PNCR Leader Spreads ‘ONE NATION’ Message for Emancipation Celebration

Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, Brigadier David Granger continued to spread his message of ‘One Nation’ during the annual Emancipation day observances.

Brigadier Granger, in a series of events, told a large crowd in Buxton Village on the night of Thursday 31^st July, that the dream of the emancipated Africans was to escape from the domination and discrimination of enslavement and create a society based on human equality. That dream is still to be realized as Guyana was in danger of being deeply divided into two nations – one impoverished, uneducated and underemployed and underprivileged and the other, rich, educated and employed.

Brigadier Granger, speaking at the Glory Light Tabernacle, Plaisance Village the following morning, Friday 1^st August, called on the congregation to help to reduce inequalities and vulnerabilities in the country today. He suggested that the church should adopt the motto “Every Child in School” by ensuring that every child in the village receives breakfast, transport and uniform to get to school every day. The PNCR leader also greeted citizens celebrating the Emancipation Festival during a ‘walkabout’ in the National Park, Georgetown.

Emphasizing the need for national unity and racial reconciliation, Brigadier Granger reiterated his belief that Emancipation on 1^st August 1838 was the real birthday of the Guyanese nation. In brief media interviews, Brigadier Granger emphasized that West Africans, West Indians, East Indians, Portuguese and Chinese were brought to Guyana as indentured labourers only because sugar planters thought that Emancipation in 1838 would have led to an exodus of freed Africans from the plantations.

This did not happen. Most migrants remained in Guyana and contributed to the creation of the multi-ethnic nation we have today. Brigadier Granger said that, for this reason, everyone should celebrate Emancipation Day!