We need to salute the ancestors who began the Village movement in Victoria, a community celebrating 175 years this week. However I have issues with the celebratory programme which the residents of Victoria shall execute beginning today. To my mind it is an insult to our ancestors and no less so for us the decedents of the Africans who among other things experienced the middle passage and those who bought abandoned plantations to carve out a living in what we today call villages. Based on the role played by the Portuguese in the evolution of African history starting with the initial contact made by Bartolonew Dias in the latter part of the fifteenth century during the reign of Henry the Navigator to present times, it is unacceptable for an African community to have as the Guest Speaker at such an important event as the one being celebrated in Victoria, a person of Portuguese extraction. • The Portuguese were the initiators of the Atlantic Trade Trafficking African People, and were very active in this trade while it lasted. • The Portuguese were the first strike breakers employed to force Africans back on the plantations when they began to establish settlements on the abandoned plantations (villages). The intent of introducing Portuguese in the former British ruled colonies including Guyana was to demonstrate to my African fore fathers that if White People (The Portuguese) can do field work it was not such a bad thing after-all. • The Portuguese were used to disrupt African Economic progress in Guyana in the post emancipation period. Our farming cooperatives (including Victoria) could not trade in Georgetown, nor with the plantations and later with the East Indians. All transactions between African (communities) with non-Africans had to be done thought the Portuguese. It is for this reason villages like Victoria, Buxton, and Beterverwagting had an over-abundance of Portuguese shops. They were the only businesses in our villages with license to trade, and many of these businesses were financed by the Portuguese Government in Maderia like is happening today with the Chinese businesses in Guyana. • It is significant to note that the Portuguese population in Guyana dwindled appreciable in the aftermath of Guyana becoming independent. Some have postulate many reasons but basically it they all point to the fact that Guyana came to independence under an African led government. Notwithstanding the above one may consider the Guest Speaker at this August event being of Portuguese extraction because somewhere along the line the person in question may have African ancestors of whom he or she is proud. Such a selection would have been agreeable if the person in question have demonstrated unequivocal support for the African Community. My take is the person who would be the Guest Speaker does not qualify for such honours. She is a member of an organisation that has supervised the escalation of the marginilisation and disenfranchisement of African in Guyana to a level not seen before. She voted against the African Ancestral Lands Commission and today her organization encourages its supporters to occupy and steal African Ancestral (Village) Lands.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 16:42:29 +0000
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