As usual, your Eyewitness waited till it was over to comment about Mash Day!! Now, don’t you try correcting your Eyewitness that it’s actually “Republic Day”. It might’ve originally started out as Republic Day, but when Burnham decided to take the 1970 Linden wine-down NATIONAL, who doubted that the tail would be soon wagging THAT dawg!! After all, the folks at the bauxite town – which up to then was named Wismar and Mackenzie – had showed their Republican patriotism by changing their names to that of their beloved “Founder Leader” – Linden, as in Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham!!
So, why not reward them by acknowledging their “far-sightedness” in creating a jump-up session under a made-up, fake “Arawak” festival that calls for “celebration after a hard day’s work”?!! No one before, then, or since
has ever been able to find such a word in the nine Amerindian cultures, much less Arawak!! But hey!! The folks at Linden had to be acknowledged, not only for renaming of their town, but also for ensuring it was literally a PNC town. They’d burned and chased out all 3000 or so residents who HAD to be “PPP”, since they were Indian Guyanese!! Linden’s since remained staunchly PNC.
But it wasn’t just “Mashramani” that was made up – the day itself was concocted as commemorating Cuffy’s start of the Berbice Rebellion – making him our National Hero. But it was one historian – slavish follower of Burnham, Daly – who’d arbitrarily decided that the start of the Rebellion by Cuffy up the Berbice River was on Feb 23. Poor Cuffy wasn’t even at the Plantation where the Rebellion started – Magdalenenberg – and only joined weeks later!! Not so incidentally, a coin of Cuffy was struck, and he looked awfully like Burnham!! Awfully!!
Now, apart from the name being fake, the content of the Mashramani celebration’s also fake, since it has nothing “Guyanese” about it!! It’s a shameless rip-off of the Trini Carnival – which those folks had evolved from the French Creoles and their slaves. They’d emigrated from Haiti to Trinidad after they fled the REAL revolution there by Toussaint Louverture!! So, we had the PNC Government foisting a totally fake occasion onto the Guyanese people!!
Sadly, even though initially, after the PPP got back into office in 1992, they tried to rejig the occasion to remind us that this was supposed to be inculcating Republic values of independence, resilience etc, Mash has stubbornly remained with its Trini Carnival nekkedness and costumes. Guess we Guyanese really like a “sport”, and would use any excuse to “wine and guh down”!!
So, maybe that is what Republicanism was meant to be – after three hundred years of regimented labour during slavery and indentureship.
No stiff upper lips for us – just loose hips!!
…after rigging call
Some very smart fella once pointed out that “democracy ain’t instant coffee” – but don’t tell that to Hamilton Green and the PNC!! As was announced by the one-time PNC strongman, rigging and violence can ensure them getting power in a jiffy!! They can point out that even though the Yanks launched their democratic revolution in 1776, they’re tinkering – and Trump attempted to imitate them with their Capitol invasion!! But your Eyewitness feels we gotta decide whether we want to live in a democracy or not!! But we can’t run with the hares and hunt with the hounds, can we??
So, the PNC gotta accept that if they don’t win elections, they gotta “take their licks like a man” – as one Caricom PM advised Granger in 2020. Until then, let’s fix where the shoe pinches. But it seems like the “wild men” in the Opposition enjoy pushing the envelope – and leader Norton with it. Meaning, they’re guaranteeing they’ll be losing “corn and husk” in 2025!
