Slavery and Indentureship vastly different

By Hamilton Green- A technique used in Guyana in reviewing the past has been to promote slavery and indentureship as being the same.

Over time, this clumsy calumny that Slavery and Indentureship are similar has been peddled by politicians on both sides of the political divide. This nonsense still resonates even in academia.

Perhaps this explains why our President stated that we all came here for betterment. Granted that he made a correction when this absurdity was expressed.

The President has a number of highly paid Advisors, PR Personnel and Researchers and this Statement taken from a prepared text should not be seen as accidental but is either that the President is being ill-advised or he himself is unaware of the history of this country.

Recalling one of his predecessors in the PPP who told a gathering of mainly Afro Guyanese that they should forget the past. Every year we commemorate Enmore Martyrs’ Day to remember five Estate workers, all Indo Guyanese who was shot and killed by colonial police but we are told to forget the seven weeks TransAtlantic journey in miserable conditions made by West Africans who were kidnapped, tricked and housed in the several slave palaces in the Gold Coast before being packed like pigtails in a barrel in ships with no sanitary facilities and no mercy.

Many realising their plight jumped overboard where their bones at the bottom of the Atlantic are rattling and pleading with those of us to ensure that there is justice and decency.

Records show that on arrival in Guyana, they were weak and had to be nursed back before being placed on a platform for sale like cattle and crops to their new owners, and we are told to forget the sufferings and humiliation of our ancestors. The Europeans were careful to separate the Africans from the same tribe so that communication became difficult.

Of interest one of the large double decker ships that transported our martyred ancestors was named “The Jesus.”

Only a few days ago, the Pope in Canada apologised to the Indigenous people for the mistreatment of native Indians by some church groups including the Catholics, but a Guyanese leader tells us to forget the past.

Thanks to the several slave uprisings and the advocacy of several fair thinking Christian Englishmen. The likes of William Wilberforce, Fowell Buxton and John Newton, who wrote the words for the popular song, “Amazing Grace,” we witness the end of colonial slavery.

The Emancipation Act was passed in 1833 and took effect in August 1834. However, the plantocracy did not free the slaves until the 1st of August, 1838. The intervening period being referred to as Apprenticeship. The British compensated slave-owners handsomely but not one cent to the slaves and today, we see ancestral lands being taken away.

During slavery when the slaves fought and sought for their freedom they were beaten, broken at the rack, had their heads cut off and put bleeding on poles as a lesson to others as was in the case in 1823. Others were tied to poles alive and burnt to death. For centuries they completely cut off their ancestral cultural roots.

Destroying the roots of a tree calls for enormous resilience for it to grow. It is that courage of resilience we need today to advance. Neither the Immigrants nor our Indigenous people suffered any of the above horrors and cruelty.

We must remember the machinations of an elite in charge of things. Remember how our Amerindian Brothers were used as headhunters and paid well to bring back the severed right hand of runaway slaves.  Unpleasant, but we need to learn how much damage is done by a ruling group consumed with greed and the belief that they have the right to do as they please.

There is an old wisdom that says, “those who do not know and remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat those mistakes.”

This year must be spent sharing information, sharing knowledge and generally educating our people, young and old irrespective of race, colour or creed so that the Descendants of Manumitted Africans will elevate their spirituality and allow us to agitate and demand a fair share of the enormous wealth available to us so that hopefully next year we cannot merely observe but celebrate Emancipation as a liberated people.

As you go about August, the wearing of African garb is useful but know that if we are to justify the suffering and humiliation of our ancestors, we have a lot of work to do including avoiding the insidiousness of mental slavery.

Finally, as we observe Emancipation, we ask that parents make whatever sacrifices are necessary to ensure that their children embrace education in its general sense, for today many parents are losing that interest, zeal and enthusiasm for education.

To all Parents, no sacrifice can be too great to keep your children in school and to let them know that there is no substitute for good education using the home, school community and our religious bodies to produce a good character and an elevated sense of morality.

If we are to be competitive at home or abroad, let me add this caveat that I appeal to all mothers and in particular to Fathers to practice deferred gratification and not allow ourselves to be distracted by planned merriment by those who wish to re-enslave us.

Again, I lean on history, several efforts by the slaves to be free were frustrated because of disunity, the ease for frivolity, frolic and consumption of alcohol.

Today, note similarities (1) a group of house-slaves (2) imitating alien cultures. I hear we now have jouvert and some of us even speak with a non-Guyanese accent.

From this day forward let us support our political, social and religious leaders. We must now speak with one voice on the fundamental issues for the way forward.

To all Guyana, no matter what the cost, never be afraid of the truth, the pathway to lasting freedom.

I end with a quote I used more than thirty-seven years ago, ‘Truth is the key to unlock the door to let in light, love and liberty.’