Schoolchildren will remember historical re-enactments better than monuments

Dear Editor,

The hostile email and facebook narrative purportedly by Dr Mellissa Ifill and the Kaieteur article on August 21, 2016 by Freddie Kissoon were directed at whether the President was making an ideological error which bordered on betrayal by commemorating the 1823 insurrection at the current monument at Thomas Lands; in addition, it was suggested, this was impulsive, and not tactical from the perspective of what was important in the entire event.

That the monument was a source of contention in 2011 is not ignored. The turning of the sod had commenced in 2010 between Afro-Guyanese groups and the PPP government at the Parade Ground as an act of good faith. That good faith was flushed away in the wake of the Year of the African.  Without any collaboration the then 2011 government decided to place the monument at Thomas Lands. Thus, the emergence of the 1823 Coalition in the face of that administration’s  contempt and disrespect. I was an affiliate of the coalition, and even submitted a monument design to the ministry which received no acknowledgement.

What struck me with the current mentioned missives, especially the hostility in Dr Ifill’s was how could two prominent members of that group fail to recognise that most of the books, booklets and artwork on that incident were suggested by me and were from publications  by Free Press ‘Themes of Afro Guyanese History’; ‘ Kwamina the illustrated booklet,’ etc, and that no other local publishing entity has covered so much Afro-Guyanese history with no overwhelming support as the Emancipation magazine for nineteen years.  That publishing group is owned by  Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, now President.   The then Minister Frank Anthony was given the option of engagement, which he contemptuously rejected, so why not this government? It was loose cannon behaviour that made me step away from the coalition, and it still persists.

The 1823 insurrection occurred in the now Paradise-Bachelor’s Adventure-Melanie village district. Twice in 2010-11 during Emancipation I was invited by my friend Floyd Hendy to lecture at the location of the village monument.  I was a visitor of this village in my ‘roaming days’. The other face of the Thomas Lands monument is that since its building our schools have been visiting  it; citizens unaware of the 1823 Coalition have been photographing themselves before it, but its persona has gone beyond that struggle which has won the historic Parade Ground and it has seen a cultural face. 2012 was the 200th  anniversary of the City of Georgetown. The then PPP ignored it. I initiated an idea which I put to my colleagues at ACDA; it was called Kreole Day. It was held at the Parade Ground and some members of the Coalition supported it and it was successful. We did a 200th anniversary TV show with then Mayor Hamilton Green and all were enlightened and elated by his knowledge of our city. I have witnessed one of the many historical re-enactments overseas, and I had suggested this for the 1823 commemoration to the people at Bachelor’s Adventure, to the Steering Committee of ACDA, to members of the 1823 Coalition.

The first lively approval of the concept came from the President, when I raised the idea again when he met with us last Friday. 90% of the history that we know of other nations comes from their dramatizations whether falsifications or not; ask ten schoolchildren what the Non-Aligned Monument is all about, and they will not be able to tell you. Dramatise it and they will remember the play. Put a monument and sit on one’s laurels and you will fail to excite their minds, and the next explosion of self-absorbed venomous diatribes penned on facebook or sent via email will be to make accusations, because someone else didn’t educate people to respect it and they stole the metal plaque from the monument and sold it to a scrap iron trader.

 

Yours faithfully,

Barrington Braithwaite