Because of the soft power of the US, your Eyewitness’s internet feeds and news bombarded him about “Juneteenth”. What’s that, you ask, dear reader? As one post informed: “Black people freed on Juneteenth in Galveston Bay, Texas, on June 19, 1865, were illegally kept in bondage. The White people in Galveston were cruelly determined to maintain slavery. Even after President Abraham Lincoln had signed The Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, and their Confederate soldiers had lost the Civil War in April of 1865, White Galvestonians had to be forced by military proclamation to respect Black Americans’ freedom. Union General Gordan Granger, along with 2,000 of his troops, travelled to Galveston and issued General Order #3: “This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property.”
“Juneteenth”, of course, is a combination of June and nineteenth – and Emancipation was commemorated by the African-Americans of Galveston – still called “blacks”, of course – under that name the following year, in 1866. But it was only in 1980 – more than a century later – that Texas commemorated the occasion as a holiday!! Other States gradually followed suit, and finally, on June 16, 2021 – just TWO years ago – President Biden declared the day a federal holiday. From that background, we can look at the grudging acceptance of Juneteenth by the rest of America as a metaphor for the acceptance of the freed African-Americans as full citizens.
So, while we imitate America in so many ways, they can learn a thing or two about Emancipation Day from us!! Here, while there was a 4-year Apprenticeship scheme for our freed African slaves after Emancipation Day, August 1834, Aug 1 was celebrated even during the colonial era.
After the end of the apprenticeship, the freed Africans started buying plantations in each of the three counties of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, and converted them into villages. Even when they didn’t buy complete plantations, they purchased plots in the front lands of plantations, adjoining the Public Road, and these soon coalesced into villages.
This initiative gave them the independence to run their affairs, which was, and is, unknown to Americans – even into the present!! They formed Village Councils that were democratically formed and run. As such, they were ahead of the colonials, who only instituted universal franchise more than a hundred years later, in 1953!! They had their own churches and schools, and prepared their children for national life – which created its own dynamic for change.
Unfortunately, Burnham – who benefitted and was a product of that democratic system – betrayed it to create the dictatorship that destroyed the initiative and hard-won accomplishments since Emancipation. Your Eyewitness does believe that after this just-concluded LGE, we will have a return to the old village vibrancy!!
…Father’s Day
We know that other holidays have gathered specific foods and customs around them, so we know what to expect. Like Christmas, with Black Cake or Garlic Pork! So, what about Father’s Day?? Stumped, weren’t you, dear reader!! Your Eyewitness figures that, for this one, it’s every household doing its own thing – based on the idiosyncrasy of the dad of the house. But then again, you can’t be a man – to be a father! – in Guyana if you don’t engage in the national pastime of imbibing our number one liquid product – rum – which still generates astounding profits for our distillers!!
So, do most families prepare dad’s favourite meal – goat curry and dhall puri? – and have him wash it down with a bottle of El Dorado?? Or, now that we’re drowning in oil money, do we take him to that restaurant and order up that US$400 steak, and wash it down with a Cabernet red wine??
…life?
A team of Cambridge scientists has just created synthetic human embryos from stem cells – taken from any part of our body – eliminating the need for either an egg or sperm. Or man and woman. So, will AI-run machines now create a new race to take over??
