The African Cultural and Education Association (ACEA) in Essequibo will be hosting a Damon’s Memorial Day of Sport and Family Fun Day on August 11 at the Anna Regina Community Centre Ground.
Events will kick off with the customary six-mile road race which will begin from the Queenstown bus shed at 6:00AM and lead up to end at the Damon’s Monument in the Anna Regina car park.
The road race will be flanked by an open six-mile cycling event that will also begin at 6:00AM.
This will be followed by track events and a family fun day, which will begin from 13:00hrs at the Community Centre. Prizes will be awarded to the top three competitors in all the events.
Chenille Bowen, a member of the events organising committee, disclosed that while the road race has been conducted annually for the past seven years in celebration of Damon’s Day, the cycling and track events are new additions to the celebrations. Bowen noted that the event follows the Emancipation Day celebrations that the association began since July 19 and this event will mark a close of the association’s cultural celebrations for the month.
The event is being held in commemoration of the sacrifice of the heroic African domestic labourer, Damon, who was executed for his role in the protest against a new system of apprenticeship. Labourers went on strike on the 3rd August 1834, declaring that they were free and would only work for half a day. Damon, who was their leader, raised a flag to represent the labourers in the Trinity Church Yard at La Belle Alliance, which they had occupied during the protest. For this he was hanged at the Parliament Building at noon on Monday, October 13, 1834.
In tribute, the monument was subsequently erected by the Regional Development Council of Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) in 1988. The bronze sculpture of Damon in a giant chair weighs three tons and stands nine feet tall.
Bowen stated that the events are being held to give the young residents of the community something to look forward to while educating them about the significance of the monument and the sacrifice of Damon.
“It’s basically to give the young Afro-Guyanese something to look forward to and something to do. A lot of them don’t know anything about the true value of the monument so through this event we try also to teach them about its importance,” Bowen said.
