The people of Guyana woke up to the 55th anniversary of its independence on Wednesday. For most of the population, this country became independent a very long time ago. Most of the people living on this land were not born so they don’t know anything about singing “God Save the Queen’ and waving the Union Jack.
In fact, if one were to do a random quiz on the streets, less than 20 percent of the people questioned would say what the Union Jack is.
The few who were around would remember the visit by the Queen in February 1966. There was a big fair on what was then the BGCC ground. That is the ground adjoining the Queen’s College ground to the east. The Queen’s sister came to this country in 1962.
What is now the National Park was Queen Elizabeth Park. Many Georgetown people back then knew it as the golf ground.
Go into the National Assembly and ask the members of Parliament to tell you something about their experience on Independence Day 1966. Very few would be able to. Robeson Benn, Juan Edghill, Joe Harmon, Gail Teixeira, and perhaps Khemraj Ramjattan would have some vague recollection. Bharrat Jagdeo would have none.
In the run-up to 1966, some of the ordinary people were afraid. They had grown up eating what the British sent to the colony. Some planted crops but for the greater part, they fell in love with Irish or English potatoes—today we eat potatoes from Idaho in the United States. Canned sardines, salted fish or saltfish, apples which we called ice apples, grapes, walnuts, and the likes still adorn our tables. Such was our dependence on these things.
Salt beef and salt pork were imported. Today they are integral to the cook-up. Although one must say that we make our own salt fish, salt beef and salt pork. People nearly died when wheat flour was banned and when split peas were restricted. These are still imported products, foisted on us by the colonial masters prior to independence.
Most people would not know that the potato from those days was a far cry from the potatoes of today. They were harder and took an eternity to cook. That was because they had to be preserved in order to be shipped over long distances. It was the same with the split peas.
People were also uncertain about the future. Most of the older folk felt that the colonial master was needed to manage just about everything. The Guyanese never realized that they were the ones doing the work under the supervision of the colonial master.
There was a time before independence when people of African ancestry and those of Indian ancestry could not go to certain places. The Georgetown Club, Colgrain House, Watooka Club in Linden, the estate houses on the various sugar estates were just a few.
There was segregation in sports. We had East Indian Cricket Club (later Everest), and Chinese Cricket Club (later Cosmos). We also had Indian Educational Trust College.
Guyana was Guyana. Today people complain about infrastructure. In the pre-independence days the road from Crane, West Coast Demerara, was burnt brick—not laterite– all the way to Parika. After Boeraserie people had to put their vehicles on trains to reach Parika.
On the East Coast, once one passed Ogle, the road was burnt brick and laterite. People made money by burning logs to make bricks for the road. The locals worked side by side but they harbored a distrust of each other, instilled by the first rulers. If someone or something looks different it should be carefully examined or avoided.
There were deep wounds. In the days before Independence Guyanese waged a bitter civil war among themselves. They killed anyone who looked different; they destroyed property. Some people swapped homes.
For two years the murder rate was higher than it could ever be today. People died by the dozens. They were clubbed to death or brutally chopped. Those were the conditions under which Guyana became independent.
There is a saying that time heals all wounds. It has not healed the wounds in Guyana. Some of us watched squatter settlements grow up where there are now permanent and fancy homes. The squatters were the displaced residents from the villages. Segregation is still rife. There are villages of predominantly one ethnic group. Georgetown is considered the melting pot but an inspection would reveal the gaps.
Prior to independence people of African ancestry mimicked the colonial master. He became the teacher, the policeman, the postmaster, and the engineer. He was also the doctor and the lawyer. The people of Indian ancestry also became the doctor, the teacher, and the lawyer but overwhelmingly they tilled the land and made millions of dollars.
They continue to be the farmers in predominant numbers.
The sun will rise on Guyana 55 years after independence. Those who know where to look will see the scars of the violence of 55 years ago. There are many in Georgetown. And the scarred relationship between the people also remains.
