By Nicole Telford- The online programme “Politics 101” was on fire with two of Guyana’s brilliant African minds, political activist Associate Professor Dr. David Hinds and veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis in a recent discussion on slavery and the Gladstone apology in the Guyana context.
Setting the stage
Dr. David Hinds questioned revered Trade Unionist Lewis, what his thoughts on the August 25, 2023, Gladstone Apology on Slavery and Indentureship were? His reply was humbling and quite informative, he said he has been following the Gladstone family, who tried through a British Opposition Parliamentarian to get the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to make an apology in Parliament for Slavery, but the prime minister refused.
Those who committed the acts of slavery are dead, Lewis said. “Now some of their ancestors are prepared to work towards not only redeeming the family’s image but to see how they can help the descendants of slaves in some way because it has affected us, we have lost millions, not only monetarily but we have lost hundreds of thousands of human resources with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the bodies of our ancestors were thrown into the Atlantic which is now littered with their bones and blood.”
The trade unionist noted that while the Gladstone team may not be able to correct the suffering “it is important for us to see them as allies. Lewis proclaimed that “in every struggle there are other races who normally join the race that is affected to pursue their aims and objectives. I believe we should see them as a group who can join us in pursuit of what we would like to have, we shouldn’t turn them away.”
The difference between Slavery and Indentureship – PPP/C acts of modern-day Slavery.
Accusing the PPP of organising the picketing exercise at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Timehri against the Gladstone Family, Lewis said “I don’t believe they have our interest at heart or the understand clearly what they are about” Lewis said for that reason “ we should be working together as an African community to ensure that what the Gladstones have done is to make a public unadulterated apology, and it must be commended it should be seen as the first step towards the realization of reparations for the African Community.
Hinds questioned Lewis on the difference between Slavery and Indentureship. Given the fact that the Gladstones were structurally involved in slavery, owned slave ships and plantations and brought the indentured labourers to Guyana who came under the name ‘Gladstone Coolies.’ Lewis said the two systems are not the same.
‘Indentureship wasn’t slave labour, reparations at this moment here is for ‘UNPAID LABOUR’ and unpaid labour is SLAVE LABOUR.’ Indentureship people were paid, even if you want to say they were not paid enough, they can get back pay for something,” he reiterated.
Lewis further stated that the African contribution to Guyana is being watered down and denied in Guyana, even African struggles, as efforts are being made to take it away from the group saying Africans did not make the sacrifice it was the Indians who did.
Making reference to statements by others that if Indians didn’t come to Guyana, they don’t know what Guyana would have been, the trade unionist said they forgot Africans dug all the canals and built the sea walls.
Touching on President Irfaan Ali’s statement on the Gladstone apology, Lewis said it was out of order and to make mention of indentureship in his presentation when he is fully aware that reparations is about slavery-to seek to link both together-tells you that it’s a hidden agenda, trying to water down the contribution of African forbearers.
“No wonder they had taken the decision in their previous government to put a carpark at Parade Ground to wipe out the struggles of the African People and what transpired in 1823. If they had put a car park there we would not have had the opportunity to stand on that field on August 18, 2023 to remind the world of the contributions and struggles of the African People.”
Lewis was referring to the Demerara Slave Revolt that was led by Quamina, which started on Success Plantation, East Coast Demerara, which was owned by the Goldstones family, Sir John Gladstone.
The trade unionist said he is not surprised at what the President said but is more indignant about his behavior and it tells of the type of man that he is. He noted while the President was telling off the Gladstones “it is the Gladstones that had owned the Success Estate and it is the same estate that in 2020 when the PPP/C came to power they sent the police with dogs and they flooded the estate to get rid of Guyanese who lived on the land for years, and they are telling me now that Gladstones must pay reparations for what was done to the estate during slavery, what was done during indentureship but you, the president, doing it. You are the new master.”
Referring to the President’s call for the Gladstones to be charged posthumously for slavery, Lewis insisted that the Ali regime should be charged for what they are doing now. Reeling “past and recent heinous acts committed by the PPP/C” the trade unionist asked– what about the ancestral lands. “If Irfaan Ali wants to address reparations let him look at all those who have documents for ancestral lands and make arrangements to pay them and where people have occupied ancestral lands we must see where they can be rewarded at market value for the land.”
He also drew attention to the fact it was the PPP/C Government that bulldozed the farmlands at the back of Buxton under the guise of fighting crime. “When they bulldozed there, they killed the mango, guava, and coconut trees, forcing the people to go somewhere else to buy fruits.”
Further, Lewis drew attention to “the economic challenges we have here in Guyana on the question of collective bargaining. The government doesn’t talk with the teachers because it’s a big group of African people, the public servants are the same thing because it is a large group of Black people. They don’t talk with the Bauxite Union, the people who were terminated at Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) of which the government is a shareholder. This government robbed them.”
Lewis said the government is controlling the cooperatives because “many of these co-operatives have hundreds of acres of lands under their control and what the PPP/C government is doing now is distributing the lands to their friends and families and in excess of 85 percent of those co- ops are African people. What they are doing is stripping the African community of its wealth.”
