Pres Ali announces 1st national cultural market to be established in Reg 6

– says Govt will continue to press for reparations on int’l stage

President Dr. Irfaan Ali while attending the 186th Emancipation Day Celebration in New Amsterdam, announced the establishment of the first-ever National Cultural Market in Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) with the main aim of preserving African cultural heritage and boosting tourism.

The Head of State was the featured speaker at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute tarmac, where the celebrations were held. Following an exciting cultural performance, the Head of State spoke of his government’s intentions to invest in a National Cultural Market in the region.
“I’ve had the opportunity to view the cultural makeup of this region. I’ve had the opportunity to see an improvement in the quality of the presentation of the culture and arts in the region. And anyone who’s following the culture and art in the region would be doing yourself a serious injustice if we do not recognise the improvement in the quality of this presentation this morning.”
“I’ve asked the Minister of Finance and a technical team, to come together and bring all of these cultural groups together in the region, because I want us to build in this region, the first national cultural market of Guyana,” the Head of State said.
President Ali noted that this market will be the first of its kind in the entire region. According to him, the intention is to build the market in Palmyra, Berbice, where the government is also building a stadium and several hotels and other major investments are being made.
“Region Six must be the cultural market of Guyana. And as we build the new stadium and facilities around it and hotels, an important part of why people would come to Region Six, will come to be part of the national cultural market. In six weeks, I want the consultation with the communities, I want a committee to be formulated and I want the architectural personalities.”
“I already have some ideas submitted to me. So that we can design what this will be. And we will build our national cultural market, here in region six. At Palmyra. And this will not only be a celebration of who we are, as a people and as a nation. This will be a recognition of the importance of culture, in the evolution of every society,” President Ali said.
The Palmyra Stadium is a project of the Greater Guyana Initiative partners (ExxonMobil, HESS, and CNOOC), to the tune of $3.7 billion, and it has a 2025 completion date. The Stadium is set to be a multipurpose facility, with a capacity of 10,000.

Reparations
Meanwhile, President Ali also addressed the important issue of reparations, noting that his government is steadfast in advocating for it.

The Head of State also said that an apology, such as those usually given by countries that were integrally involved in the slave trade, is meaningless without reparations.
“Slavery was not just a blemish on our past. It was an atrocity perpetrated against millions of African men, women, and children. It was a systematic violation of human rights, characterised by inhumanity, brutality, and exploitation,” he further said.
“Those who instigated, condoned and profited, yes, profited, it was a business, from this heinous crime, are yet to fully acknowledge their debt to those who were oppressed. And we are going to continue in CARICOM, to struggle and struggle and struggle until we get full reparations for our people.”
On a more local scale, African-Guyanese also received an apology last year from Charles Gladstone, a descendent of John Gladstone, whose family benefitted from African enslavement and indentureship on the Demerara and other plantations owned by the Gladstone patriarch. On August 25, 2023, Charles officially apologised for slavery and indentureship in Guyana.
The Gladstone heir had also revealed that his family has been helping to fund some work for the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at the University College of London for the past two years and has committed to this for five years. He had said they are also funding other British cultural projects that seek to highlight the horrors faced by slavery. (G-3)