Your Eyewitness must confess that even though he’s getting quite long in the tooth, he still enjoys the festival of Holi; or, as the Indian indentureds called it, Phagwah!! That name comes from the month of Phagun, in which Holi falls. It gives a hint that, as much as anything else, for the peasants who ended up here from North India, it was a marker for spring in general, and the month in which winter was finally over!! Unbridled joy is what it signalled!!
That it was also the start of the “winter” harvest didn’t hurt either! So, here in Guyana, no matter how tired they might’ve been after finishing their daily “tass” (task) in the backdam, they would’ve burnt their Holika on the full moon night. Then they returned to the fields the next day – unless it happened to be a Sunday – and made merry after they trudged home that afternoon. Wasn’t easy…but they kept the tradition going, and it soon spread beyond their logies. You’d think the Manja would’ve given them the day off, but no Siree, Bob!! Money gaffa mek!!
Anyhow, today Phagwah’s a national holiday, and your Eyewitness didn’t have to trudge with his ball and chain to his office desk!! Instead, he dutifully went out to his front yard, when the kids rang his doorbell to douse him from head to toe with water – which he swears they must’ve taken from a fridge!! But hey!! It was all in good fun, eh?? And in the afternoon, the performance was repeated – this time with powders of all hues along with the red abeer that would leave indelible proof that he “played Phagwah”!!
What your Eyewitness enjoys most about Phagwah is that while it’s great fun to be dousing folks with water and abeer, and smearing them with powder, those activities compel folks to interact intimately with other folks!! Barriers are broken and transcended, and bonds are formed and strengthened. And that’s what “community” is all about, innit??
Now, while your Eyewitness is all in favour of the evolving practice of mass gatherings to celebrate Phagwah – such as at the National Stadium and at other venues across the country – he’s not too enamoured of the stage shows that are now dominating the events.
Phagwah celebrations must not be allowed to descend into spectator events for chutney songs!! That’s even worse than the other mass events, like tramping in the streets; at least they’re tramping in unison!! At the Mass Phagwah events, the organizers must deliberately facilitate the participants’ “playing” with each other.
Since folks from all of Guyana’s ethnic mosaic would be there, this can actually help to break interethnic walls, and help us get to the goal of One Guyana!!
…Tiger Bay transformation
Your Eyewitness is pretty chuffed that the owner of German’s – famous from here to Brooklyn in Region 11 for its cowheel soup – has plans for the revitalisation of Tiger Bay, where the restaurant is located. There have been sporadic efforts towards this end in this infamous part of GT. Back during the political troubles of the 1960s, when we were still known as “BG”, the PNC had torched large sections of Georgetown in their campaign to throw the PPP out of office.
The Mighty Sparrow belted out a calypso about Tiger Bay: “I don’t care if the whole a BG bu’n down/ I don’t care if all of Bookers bu’n down/ But they will be putting me out me way/ If they tackle Tiger Bay/ An bu’n down de hotel/ where all me wahbine does stay.” “Wahbine” being “the good-time girls of the night”, the point is that “Tiger Bay” has been a ghetto, and it’s time that it joins the progressive wave in ‘One Guyana’!! Good luck!!
…Ukraine War end
The EU wants Russia to return the Ukraine territory it occupies, while Trump wants to occupy Greenland, cause, “ A (Danish) boat landed there 200 years ago or something and they say they have rights to it”!!
Isn’t NATO supposed to protect Europe??
