The Institute of Business Education (IBE), 60-61 Lusignan Public Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Friday held its third annual Culture Day, and students took the opportunity to celebrate the Caribbean Community
The “obeah or Voodoo man” of Haiti was one of the displays featured at the exhibition
(Caricom) by hosting an exhibition about the various member states.
The students were divided into groups that were tasked with educating visitors about each territory. The students displayed the history, culture and traditional aspects of their selected countries by way of demonstrations and crafts.
Jamille Hatten, an English and Integrated Science teacher at IBE explained that the idea of a culture day based on Caricom, was inspired by a need to educate the students about the establishment and the members of the body.
According to the teacher the students already have a wealth of knowledge about what is happening in Guyana from a cultural perspective based on the last two annual observances of cultural day and the intention going forward with this year’s event was to focus on culture outside of Guyana. He noted that the institution choose to highlight Caricom because of the recently concluded 37th Heads of Government summit held in Guyana.
“We want to make them more aware of what Caricom is about and what Caribbean countries are really for and what the cultures are. With that in mind we have the theme “One people separated by water” so with that theme we are running through with Culture Day 2016. We are just trying to show that even though we are different countries, different islands and so forth…our cultures might be similar and so on,” he stated.
He related that it took about three days for students to get the displays ready, adding that both the school’s administration and students are looking forward to continuing the tradition. “What we look forward to is the students learning much about our country,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Sherifa Parks, a fourth form student explained that the event has proven to be beneficial to her and other students as it has provided an opportunity to learn about Caricom in a fun and interactive way: “It was wonderful, we have learnt so much about the countries that we are displaying. We’ve looked at their history, their foods and so much more,” she stated.
