A letter in the Chronicle of July 10 by Solomon Sharma, “Remembering the Son Chapman Massacre”, was the second piece carried by the state newspaper during this month, on the identical theme. Back on July 6, an article captioned “Son Chapman memorial needs national recognition: say Lindeners at commemoration of tragedy”, elaborated on the “43 men, women and children who perished in the explosion that occurred on the Son Chapman 52 years ago”. The Son Chapman was a launch that plied the route between what was then “McKenzie” and Georgetown and the horrible incident during the civil disturbances of the 1960s occurred as the launch was near Hurudaia about 17 miles downriver.
What was noticeable about the two pieces in the state newspaper were several omissions. The first one was there had been an official Inquest into the tragedy, conducted after the PNC/UF coalition took office in December 1964.
The Inquest by PM Burch Smith and five jurors had 63 persons testifying between March 16 and 21, 1965, but concluded it could not determine who caused the explosion. No one was charged. Yet Attorney Llewellyn John was quoted in the article as “contending the explosion was an intention to punish the people of Linden by those who felt that they should not be discriminated against.” How could he positively know this “intention”?
The July 6 article instead said baldly, “Several theories were put forth as to the intent of the explosion and who orchestrated it. Some of the blame was placed on the PPP, the PNC, racial Indians seeking revenge for those Indians who were murdered, raped or had lost their properties to fires in Wismar.”
The last allusion, made in passing, was not even mentioned by Solomon Sharma. Yet on May 26, 1964, 3399 Indian Guyanese men, women (1249 adults) and children (2150) had been evacuated from Linden (then called Wismar/McKenzie/Christianburg) following the afternoon and night of May 25 when two Indian Guyanese were murdered, dozens of Indian Guyanese women were raped and 198 of their houses and businesses burnt to the ground,
This was all described by an official Commission of Inquiry into the atrocities which concluded: “This was a diabolical plot, ingeniously planned and ruthlessly executed… politically and racially inspired.” Following the sinking of the Son Chapman on July 7, three more Indian Guyanese were murdered in Wismar and 350 of them who had remained or returned after the evacuation were evacuated once again.
Sharma also said piously in his letter, “Many of us alive today never knew the men, women, and children of the Son Chapman Massacre, yet we remember them and reflect on their experience, because by their deaths we have an example of what hatred and brutality can lead to: the senseless loss of life, and endless suffering.” But the question I have is: were not the more than 3000 citizens—Indians—killed, raped, brutalized, and forced out of Linden also Lindeners and victims of a tragedy who deserved to be remembered?
The events of May 22-26 were precipitated by the murder of an elderly African Guyanese couple at the back of Buxton on May 21, 1964, during the “ethnic disturbances” that up to that point had been confined to the coast. And those murders were only the latest in a string of tit-for-tat violence unleashed after the PPP called a general strike in the sugar industry – overtly for “recognition” by the Sugar Producers, but actually a last ditch attempt to derail the imposition by the British and the Americans of Proportional Representation (PR) method of voting they knew would eject them out of office.
As I have said and written before, I believe if Guyanese are truly interested in peace and healing, rather than disingenuously fanning the flames of hate, they should propose a monument to all those 176 unfortunate souls who were killed in the 1960s madness.
