The precursor to Black History Month was Negro History Week of 1926, which was organised by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The mover and shaker, at the time, was the Black Harvard trained Historian, Carter G. Woodson. “ASNLH was an organisation dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Blacks Americans and other peoples of African descent.” February was chosen to highlight the achievements of African Americans and others of African descent because it is the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Abraham Lincoln was the United States President, who in 1863 signed the Proclamation for the Abolition of Slavery and Frederick Douglass was an ex-enslaved person, who escaped slavery and became “a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York.”
Negro History Week, over time, evolved into a Movement, especially on university campuses. By the late 60s, it morphed into Black History Month. As of 1976, beginning with President Gerald Forde, Black History Month gained recognition from the Presidents of the United States. President Forde`s call for the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor through their history” became the mantra of the month. With the subsequent recognition of the month in the UK and Canada, it then became a universal observation, which focuses on Africans and People of African Descent and is dedicated to the recognition of their achievements and contributions to world civilization. That was the initial focus in 1926, almost one hundred years ago, however it is still relevant, today. This state of affairs suggests that the place of Black History and consequently the recognition of African Peoples and Peoples of African descent is still to be mainstreamed. Hence, Black History Month is still observed as moments in the quest for the acknowledgement, and recognition, of the achievements of Africans and their descendants.
It is in that universal context that Black History Month is observed, in Guyana. However, there is also a local sub-context. In Guyana, there are those who decry due recognition of our diverse groups and in so doing seek to down play the contributions of the various groups to the melting pot. Worse than that, there are those who have been bold enough to contend that the African Guyanese contribution is minimal, if at all, as was argued by Kirk Meighoo of Trinidad and Tobago on an Infinity Foundation Show. In fact, Meighoo in reference to the Indian populations in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago said: “We built these countries” “we were the foundational people” in clear non-recognition of the contributions of other peoples to the development of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Black History Month therefore takes on special meaning for a people who for two hundred years slaved and built the infrastructure; and manned the post enslavement education, health and other social services, among other contributions, from which all groups benefitted and are still benefitting.
The emancipated people of African Descent, who had been subjected to denigration during enslavement, also suffered from post emancipation institutionalised discrimination, which stifled their development and placed them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the privileges afforded other groups. Thus, Black History Month symbolises the need for much more than, just, the recognition of African Guyanese achievements. It also represents an accentuated moment in the call for institutional transformation that would allow for the Guyanese of African descent to attain reparative justice; the reversal of their socio-economic state; and equalization in Guyana`s economic thrust.
In that regard, the African Guyanese community should embrace the 2021 Black History Month theme: “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity”, which encapsulates what needs to be the clarion call, and guide to action, for all of the African Guyanese; as well as the understanding and commitment of the State and its constituent parts.
