Today Guyana observes the 181st anniversary since African slaves who had been brought to this part of the world were freed from the abominable, dehumanising condition of captivity, which to date defies definition. It is Emancipation Day and as usual it is being marked with grand celebration, particularly the annual showcasing of African culture in the form of food, dance, music, art, writings, fashion, soirees and libation ceremonies.
There is no question that freedom should be celebrated, as history has taught us, it was hard won. Millions of Africans were stolen, bartered, bought and sold. Chained to prevent escape, they were brought to the Americas, far away from their homelands on long, gruelling transatlantic journeys and put to work building the British, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and French empires in what were known then as the colonies.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a slave was a species of property, movable or immovable, like real estate, with few rights in some societies and in others absolutely none. A slave was an object, not a subject and while in some places there were limits on how much a slave could be abused, slaves had no personal liberty, could not move about geographically, and had no capacity to make choices.
As the property of other humans who used them as they saw fit, they were often worked to the bone, barely clothed and fed, whipped at will, denied the opportunity to worship, denied an education and basically had no status. They owned nothing, not even their children, who were in many cases ripped away from them and sold, if as far as their owners were concerned that looked to be the more profitable option. Written descriptions of that time lumped slaves in with beasts of burden: oxen, asses and mules.
Of course, slaves rebelled but they endured hundreds of years of captivity and oppression before change finally came about, pushed also from the other end by abolitionists, and ending what is still the most horrific era of human existence. Some social scientists believe that the impact of the generational trauma is still being felt by the descendants of slaves. And if it isn’t, then there will always be a form of remembrance, observance or celebration lest we forget.
Although today it would appear, given the choices of celebration on offer and the commercialisation of the observance, that forgetting is the objective. While African culture exists throughout the Caribbean and the Americas as well, there are different facets of it in every former colony.
The libation ceremony during which the African ancestors are honoured has long been a part of Guyana’s nod to African culture, along with the soiree, specifically for the celebration of freedom. The former, a solemn ritual, acknowledges the sacrifices made for freedom. The latter, a more celebratory ceremony, also pays tribute to the ancestors. Though over the years there have been complaints about it being commercialised, it still maintained the essence of the freedom celebration.
We lose a bit more of that essence every time we introduce or allow the introduction of a feature that does not belong, like the J’ouvert. This newspaper’s “Think on That” Columnist Mosa Telford referred to this in her writing just two weeks ago, lamenting the poor copying of an activity, which though it has its origins in slave history is distinctly a Trinidad and Tobago festivity having been part of that country’s carnival celebrations even prior to emancipation. But none of that matters to the copycats because for them, it is simply a business opportunity.
Unfortunately, though perhaps this is deliberate, the local format appeals to the younger crowd, the largest section of the population and the most malleable. It is a huge blemish on our education system that not only are our young people slaves to partying, but also to get-rich-quick schemes that dilute the very culture they should be proud of and seeking to carry on.
So, today is Freedom Day, but too many of us remain mentally enslaved because we refuse to think for ourselves. We would rather not know or forget the cost of the freedoms upon which we trample at our wet fetes. But until we free ourselves from ignorance, we will remain oppressed as a people, each generation slowly losing the true meaning of emancipation.
