GAWU’s Emancipation Day Message 2008

As it has been done for years, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) again joins the rest of Guyana, especially those Guyanese of African descent, in celebrating the anniversary of the official Emancipation or “Full Freedom” of African slaves in British Guiana in 1838.

This year, therefore, marks one hundred and seventy years (170) years since full freedom was won by those, the original Guyanese to be held in bondage by hostile, greedy Europeans of that era. (Legal “freedom” with conditions of Apprenticeship was granted four years earlier in 1834 but it was after 1838 that the fully freed men set about crafting their independence and future)

GAWU feels that it should be natural for today’s descendants of those freed men and women to ponder their current condition. Moreso what were/are the causes and consequences of their status and conditions in the Guyana of today? As GAWU suggests at this time every year, this observance should accommodate – amidst the merrymaking component of the celebrations – occasion for reflection and analysis.

Since 1838, from the efforts to establish a thriving Village Movement, through the anti-colonial struggles, the spawning of fine African minds and achievements, how have Afro-Guyanese fared and why? Who were the players and leaders since 1838? How have relationships with other groups affected persons of African descent? These are fertile grounds and issues for study, GAWU suggests.

Once again Guyana’s largest trade union recognizes the fact that had Emancipation NOT occurred, many of Guyana’s other groups would probably NOT have been here. The 1838 Plantocracy had to find alternative labour when Africans determined that freedom meant independence. Hence, in a real sense, it was sugar which shaped the composition of today’s Guyana. The greed and machinations of the Planters and British colonialism are the legacy we still grapple with to this day.

It is GAWU’s hope that this Emancipation Anniversary be used to contemplate what is to be done so that the post-1838 spirit of freedom and achievement be used to inform re-newed national cohesion as one necessity to move this nation forward – together.

A Happy, Reflective 2008 Emancipation Anniversary to all Guyana!