was passed.
It is beyond my imagination why the academic professionals continue to ignore the land purchases prior to Plantation Northbrook. Further more those conspirators continue to perpetuate misinformation. They continue to stated Africans purchased villages. Nothing could be more false. The simple and unadulterated truth remains’ Africans purchased abandoned Plantations. Those plantations were, for the most part, formerly cotton and plantain estates. It was the colonial authority, with a few strokes of their pens, established the villages. The Village ordinances, as they are called, commandeered the plantations owned by Africans. They turned the plantations into villages managed by colonial officials - such as Stipendiary Magistrates, Central Board of Health and the Inspector of Villages.
The period between November 18, 1839 and December 31, 1852 is referred to as the Village Movement. In that era Africans purchased numerous plantations beginning with Plantation Northbrook. Again, and it bears repeating, for whatever their reasons, the purchases of land, other than the plantations receive no mention whatsoever by the academic community. That’s really sad and perplexing at the same time - for there are ample sources of information - it is very difficult for me to admit that’s it possible for the acclaimed scholars of Guyana are all guilty of gross negligence, irresponsible and deceitful scholarship. Purchases were also made in Berbice as had occurred in the counties of Demerara and Essequebo. Several lots were purchased in New Amsterdam long before Plantation Northbrook was purchased. I know it is noteworthy to state here and now, that the Parliamentary Papers also states;
1.Roderick Merchant and two others purchased seven acres of Plantation Cumberland, Canje on December 27, 1839.
2.On March 13, 1840, John F. L. Cameron purchased one and three quarter acres of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
3.John Monday Kirkwood and three others - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
4.William Alien - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.
5.Hector Fothergill - Part of Plantation Cumberland, Canje.(PP 1841 (321): 239 -241).
It is my contention. The purchases of land by Africans between August 1838 and December 31, 1852 are the pillars of the modern nation of the cooperative republic of Guyana. The mouthpieces of the political parties, especially the PPP and the PNC, could attempt to rewrite history all they want, but the facts will always be unflattering indictments of those two personal platforms. The simple fact remains the founders of those two political platforms are not the nation builders, national heroes, and fathers of the nation as perpetuate by their followers and fanatics. The truth is. Our unsung heroes are the real nation builders. Owning land is the true basis of freedom. The freed slaves, the shareholders of plantations understood the Landed Proprietor is as free a man they could ever be under the politics of the colonial system of the British Empire. Our people continued to propagate an agriculture-based economy. Most were self-employed. They were primarily farmers. However, at the beginnings of the twentieth century, principally the second generation after the emancipation of slavery began to abandon the rural communities for salaried positions in the major urban centers in the colony of British Guiana. That in itself set into motion the decline of the village economy. They sold land their ancestors had purchased. It is doubtful that today, they could repurchase those lands. The process of migration from the rural communities did not stop at Georgetown, New Amsterdam, and Linden and elsewhere in the colony. Our people began to emigrate to the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Panama and other political boundaries. The land owners began selling their land to members of the other so-called ethnic groups, prior to the movement of our people to the urban centers and overseas - How then could East Indians, Chinese and Portuguese become owners of land in the African communities in British Guiana? The Africans sold land to others. Yet, whenever they felt slighted, they rioted. Africans rioted three times against the Portuguese. The first was in 1847 on the East Bank of the Berbice River. The second was in Demerara in February 1856. The third was again in Demerara in March 1884.
A worrying feature remains Africans planted their crops. Then sold the produce at wholesale prices to the Portuguese. Then the Africans repurchased the commodities at retail prices from the Portuguese. Yet, the Africans wondered how come the Portuguese rose up to be the major business people in the African Communities. Also, the Africans got drunk at the Portuguese liquor stores. As late as 1872 there was less than 10 identifiable African owned liquor stores in the colony of British Guiana. I am sure I did not recall any with an East Indian name. That’s not saying that they were not such owned by East Indians. After all, in the last half of the nineteenth century, numerous East Indians adopted Eurocentric names.
On April 18, 1917, another important emancipation transpired. It was the abolition of the new system of slavery known as indentureship. The system of Indentured Labourers differed marginally from that of slavery. The Indentured Labourers signed a contract. The contract stipulated a number of conditions were to be met. However, in practice, those contracted labourers caught nothing but pure hell in the colony of British Guiana, 1835 - 1917. I am absolute; no Portuguese, East Indian and Chinese were celebrating any arrival day in British Guiana between 1835 and 1917. For crying out loud; the playing of tajah drums without permission was seen as a criminal offence. Can you imagine that?
I must argue that a third and perhaps, final emancipation is necessary in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. This emancipation must result in the abolition of ethnic cleavage. It must promote the greatest good of the Guyanese people. This sort of emancipation is absolutely necessary to move the Guyanese people into a semblance of national unity. It is my conviction, the ills of Guyana, is predominantly all man-made. They can be eradicated. The key to achieving such is education. The curriculum must be geared to reproduce a Guyanese mind set. The texts must show national interests and not British and/or European as it were prior to May 26, 1966.
Guyanese must emancipate themselves from the propaganda of the PPP and the PNC. I had assumed Guyanese people were intelligent people. Certainly, the slaves and the indentured labourers reacted to their oppression demonstrating self-worth and integrity. During the last 60 years, the facts have proven otherwise. They aren’t intelligent enough to understand that the consequence of 57 years of the PPP and the PNC are as retarding as almost 350 years of European colonization of Guyana. The avenue of migration remains the major form of Emancipation Guyanese has been enjoying over the last 60 years. Migration will continue to be a factor as long as such conditions as one US dollar being equaled to 205 Guyana dollars and more, high unemployment - scarcity of jobs. The skilled and unskilled labour force will migrate to nations where they fancy their chances of economic development are greatly improved.
Black people are the minority in Guyana. This has been the fact since the 1911 census. Black people (Africans) have to make a conscious effort to regain lost prestige. They need to do so not only in Guyana but wherever they dwell upon the face of the earth. The Africans must employ a self-help program. Some do-for-self programs as it were it-is-already-too-late and/or a do-it-right-now philosophy. (Courtesy of Malcolm X). They must examine what they gain by casting their ballots for the PNC. It is high-time, the people of the rural communities, especially those communities which were the leading lights as late as the 1920s analyze the roles of the political parties in their underdevelopment and stagnation. I am referring to those villages such as Victoria, Buxton, Friendship, Plaisance, Beterverwagting, Golden Grove and Nabaclis which continually throw away their vote behind the PNC for they receive nothing but devaluation and underdevelopment during the last 60 years. The Africans must begin to bargain their ballots. What are the Politicians and Political Parties have on their agendas for socioeconomic development of the communities? I am requesting that every rural community demand that the politicians show them what’s on their agenda for development of their community. It is high time, the Guyanese people become sophisticated voters and little by little begins to reclaim their stolen and/or squandered legacies.
I remain very proud of the generations of the nineteenth century. I am not at all respecting of those who supported the personal platforms, 1953 - 1997. I admire those who supported Nelson Cannon, Webber, Robertson, Straughan and others between 1887 and 1931. They laid the foundation for the struggle for political, Constitutional development in the colony of British Guiana. The roles of Bishop William Piercy Austin, the British Guiana teachers’ Association, and the Village chairmen’s Conference must not be underestimated.
The personal emancipation must be to ascertain knowledge of self. By that I am referring to acquiring knowledge of the contributions your representatives made to the development of the nation of Guyana. I support the cliche a man must know and not believe. Did your ancestor participate in the purchasing of land 1838 -1852? Can you identify your ancestors who were residents in the colony of British Guiana on Wednesday, August 1, 1838?
Long live the people of Guyana, everywhere. I pray that one day you will truly emancipate yourself and be freed of all the ills that handcuff you over the years . . . indeed that’s my prayer for all of humanity . . .
Hetep . . . the struggle continues . . .
Sources:
Proclamation - Free Men of the First of August -The Royal Gazette of British Guiana, Saturday, July 21, 1838.
Editorial -The Royal Gazette of British Guiana, Thursday, August 2, 1838.
Parliamentary Papers 1835 (278) L. pp. 179-207.
Parliamentary Papers 1841 Session 1 (321) Papers relative to the West Indies. 1841. British Guiana. Copy of a Despatch from Governor Light to lord John Russell - Enclosure in No. 115 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
1.Transports of land passed to labourers in the counties of Demerara and Essequibo in the Colony of British Guiana, from 1st of August 1838 to 31st of December 1840 pages 211 - 215
2.List of Transports of land passed in the county of Berbice, from 1st of August 1838 to 31st of December 1840, to persons who had previously been apprenticed Labourers. Pages 239 - 241.
3.Return of Estates or Lots of Land purchased by the labourers in District 1, West Coast, County Berbice, as requested by C. H. Strut, Esq., Stipendiary Magistrate, by letter of the 9th December 1840, on the requisition of his Excellency, the Governor- General. Pages 241 - 243.
4.Statement of Transports of Land executed in favour of Purchasers (formerly Apprenticed Labourers) from 1st of August 1838 to 5th April, 1840, exclusive of Lots of Land situated in Georgetown. Pages 113 - 114.
Parliamentary Papers 1842 (479) XIII. Select Committee on the West Indian Colonies, Evidence of John Scoble, 4215.
Chanderbali, David (1994) A Portrait of Paternalism: Governor Henry Light of British Guiana, 1838 -1848. Georgetown, Guyana: Guyana National Printers Ltd., 1994.
Green, William A., (1969), The Apprenticeship in British Guiana, 1834-1838. Institute of Caribbean Studies, UPR, Rio Piedras Campus. Caribbean Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jul., 1969), pp. 44-66.
Payne, Hugh "Tommy" (2001) 10 days in August 1834: 10 days that changed the world. Brooklyn, N.Y. : Caribbean Diaspora Press, c2001.
Roberts, G. W. "Immigration of Africans into the British Caribbean," Population Studies, Vol. VII, No. 3, March, 1958.
Rodney, Walter (1981) A History of The Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905. Baltimore, Maryland. : The Johns Hopkins University Press, c. 1981.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Divisionism in the Political Landscape
The trick of the enemy to assail and endanger the right of Blackmen - Frederick Douglass
Aren’t you sick and tired of shenanigans of Forbes Burnham, Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin, Ravi Devi, Cheddi Jagan, Janet Rosenberg-Jagan, Bharat Jagdeo, Hamilton Greene, Samuel Hinds, Roger Luncheon, Prem Misir, Donald Ramotar, Moses Nagamootoo, Frank Anthony, Clement Rohee, Ali Baksh, Reepu Daman Persaud, Henry Greene (Commissioner of Guyana Police Force), Gary Best (Chief of Staff, Guyana Defence Force), Leslie Ramsammy, Kellawan Lall, Robert Persaud and others of similar antics? Their malicious behaviour and recklessness have reduced Guyanese to a society of Guys-upon-their-knees. I charge for the majority of the last 57 years it has been one administration of angst by the hideous cutthroats masquerading as political leaders in the Colony of British Guiana and the politically independent nation known as Guyana - in short it has been pure hell upon earth - in the land of my birth. I find truly remarkable. That Guyana is a nation in which its currency, the dollar, has been most atrociously devalued within the last 40 years. The Guyanese dollar now possesses similar value to currency used in the board game known as monopoly. One US dollar is valued at some 200 Guyanese dollars. Yet the Guyanese electorate is dumb enough and blind enough but more so racist enough to cast a blind eye on the most depressing circumstances which dominates their daily lives. They not only re-elect the pirates - they anoint them national heroes - it seems like every place and every institution is named in their honour. I have not witnessed any shred of evidence supporting the billions of words spoken and written claiming that those modern Guianese political actors have any love for the people and the state of Guyana. I am confident not one of those misfits would place his or her life in jeopardy for the people and the state of Guyana. That will never ever happen as long as you blindly and religiously support those masters of division and conquer. The politicians do not want to see the people of Guyana unite. The politicians are masters of the colonial administration. They even drive your butts up the wall far more recklessly than any governor and his administration have ever done in colonial Guyana.
The politicians realize that if ever the people of Guyana unite it’s his butt that will feel the fire. Thus the politicians continue to fan the flames of ethnicity. It’s high time - that old con games are retired by the people of Guyana. That’s for sure.
What is Guyanese producing? What are the communities in the rural districts producing? I am positive, and absolutely so; they were far more productive in 1946 than they are today and/or at any point during the period December 1964 - July 1, 2010. Guyana is evidently a consumer nation. At this rate, this millennium will end and Guyana will be in the same boat up a shit’s creek as it is during the last 60 years. The cry today must be as it was in 1888. Reform Reform Reform
I believe 70 percent of the electorate must be the figure which allows candidates to claim offices. This figure is very likely unattainable in a multiethnic society. Thus, a coalition would then be necessary in such a situation. It would allow for a more accurate representation of the people than this so-called European fashioned democratic process which has produced nothing but a climate of ethnic hostility and fear.
Janet Jagan was such a force of divisionism in the political landscape. Her expressions were all aimed to alienate people. Her analyses were for the most part wrapped and blatantly anti-African. One has only to read her commentary on the leading African independent thinkers especially Eusi Kwayana and Forbes Burnham. Janet Jagan makes me very sympathetic to Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan.
I know my mother will for give me for making such a statement. Mother realize I always aspire to be truthful as best I can...
Clearly, I really did not find the opinions of the interviews in the book, The People's Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: an oral history as edited by Frank Birbalsingh and published in London by Hansib Publications, in 2007, at all outlandish, except for the raving racial venom spewed by Janet Jagan against Burnham and Kwayana and the cowardly statements of Brindley Benn. The analyses and/or recollections of Rory Westmaas and Moses Bhagwan were most impressive. I thought Papa Eusi Kwayana and Papa Ram Tiwari took the high road. I felt they were both annoyed and/or disgusted with the politics and its results in the land of our births but did not want to burn any bridges. I wished the interviewees had all come out with their guns blazing and let the chips fall where they may.
Eusi kwayana is a human being. He is entitled to various human relations and expressions...but I am dam sure puzzled - why upon earth would Eusi Kwayana want to be a Gandhi? What would a curly haired Blackman want to be identified with a straight-haired Blackman is beyond my simple mind? Why does Janet Jagan think Africans ought to use Gandhi as a measuring rod? What kind of idiots did Janet Jagan take Black people for? Why did it not occur to Janet Jagan that Eusi Kwayana has dread locks? Also, he is some what acquainted with the story of the people of the African continent. Janet Jagan took all black people for Negroes. She was inclined to accept Africans were ignorant of their history and culture before we were caught, kidnapped, brought and enslaved on the plantation in the Americas. Janet Jagan was quite frankly an opportunistic human being. She rode the coat tails of Cheddi Jagan.
Cheddi Jagan was rather fortunate to ride to prominence upon the deaths of several persons at Plantation Enmore in June 1948 following upon political savvy and advocacy of Eusi Kwayana, Balram Singh Rai, and Ogle and others on the East Coast of Demerara in the November 1947 elections.
Recommended Reading:
Birbalsingh, Frank (2007) The People's Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: an oral history. London: Hansib Publications, 2007.
Aren’t you sick and tired of shenanigans of Forbes Burnham, Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin, Ravi Devi, Cheddi Jagan, Janet Rosenberg-Jagan, Bharat Jagdeo, Hamilton Greene, Samuel Hinds, Roger Luncheon, Prem Misir, Donald Ramotar, Moses Nagamootoo, Frank Anthony, Clement Rohee, Ali Baksh, Reepu Daman Persaud, Henry Greene (Commissioner of Guyana Police Force), Gary Best (Chief of Staff, Guyana Defence Force), Leslie Ramsammy, Kellawan Lall, Robert Persaud and others of similar antics? Their malicious behaviour and recklessness have reduced Guyanese to a society of Guys-upon-their-knees. I charge for the majority of the last 57 years it has been one administration of angst by the hideous cutthroats masquerading as political leaders in the Colony of British Guiana and the politically independent nation known as Guyana - in short it has been pure hell upon earth - in the land of my birth. I find truly remarkable. That Guyana is a nation in which its currency, the dollar, has been most atrociously devalued within the last 40 years. The Guyanese dollar now possesses similar value to currency used in the board game known as monopoly. One US dollar is valued at some 200 Guyanese dollars. Yet the Guyanese electorate is dumb enough and blind enough but more so racist enough to cast a blind eye on the most depressing circumstances which dominates their daily lives. They not only re-elect the pirates - they anoint them national heroes - it seems like every place and every institution is named in their honour. I have not witnessed any shred of evidence supporting the billions of words spoken and written claiming that those modern Guianese political actors have any love for the people and the state of Guyana. I am confident not one of those misfits would place his or her life in jeopardy for the people and the state of Guyana. That will never ever happen as long as you blindly and religiously support those masters of division and conquer. The politicians do not want to see the people of Guyana unite. The politicians are masters of the colonial administration. They even drive your butts up the wall far more recklessly than any governor and his administration have ever done in colonial Guyana.
The politicians realize that if ever the people of Guyana unite it’s his butt that will feel the fire. Thus the politicians continue to fan the flames of ethnicity. It’s high time - that old con games are retired by the people of Guyana. That’s for sure.
What is Guyanese producing? What are the communities in the rural districts producing? I am positive, and absolutely so; they were far more productive in 1946 than they are today and/or at any point during the period December 1964 - July 1, 2010. Guyana is evidently a consumer nation. At this rate, this millennium will end and Guyana will be in the same boat up a shit’s creek as it is during the last 60 years. The cry today must be as it was in 1888. Reform Reform Reform
I believe 70 percent of the electorate must be the figure which allows candidates to claim offices. This figure is very likely unattainable in a multiethnic society. Thus, a coalition would then be necessary in such a situation. It would allow for a more accurate representation of the people than this so-called European fashioned democratic process which has produced nothing but a climate of ethnic hostility and fear.
Janet Jagan was such a force of divisionism in the political landscape. Her expressions were all aimed to alienate people. Her analyses were for the most part wrapped and blatantly anti-African. One has only to read her commentary on the leading African independent thinkers especially Eusi Kwayana and Forbes Burnham. Janet Jagan makes me very sympathetic to Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan.
I know my mother will for give me for making such a statement. Mother realize I always aspire to be truthful as best I can...
Clearly, I really did not find the opinions of the interviews in the book, The People's Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: an oral history as edited by Frank Birbalsingh and published in London by Hansib Publications, in 2007, at all outlandish, except for the raving racial venom spewed by Janet Jagan against Burnham and Kwayana and the cowardly statements of Brindley Benn. The analyses and/or recollections of Rory Westmaas and Moses Bhagwan were most impressive. I thought Papa Eusi Kwayana and Papa Ram Tiwari took the high road. I felt they were both annoyed and/or disgusted with the politics and its results in the land of our births but did not want to burn any bridges. I wished the interviewees had all come out with their guns blazing and let the chips fall where they may.
Eusi kwayana is a human being. He is entitled to various human relations and expressions...but I am dam sure puzzled - why upon earth would Eusi Kwayana want to be a Gandhi? What would a curly haired Blackman want to be identified with a straight-haired Blackman is beyond my simple mind? Why does Janet Jagan think Africans ought to use Gandhi as a measuring rod? What kind of idiots did Janet Jagan take Black people for? Why did it not occur to Janet Jagan that Eusi Kwayana has dread locks? Also, he is some what acquainted with the story of the people of the African continent. Janet Jagan took all black people for Negroes. She was inclined to accept Africans were ignorant of their history and culture before we were caught, kidnapped, brought and enslaved on the plantation in the Americas. Janet Jagan was quite frankly an opportunistic human being. She rode the coat tails of Cheddi Jagan.
Cheddi Jagan was rather fortunate to ride to prominence upon the deaths of several persons at Plantation Enmore in June 1948 following upon political savvy and advocacy of Eusi Kwayana, Balram Singh Rai, and Ogle and others on the East Coast of Demerara in the November 1947 elections.
Recommended Reading:
Birbalsingh, Frank (2007) The People's Progressive Party of Guyana, 1950-1992: an oral history. London: Hansib Publications, 2007.
Monday, July 12, 2010
so-called criminals are executed
Have you ever wondered?
Why are so many of the so-called criminals are African -Guyanese?
Why are so many of the so-called criminals are executed?
Why aren’t the so-called criminals brought to justice in the courts of Guyana?
Why are so many of the so-called criminals residents of the rural communities?
Why politicians are never prosecuted for criminal acts and most importantly for crimes against the people and state of Guyana?
I offer the opinion. The PPP and the PNC were never confronted for the loss of lives, injuries, and damages and/or loss of properties of hundreds of Guyanese between 1962 and December 1964. The Guyanese people allowed their politicians to escape with perpetuating those criminal acts against our people. They were all allowed to go unpunished. The racism of the Guyanese people has been proven beyond doubt that such were political in nature. Thus, the real criminals were hidden behind the blanket of ethnicity. However, it is a known fact of life that racism is a crime against humanity.
It is obvious; they way things are in the English-speaking Caribbean change is needed. In short; a change must come sooner than later. I endorse and support change in the politics of the four major nations of CARICOM. I believe females of the stature of Mia Motley in Barbados, Kamla Persad Bissessar in Trinidad and Tobago, Portia Simpson Miller in Jamaica, Sheila Holder in Guyana, are qualified and are capable of bringing about the necessary changes needed to encourage development in all sectors of the society in the Caribbean basin. Thus, I would support females for the position of the Office of Head of State in their respective nations. It is high time. More females administer nations. They have done well as administrators not only in the kitchen but in the homes. Let’s be clear, “what goes into the pot on the stove in the kitchen is never decided on the kitchen table.” Let’s face it. Males have made a mockery of the Office of Head of State for more than two millenniums now.
Males are mostly and/or easily corrupted. Males love power more than their wives and/or other females. They love power more than they ever expressed love for people...and they never will... I would love to witness a really Guyanese female at the helm of the government of Guyana. I am quite sure; she cannot be as terrible as that Chicago born Czechoslovak Jewess Janet Rosenberg Jagan and the array of hypocrites. Burnham, Jagan, Hoyte, hinds, and Jagdeo...all hands are bloody. I believe females are far more inclined to balance reasoning than males. Racism is a crime against humanity...Sexism is a crime against humanity. Well, then tell me, isn’t it time for changes? The struggle continues...
The Christian religion has failed. Now the government of America has failed you. You have no justice coming from no one. It is written that we are like sheep among wolves... every wolf taking a bite at you. You want justice. You want freedom. You want equality...but get none... Elijah Muhammad
I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on earth Louis X
The black women are the sustainers of life on earth...
Why are so many of the so-called criminals are African -Guyanese?
Why are so many of the so-called criminals are executed?
Why aren’t the so-called criminals brought to justice in the courts of Guyana?
Why are so many of the so-called criminals residents of the rural communities?
Why politicians are never prosecuted for criminal acts and most importantly for crimes against the people and state of Guyana?
I offer the opinion. The PPP and the PNC were never confronted for the loss of lives, injuries, and damages and/or loss of properties of hundreds of Guyanese between 1962 and December 1964. The Guyanese people allowed their politicians to escape with perpetuating those criminal acts against our people. They were all allowed to go unpunished. The racism of the Guyanese people has been proven beyond doubt that such were political in nature. Thus, the real criminals were hidden behind the blanket of ethnicity. However, it is a known fact of life that racism is a crime against humanity.
It is obvious; they way things are in the English-speaking Caribbean change is needed. In short; a change must come sooner than later. I endorse and support change in the politics of the four major nations of CARICOM. I believe females of the stature of Mia Motley in Barbados, Kamla Persad Bissessar in Trinidad and Tobago, Portia Simpson Miller in Jamaica, Sheila Holder in Guyana, are qualified and are capable of bringing about the necessary changes needed to encourage development in all sectors of the society in the Caribbean basin. Thus, I would support females for the position of the Office of Head of State in their respective nations. It is high time. More females administer nations. They have done well as administrators not only in the kitchen but in the homes. Let’s be clear, “what goes into the pot on the stove in the kitchen is never decided on the kitchen table.” Let’s face it. Males have made a mockery of the Office of Head of State for more than two millenniums now.
Males are mostly and/or easily corrupted. Males love power more than their wives and/or other females. They love power more than they ever expressed love for people...and they never will... I would love to witness a really Guyanese female at the helm of the government of Guyana. I am quite sure; she cannot be as terrible as that Chicago born Czechoslovak Jewess Janet Rosenberg Jagan and the array of hypocrites. Burnham, Jagan, Hoyte, hinds, and Jagdeo...all hands are bloody. I believe females are far more inclined to balance reasoning than males. Racism is a crime against humanity...Sexism is a crime against humanity. Well, then tell me, isn’t it time for changes? The struggle continues...
The Christian religion has failed. Now the government of America has failed you. You have no justice coming from no one. It is written that we are like sheep among wolves... every wolf taking a bite at you. You want justice. You want freedom. You want equality...but get none... Elijah Muhammad
I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on earth Louis X
The black women are the sustainers of life on earth...
Jagdeo - Deficient of Testosterone - Inspires a Profusion of Bloodletting
“Life is perpetual; it only changes its form in its course of progress. The death of one form of life of existing things, is but the beginning of another form of life of those things”
“Stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society, today.” Sonia Sotomayor – New York City, 1998
I take it upon myself to intrude upon your privacy. The need is to acquint you with an article on the subject of decentralization as a philosophy of bringing to an end the unhealthy practice of politics of ethnicity. I charge some thirty years ago; The Most Honourable Walter Rodney (1942-1980) dubbed 1979 The Year of The Turn.
I believe. It is fitting to realize that most of the people, connected to Guiana; are so indoctrinated, so blinded by the fever of racism that they simply refuse to recognize, and/or accept truth and rights, whenever and wherever they perceive same to display their politics and their religion in bad light. According to the rhetoric and the actions of the membership and fanatics of the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP), the Blackman of Guyana must be eradicated in Guyana. The Blackman must be handcuffed. They must be marginalised; for the African communities are producing neither food nor industrious people but are graduating terrorists of East Indians, their property, their communities and their nation. Nothing good can ever come from Buxton, Nabaclis and the African villages in Guyana. The image of the Blackman has never been worst in the sight of the ruling class in the Americas. However, those of us, who are familiar with the history of our people, must be vigilant. Social scientists and commentators must not allow politicians and their lackeys to highjack their nation. Social commentators and activists must advocate on the basis of truth. Those who know must reveal truths wherever and whenever they encounter them.
A Wesleyan Minister, Reverend E. Biscombe, resident in the city of Georgetown in the colony of British Guiana, observed and wrote in a letter dated Monday, April 24, 1871, “The most hopeful feature for the future of the colony is in our day schools. I was quite surprised at the number, respectability, and intelligence of the boys and girls, fully equal to the same class at home. The prospects of our work are good.”
Fellow Guyanese, you are well aware that numerous scholars and outstanding citizens of Buxton and the African Villages and elsewhere, were produced having experienced that system of education in the colony of British Guiana. It cannot be denied Blackman from Buxton and the African Villages and elsewhere are found in any listing of academics between July 31, 1834 and May 26, 1966. How is it that between March 1992 and Tuesday, June 16, 2009 only illegal narcotics trade, thieves, and murderers decorates the news media in Guyana? It is so nauseating me. I very rarely access news out of Guyana in recent times. On every occasion I access the news, it seems I am made aware of civil and human rights violations against several of my relatives in Guyana. It is as perplexing as it is nauseating. It is the politics of the PPP and the PNC and Guyanese who support those entities who have done deeds to us during the last 55 years which only people fitting the description as enemies; enemies of our people would do to us.
I believe Reverend Biscombe and numerous souls who were in the colony of British Guiana in the nineteenth century would be very disturbed by the results of the politics in the era of independence of British Guiana in today’s Guyana. As I recall and reminiscence of the life and times of the Hero of the post independence struggle against the Burnham regime and its policy of Paramountcy of the Party, Dr. Walter Rodney, I wonder, how many possible Walter Rodney’s have this current administration buried at a tender age?
Let us recall
A brief example below reflects Rodney's eloquence. In 1976 at a public street meeting in Guyana, Rodney spoke about race:
“You see, we have had too much of this foolishness of race. I'm not going to attempt to allocate the blame one way or another. I think more than one political party has been responsible for the crisis of race relations in this country. I think our leadership has failed us on that score. I think external intervention was important in bringing the races against each other from the fifties and particularly in the early sixties. But I'm concerned with the present. If we made that mistake once, we cannot afford to be misled on that score today. No ordinary Afro-Guyanese, no ordinary Indo-Guyanese can today afford to be misled by the myth of race. Time and time again it has been our undoing.”
“Does it have anything to do with race that the cost of living far outstrips the increase in wages? Does it have anything to do with race that there are no goods in the shops? Does it have anything to do with race when the original lack of democracy as exemplified in the national elections is reproduced at the level of local government elections? Does it have anything to do with race when the bauxite workers cannot elect their own union leadership? Does it have anything to do with race when, day after day, whether one is Indian or African, without the appropriate party credentials, one either gets no employment, loses one's employment, or is subject to lack of promotion?”
“It is clear that we must get beyond that red herring and recognise that it is intended to divide, that it is not intended in the interest of the common African and Indian people in this country. Those who manipulated in the 1960s, on both sides, were not the sufferers. There were not the losers. The losers were those who participated, who shared blows and who got blows. And they are the losers today.”
“It is time that we understand that those in power are still attempting to maintain us in that mentality - maintain us captive in that mentality where we are afraid to act or we act injudiciously because we believe that our racial interests are at stake. Surely we have to transcend the racial problems? Surely we have to find ways and means of ensuring that there is racial justice in this society? But it certainly will not be done by a handful of so-called Black men monopolising the power, squeezing the life out of all sections of the working class, and turning around and expecting that they will manipulate an issue such as the Arnold Rampersaud affair and get the support of ordinary black people because we will say, ‘After all; is only an Indian. We could hang him. No sweat.’”
“Because, as I said before, you start with one thing, you end with another. The system doesn't stop at racial discrimination. Because it is a system of class oppression, it only camouflages its class nature under a racial cover. And in the end, it will move against anyone irrespective of colour. In the end, they will move even against their own. Because, don't believe if you are a member of that party today, that you will be protected tomorrow from the injustices. Because when a monster grows, it grows out of control. It eats up even those who created the monster. And it's time that our people understood that.”
Jagdeo's treatment of his former wife is simply sickening. It is a travesty. It is however consistent with his repulsive behaviour. It is simply very childish. It is also extremely rude. It is unbecoming of a leader of any civic organization, much less a head of state. I guess the old adage you get what you voted for is applicable. Jagdeo has contributed to Guyanese becoming the laughing stock of the Caribbean basin.
If Jagdeo is acting upon the advice of others; he ought to immediately distance himself from them. Jagdeo ought to try to salvage his horrendous image. Whenever I look at Jagdeo, I imagine an imitation of the Kabaka albeit a rather mediocre one at that.
George Lamming in his introduction to Walter Rodney's classic literature – a history of the Guyanese working people, 1881-1905; reminds readers of one the weaknesses of the democracy as reflected by Eurocentric ideals in multiethnic societies – it is the arithmetic of the ethnic groups – the numbers of one group supporting their own as opposed to the best candidate. Thus, because of this acceptable feature of the democratic process, the ethnic majority will always hold the political clout in Guyana and similar societies. The other groups will have to struggle for their share of political representation – and/or aspire to achieve a self-government. I believe ultimately the best scenario for Africans in Guyana and around the globe is to struggle for self-determination. I would be a traitor to my people if I suggested anything less than a self-government is an acceptable condition.
Africans in Guyana have always faced and survived an uphill battle for survival and self-emancipation. They are yet to catch a beak. Many will point to the disastrous PNC dictatorship between 1968 and 1992 – and claim it was an African administration but the tribulations of numerous afro-Guyanese bear ample testimonies to the sordid episode in the African Guyanese experience. Walter Rodney, Frederick Mahaica, Shirley Field-Ridley, several members of the WPA, ASCRIA, Trade unionists and professor of the University of Guyana, Members of Local Authorities and descendants of Shareholders of the African Villages in Guyana all attest to the paramountcy of the PNC was very detrimental to Africans as it was to other ethnic groups of the Guyanese society who did not support the PNC regardless of ethnicity.
Jagdeo is as petty and as repulsive as Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. However, a young Forbes Burnham was quite a ladies' man as he was an orator. Perhaps only alcohol was preferred. I am positive Jagdeo is as poor a choice as one can present for comparison to Forbes Burnham. It is clear Jagdeo's Affair with the beauty from Enmore was an arrangement. I cannot accept it was a marriage of physical love. I am that convinced Jagdeo is deficient of testosterone. I think Jagdeo has no yearnings for females. It was a sham – a con job upon the people of Guyana. I am sure it was a convenience to fulfil the requirement of the constitution of Guyana. In fact – the constitution of Guyana – ought to demand the Head of State of Guyana lead an exemplary life. A life which includes a spouse and children – and is married at all times while in office. Jagdeo is an embarrassment. He ought to demit office and just disappear from public – and/or be impeached. Certainly he must be replaced soonest for the good of the nation. Someone capable enough of stopping the carnage, the unending hurt which the underprivileged working class people are enduring daily in Guyana is needed and necessary at this particular period in the history of Guyana.
Again Jagdeo is so terrible in the field of public and ethnic relations. It shows clearly he belongs at the bottom of the Mahaica River Basin where he was birthed. How upon this god forsaken earth, such a being is allowed to trod upon creation, much less masquerade as a Head of State is beyond my simple mind set?
Where have you gone Dr. Cheddie Jagan, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham and Desmond Hoyte? And for that matter the British Colonial Administration is also sadly missed in Guyana today. I did not believe in May 1966 I would make such statements in 2009. But however, today, mediocrity is disguised as national leaders, reigns all over the planet and abundantly so in Guyana. Bloodshed and mayhem, the loss of life and disregard for both their human and civil rights - is the price the underprivileged working class people pay for affording the ruling class to oppress them; daily. Where are this generation's Eusi Kwayana, Balram Singh Rai and Walter Rodney? Certainly, credible voice of reason and voice of dissent – are all rather silent and/or indeed absent. Clearly from every location in and beyond the political boundary of Guyana voices must be raised in unison against the genocide being committed in the African Communities, under the guise of eradicating criminal activities in Guyana. The young fellows who are based at Agricola and Buxton and Friendship districts are importing neither weapons nor illegal narcotic drugs. They are not the real beneficiaries of the illegal narcotic drugs’ trade. The misguided babies are certainly not laundering money. What do they own if they are forced to go out into the communities to rob the working class people including preachers, mourners and others of rather insignificant items such as small amounts of legal tender, cell phones, cameras, and computers, etc.? Only total lunatics and racists would believe and accept the low-level criminal behaviour is responsible for the current state of affairs in Guyana. The PPP/C Administration is not fooling anyone. It is simply a race-based group of thuggery which they are perpetrating against the people and the state of Guyana. Is this the character of your leadership? Good lord have mercy. The struggle continues.
“Stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society, today.” Sonia Sotomayor – New York City, 1998
I take it upon myself to intrude upon your privacy. The need is to acquint you with an article on the subject of decentralization as a philosophy of bringing to an end the unhealthy practice of politics of ethnicity. I charge some thirty years ago; The Most Honourable Walter Rodney (1942-1980) dubbed 1979 The Year of The Turn.
I believe. It is fitting to realize that most of the people, connected to Guiana; are so indoctrinated, so blinded by the fever of racism that they simply refuse to recognize, and/or accept truth and rights, whenever and wherever they perceive same to display their politics and their religion in bad light. According to the rhetoric and the actions of the membership and fanatics of the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP), the Blackman of Guyana must be eradicated in Guyana. The Blackman must be handcuffed. They must be marginalised; for the African communities are producing neither food nor industrious people but are graduating terrorists of East Indians, their property, their communities and their nation. Nothing good can ever come from Buxton, Nabaclis and the African villages in Guyana. The image of the Blackman has never been worst in the sight of the ruling class in the Americas. However, those of us, who are familiar with the history of our people, must be vigilant. Social scientists and commentators must not allow politicians and their lackeys to highjack their nation. Social commentators and activists must advocate on the basis of truth. Those who know must reveal truths wherever and whenever they encounter them.
A Wesleyan Minister, Reverend E. Biscombe, resident in the city of Georgetown in the colony of British Guiana, observed and wrote in a letter dated Monday, April 24, 1871, “The most hopeful feature for the future of the colony is in our day schools. I was quite surprised at the number, respectability, and intelligence of the boys and girls, fully equal to the same class at home. The prospects of our work are good.”
Fellow Guyanese, you are well aware that numerous scholars and outstanding citizens of Buxton and the African Villages and elsewhere, were produced having experienced that system of education in the colony of British Guiana. It cannot be denied Blackman from Buxton and the African Villages and elsewhere are found in any listing of academics between July 31, 1834 and May 26, 1966. How is it that between March 1992 and Tuesday, June 16, 2009 only illegal narcotics trade, thieves, and murderers decorates the news media in Guyana? It is so nauseating me. I very rarely access news out of Guyana in recent times. On every occasion I access the news, it seems I am made aware of civil and human rights violations against several of my relatives in Guyana. It is as perplexing as it is nauseating. It is the politics of the PPP and the PNC and Guyanese who support those entities who have done deeds to us during the last 55 years which only people fitting the description as enemies; enemies of our people would do to us.
I believe Reverend Biscombe and numerous souls who were in the colony of British Guiana in the nineteenth century would be very disturbed by the results of the politics in the era of independence of British Guiana in today’s Guyana. As I recall and reminiscence of the life and times of the Hero of the post independence struggle against the Burnham regime and its policy of Paramountcy of the Party, Dr. Walter Rodney, I wonder, how many possible Walter Rodney’s have this current administration buried at a tender age?
Let us recall
A brief example below reflects Rodney's eloquence. In 1976 at a public street meeting in Guyana, Rodney spoke about race:
“You see, we have had too much of this foolishness of race. I'm not going to attempt to allocate the blame one way or another. I think more than one political party has been responsible for the crisis of race relations in this country. I think our leadership has failed us on that score. I think external intervention was important in bringing the races against each other from the fifties and particularly in the early sixties. But I'm concerned with the present. If we made that mistake once, we cannot afford to be misled on that score today. No ordinary Afro-Guyanese, no ordinary Indo-Guyanese can today afford to be misled by the myth of race. Time and time again it has been our undoing.”
“Does it have anything to do with race that the cost of living far outstrips the increase in wages? Does it have anything to do with race that there are no goods in the shops? Does it have anything to do with race when the original lack of democracy as exemplified in the national elections is reproduced at the level of local government elections? Does it have anything to do with race when the bauxite workers cannot elect their own union leadership? Does it have anything to do with race when, day after day, whether one is Indian or African, without the appropriate party credentials, one either gets no employment, loses one's employment, or is subject to lack of promotion?”
“It is clear that we must get beyond that red herring and recognise that it is intended to divide, that it is not intended in the interest of the common African and Indian people in this country. Those who manipulated in the 1960s, on both sides, were not the sufferers. There were not the losers. The losers were those who participated, who shared blows and who got blows. And they are the losers today.”
“It is time that we understand that those in power are still attempting to maintain us in that mentality - maintain us captive in that mentality where we are afraid to act or we act injudiciously because we believe that our racial interests are at stake. Surely we have to transcend the racial problems? Surely we have to find ways and means of ensuring that there is racial justice in this society? But it certainly will not be done by a handful of so-called Black men monopolising the power, squeezing the life out of all sections of the working class, and turning around and expecting that they will manipulate an issue such as the Arnold Rampersaud affair and get the support of ordinary black people because we will say, ‘After all; is only an Indian. We could hang him. No sweat.’”
“Because, as I said before, you start with one thing, you end with another. The system doesn't stop at racial discrimination. Because it is a system of class oppression, it only camouflages its class nature under a racial cover. And in the end, it will move against anyone irrespective of colour. In the end, they will move even against their own. Because, don't believe if you are a member of that party today, that you will be protected tomorrow from the injustices. Because when a monster grows, it grows out of control. It eats up even those who created the monster. And it's time that our people understood that.”
Jagdeo's treatment of his former wife is simply sickening. It is a travesty. It is however consistent with his repulsive behaviour. It is simply very childish. It is also extremely rude. It is unbecoming of a leader of any civic organization, much less a head of state. I guess the old adage you get what you voted for is applicable. Jagdeo has contributed to Guyanese becoming the laughing stock of the Caribbean basin.
If Jagdeo is acting upon the advice of others; he ought to immediately distance himself from them. Jagdeo ought to try to salvage his horrendous image. Whenever I look at Jagdeo, I imagine an imitation of the Kabaka albeit a rather mediocre one at that.
George Lamming in his introduction to Walter Rodney's classic literature – a history of the Guyanese working people, 1881-1905; reminds readers of one the weaknesses of the democracy as reflected by Eurocentric ideals in multiethnic societies – it is the arithmetic of the ethnic groups – the numbers of one group supporting their own as opposed to the best candidate. Thus, because of this acceptable feature of the democratic process, the ethnic majority will always hold the political clout in Guyana and similar societies. The other groups will have to struggle for their share of political representation – and/or aspire to achieve a self-government. I believe ultimately the best scenario for Africans in Guyana and around the globe is to struggle for self-determination. I would be a traitor to my people if I suggested anything less than a self-government is an acceptable condition.
Africans in Guyana have always faced and survived an uphill battle for survival and self-emancipation. They are yet to catch a beak. Many will point to the disastrous PNC dictatorship between 1968 and 1992 – and claim it was an African administration but the tribulations of numerous afro-Guyanese bear ample testimonies to the sordid episode in the African Guyanese experience. Walter Rodney, Frederick Mahaica, Shirley Field-Ridley, several members of the WPA, ASCRIA, Trade unionists and professor of the University of Guyana, Members of Local Authorities and descendants of Shareholders of the African Villages in Guyana all attest to the paramountcy of the PNC was very detrimental to Africans as it was to other ethnic groups of the Guyanese society who did not support the PNC regardless of ethnicity.
Jagdeo is as petty and as repulsive as Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. However, a young Forbes Burnham was quite a ladies' man as he was an orator. Perhaps only alcohol was preferred. I am positive Jagdeo is as poor a choice as one can present for comparison to Forbes Burnham. It is clear Jagdeo's Affair with the beauty from Enmore was an arrangement. I cannot accept it was a marriage of physical love. I am that convinced Jagdeo is deficient of testosterone. I think Jagdeo has no yearnings for females. It was a sham – a con job upon the people of Guyana. I am sure it was a convenience to fulfil the requirement of the constitution of Guyana. In fact – the constitution of Guyana – ought to demand the Head of State of Guyana lead an exemplary life. A life which includes a spouse and children – and is married at all times while in office. Jagdeo is an embarrassment. He ought to demit office and just disappear from public – and/or be impeached. Certainly he must be replaced soonest for the good of the nation. Someone capable enough of stopping the carnage, the unending hurt which the underprivileged working class people are enduring daily in Guyana is needed and necessary at this particular period in the history of Guyana.
Again Jagdeo is so terrible in the field of public and ethnic relations. It shows clearly he belongs at the bottom of the Mahaica River Basin where he was birthed. How upon this god forsaken earth, such a being is allowed to trod upon creation, much less masquerade as a Head of State is beyond my simple mind set?
Where have you gone Dr. Cheddie Jagan, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham and Desmond Hoyte? And for that matter the British Colonial Administration is also sadly missed in Guyana today. I did not believe in May 1966 I would make such statements in 2009. But however, today, mediocrity is disguised as national leaders, reigns all over the planet and abundantly so in Guyana. Bloodshed and mayhem, the loss of life and disregard for both their human and civil rights - is the price the underprivileged working class people pay for affording the ruling class to oppress them; daily. Where are this generation's Eusi Kwayana, Balram Singh Rai and Walter Rodney? Certainly, credible voice of reason and voice of dissent – are all rather silent and/or indeed absent. Clearly from every location in and beyond the political boundary of Guyana voices must be raised in unison against the genocide being committed in the African Communities, under the guise of eradicating criminal activities in Guyana. The young fellows who are based at Agricola and Buxton and Friendship districts are importing neither weapons nor illegal narcotic drugs. They are not the real beneficiaries of the illegal narcotic drugs’ trade. The misguided babies are certainly not laundering money. What do they own if they are forced to go out into the communities to rob the working class people including preachers, mourners and others of rather insignificant items such as small amounts of legal tender, cell phones, cameras, and computers, etc.? Only total lunatics and racists would believe and accept the low-level criminal behaviour is responsible for the current state of affairs in Guyana. The PPP/C Administration is not fooling anyone. It is simply a race-based group of thuggery which they are perpetrating against the people and the state of Guyana. Is this the character of your leadership? Good lord have mercy. The struggle continues.
LeBron James and the Knicks
The management of the New York Knicks must make a conscious effort to build a team for the future. They should not bend to the will of the fans. They should not bend to the will of the Sports personalities of the various media outlets. The vast majority of fans and Sports personalities seek instant gratification. The Knicks often traveled that road. Yet, still their cupboard remains empty since the era of Fraser, Reed and Bradley. Since 1972 the Knicks were only contenders on two occasions. Those occasions were during the era of Patrick Ewing.
Management must be astute. They should not sign free agents. They must acquire top five draft picks in every draft in the next three years. The Knicks should use whomever they have on their roster in the attempts to procure the draft picks. If it is necessary, the Knicks ought to utilize a portion of the cap room in such efforts to obtain young talented players in a two-three year window. Championship teams are constructed with a core of players who were molded together for a few years. This is primarily done through the drafts. The Knicks have always been about a team oriented players. Certainly, Bradley, Fraser and Willis Read were obtained through the drafts in the mid1960s. Patrick Ewing and Mark Jackson were draft choices in the early to mid 1980s. The Knicks must not simply throw their money around at high-priced one-dimensional players. They must get back to top notch scouting. Rod Strickland was the last draft choice of merit. The Knicks’ management made too many mistakes. That’s certainly the biggest reason the franchise is in such a sorry state.
David Lee has outstanding numbers. It shows David Lee can obtain his numbers on the offence end of the floor. However, David Lee is too undersized at the center position. David Lee is required to defend players he simply cannot guard.
Mike D’Antoni and The current coaching staff need the addition and the input of a defensive wizard. The coaches need to simply emphasize and demand the players perform a high quality on defense in every given game. Perhaps, the players could not and cannot produce the necessary defense which would allow then to win more close games. David Lee simply cannot defend any player at the center position. He was simply not good. He had help. Yet, he was quite frankly overmatched in the paint. He’s not worth the dollars his numbers will command. The current Knicks players possess little or no defensive acumen. Fans chant defense. They don’t scream offense. Offense is pretty. But even, Magic Johnson’s show time Lakers realized it was necessary to play top notch defense to win championships. Defense takes teams to the finals. Defense wins championships. The Knicks are light years away from producing a team as capable to contend every year similar to the Patrick Ewing era teams much less be dreaming of championships.
LeBron James has had a better supporting cast of players than Ewing ever had. Yet LeBron James failed to deliver a championship for the Cleveland franchise. What makes Knicks fans conclude that LeBron James would lead the Knicks to the promise land is beyond my imagination? LeBron James belongs in Cleveland. It would be best LeBron James completed his career there.
The Knicks should make every effort to obtain five or six studs and a supporting cast from the next three drafts. While, building through the draft, the Knicks should add players from the free agent market for fine tuning the team. The need is to commit to young legs. The requirement ought to be acquiring players who are equipped to play at high levels at both ends of the floor. The thinking must be players similar to the quality of Willis, Patrick and Clyde. Amare Stoudemire was signed to a five-year pact of some $100 million. That seems an effort to lure LeBron James to sign with the Knicks . . . LeBron James is a pretender. LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire are not the best choices the Knicks should make . . .
They should be thinking draft picks over the nest three-year to four-year period. Thus build a franchise, a team around a core, a nucleus of players whom would be identified as Knicks for their entire careers, and lives.
Management must be astute. They should not sign free agents. They must acquire top five draft picks in every draft in the next three years. The Knicks should use whomever they have on their roster in the attempts to procure the draft picks. If it is necessary, the Knicks ought to utilize a portion of the cap room in such efforts to obtain young talented players in a two-three year window. Championship teams are constructed with a core of players who were molded together for a few years. This is primarily done through the drafts. The Knicks have always been about a team oriented players. Certainly, Bradley, Fraser and Willis Read were obtained through the drafts in the mid1960s. Patrick Ewing and Mark Jackson were draft choices in the early to mid 1980s. The Knicks must not simply throw their money around at high-priced one-dimensional players. They must get back to top notch scouting. Rod Strickland was the last draft choice of merit. The Knicks’ management made too many mistakes. That’s certainly the biggest reason the franchise is in such a sorry state.
David Lee has outstanding numbers. It shows David Lee can obtain his numbers on the offence end of the floor. However, David Lee is too undersized at the center position. David Lee is required to defend players he simply cannot guard.
Mike D’Antoni and The current coaching staff need the addition and the input of a defensive wizard. The coaches need to simply emphasize and demand the players perform a high quality on defense in every given game. Perhaps, the players could not and cannot produce the necessary defense which would allow then to win more close games. David Lee simply cannot defend any player at the center position. He was simply not good. He had help. Yet, he was quite frankly overmatched in the paint. He’s not worth the dollars his numbers will command. The current Knicks players possess little or no defensive acumen. Fans chant defense. They don’t scream offense. Offense is pretty. But even, Magic Johnson’s show time Lakers realized it was necessary to play top notch defense to win championships. Defense takes teams to the finals. Defense wins championships. The Knicks are light years away from producing a team as capable to contend every year similar to the Patrick Ewing era teams much less be dreaming of championships.
LeBron James has had a better supporting cast of players than Ewing ever had. Yet LeBron James failed to deliver a championship for the Cleveland franchise. What makes Knicks fans conclude that LeBron James would lead the Knicks to the promise land is beyond my imagination? LeBron James belongs in Cleveland. It would be best LeBron James completed his career there.
The Knicks should make every effort to obtain five or six studs and a supporting cast from the next three drafts. While, building through the draft, the Knicks should add players from the free agent market for fine tuning the team. The need is to commit to young legs. The requirement ought to be acquiring players who are equipped to play at high levels at both ends of the floor. The thinking must be players similar to the quality of Willis, Patrick and Clyde. Amare Stoudemire was signed to a five-year pact of some $100 million. That seems an effort to lure LeBron James to sign with the Knicks . . . LeBron James is a pretender. LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire are not the best choices the Knicks should make . . .
They should be thinking draft picks over the nest three-year to four-year period. Thus build a franchise, a team around a core, a nucleus of players whom would be identified as Knicks for their entire careers, and lives.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)