“It’s a very serious day today; we are in a very serious situation and this should urge us on, never, ever, to allow such a thing to happen again. People of African descent all over the world, especially those of us who reside in this part of the globe, have the moral obligation to remember the African holocaust, and to memorialise the 400-odd years of human carnage that swept the west coast of the African continent from Senegal to Nigeria and all the countries in between.” - Maulana Alhassan Bashir Annan
We are here, acting on behalf of hundreds of millions of African people throughout the world today, on the continent and in the Diaspora. And we have said that we have taken it upon our shoulders to commemorate the great African Maafa; the great holocaust… years that engulf hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of millions of Africa’s sons and daughters.” - David Commissiong
A WOMAN wails in sheer ecstasy as the ‘Brother’ from ‘Babylon’ beat out a heady rhythm that leaves many a spirit restive.
Overcome with emotion, a young visitor pauses, time and again, during the course of his presentation.
“You must forgive me if I get a little emotional,” he says, “[but] we are talking here about one of the worst crimes in humanity to befall any people on the face of this earth.”
Such was the energy that was unleashed at last Sunday’s commemoration of African Holocaust Day, now a tradition with the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA), and one which took on a distinctly international flavour this year, thanks to the presence of two eminent Pan-Africanists.
Joining the Afro-Guyanese community in paying homage to those of our ancestors who lost their lives in the Middle Passage during the notorious African slave trade were Shabaka Kambon of the Emancipation Support Committee out of Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbadian Mr David Commissiong, who is the Director of the State-run Commission for Pan-African Affairs.
It seems we even had the pleasure of having royalty amongst us, as patrons were asked to stand at one point during the libation ceremony, while the drummers rendered the Ethiopian National Anthem. This tells us that His Imperial Majesty himself, as Haile Selassie is sometimes called, had decided to pay us a visit from ‘the other side’.
The incident occurred early into the programme, when it is that the officiating cleric goes to the entrance of the Seawall Band-Stand, where the event is usually held, to formally welcome the ‘unseen’ guests, which is another way of referring to the ancestral spirits.
This is usually preceded by the customary consecration of the area, from the gateway to the place specially prepared for the spirits at the head of the audience, by liberally sprinkling it with Holy Water, using a frond of croton, a plant traditionally associated with African festivities. A calabash acts as the dispenser
As Bishop Atu Balon Gemu, who presided over the proceedings this year, explained prior to carrying out the ritual, our ancestors were no ordinary mortals. “They were chiefs; they were monarchs; they were professionals - in all fields. And that is why we give them the honour due to them and go and escort them in.”
He also explained the importance of pouring libation. “Libation is a ceremonial outpouring and an exercise of atonement with our ancestors. This exercise is a sacred act; it helps us realise our kinship with our ancestors and must be done as the occasion warrants.” It is usually done flat on the earth, he said.
In opening remarks, the Trinidadian, Shabaka Kambon said the one thought that has always plagued him throughout the years is the immense suffering the womenfolk among the slaves must have endured. “When I came here today….I closed my eyes….and immediately I thought about the women.”
A history graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Kambon said: “It has always been so difficult for me to imagine what our grandmothers would have gone through. Then when you go into the literature, you realise that a very high percentage of them did not even leave the dungeons on the coast of Africa without being molested. God alone only knows what horrors would have befallen them on the plantations of the West Indies.”
Quite a mouthful indeed for a young man who initially admitted to not having a clue as to what he was going to say. As he said at the outset: “I didn’t prepare a speech today…but an Elder once told me that if you really feel something; if something really means something to you; you don’t need to write it down. When you get there, it will come.”
Closing in the same vein as he opened, with a quote from Martin Carter’s ‘Looking At Your Hands’, Kambon said: “Power concedes nothing without demand. And that is why today, when I remember the suffering of my ancestors, I also remember their struggle. And I say: I do not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world, because I know that there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Guest Speaker, Maulana Alhassan Bashir Annan of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, went a step even further when he said that people of African descent should, under no circumstances, ever let history repeat itself.
These three ladies `take it easy’ as night falls and things wind down after the ceremony as they watch the young ones cavort
Schooled in theology and Islamic jurisprudence among other areas of study, Annan, a visiting Ghanaian missionary who describes himself as “an African from outside and inside,” and slavery, no matter what name it is given or what form it takes, as “satanic; ugly; and un-Godly, ” said:
“It’s a very serious day today; we are in a very serious situation and this should urge us on, never, ever, to allow such a thing to happen again. People of African descent all over the world, especially those of us who reside in this part of the globe, have the moral obligation to remember the African holocaust, and to memorialise the 400-odd years of human carnage that swept the west coast of the African continent from Senegal to Nigeria and all the countries in between.”
Likewise, he said, the onus is equally on the African parent, whether they hail from the Caribbean or the Americas, to tell their children what has happened to their ancestors – a call earlier made by ACDA’s Sister Violet Jean-Baptiste when she said:
“….it will be remiss of me if I do not use this opportunity to urge you brothers and sisters, that, as we commemorate the African Holocaust, we call our children; our neighbours’ children; our friends’ children; our nieces and nephews, that we remind them of this horrible event ….not only to be reminded so that we can plan revenge but….so that we can affirm that never again…..”
These drummers have fun as they try to outdo each other. Second right is the ‘Brother’ from ‘Babylon’ whose frenzied drumming was cause.
Commending the Guyanese for taking the initiative to set aside a day on which to commemorate the African Holocaust, and not just talking around it as others have been doing for years, Barbados’ Commission For Pan-African Affairs’ David Commissiong said: “To you the African people of Guyana…you did not just say it; you took the initiative and you selected a most appropriate day…October 12, the day upon which modern racism was founded; the day upon which Columbus invaded our hemisphere.”
In noting what an “awesome responsibility” this was, he said: “We are here, acting on behalf of hundreds of millions of African people throughout the world today, on the continent and in the Diaspora. And we have said that we have taken it upon our shoulders to commemorate the great African Maafa; the great holocaust – 500 years that engulf hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of millions of Africa’s sons and daughters.”
A lawyer by profession, Commissiong said it’s the same argument he used at the World Conference Against Racism two years ago in Durban, South Africa, when his organisation took a firm stand that the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the associated system of racialised chattel slavery constitute crimes against humanity.
“This is what we are here this evening representing,” he said. “That tremendous history; that tremendous plundering of the African continent; the rape; the murder; the extermination; the destruction of towns; of cities; of nations. The ripping away of millions upon millions of men and women, taking them half-way across the world, stripping them of their culture; of their language; of their religion. Infesting them with self-hate; self-denigration. Developing academic and scientific theories about the inferiority of black people, and feeding it to countless generations of black men, women and children.
The generations upon generations of black men, women and children who live out their lives on the plantations of Berbice and Demerara and Barbados and Jamaica; Trinidad; the United States. Generation upon generation who lived out their lives in slavery…
In closing, he said that not only do blacks need to tell this story of the African holocaust to themselves and to the world, but to tell also of the tremendous contributions the race has made, and continues to make, to humanity.
“We need, like the Jews, to make sure the world never forgets this tragedy. We need also…to tell the story of our tremendous contributions to humanity. And when we do so, we empower ourselves. Those are the twin engines of our empowerment as a people; that is a process of empowerment,” he said.
The days’ activities ended as per usual with the traditional circling of the bandstand before the procession heads off to the waters of the nearby Atlantic -, the very sea which claimed the lives of our ancestors during the perilous crossing from Africa to the so-called ‘New World’ - with their many floral and other offerings to catch the high tide, which that day was at 17:00hrs.
Guest of honour this year was the celebrated artist, Mr Phillip Moore, who turned 82 the very day.