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PNC: Burnham and Beyond

Posted July 8th. 2009 - by Tom Dalgety

1. Introduction

Ten years ago in October 1999, the television station Hoyte Blackman Television, HBTV, began broadcasting Dalgety's Africa programmes. It was a daring thrust by me to deliver to Guyanese TV audiences, movie stories and documentaries from and of Black Africa south of the Sahara. Then in 2006, a short slide show of mainly deceased Africans of Guyana whom I regard as "ANCESTORS OF DISTINCTION" was included as part of the TV history package.

As a compromise to some friends, two Africans who were not Guyanese natives were included in the slide show. I judged that, like in a family tree, their consciousness was indelible in the heritage of Africans of Guyana. These two are Eze Anyanu Ogueri II from Obibi-Ezena, Owerri Province, Nigeria; and Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana. Guyanese children are named Eze and Kwame after these two men since the 1950s as if they were their forefathers.

The memory of Eze Ogueri began on December 27th, 1950 when he arrived in British Guiana from America. Every day from December 27th 1950 to January 3rd 1951 huge crowds of Africans turned out to see him, touch him, lift him on high and hear spontaneous oratory from him. He was the first royal ruler of an African tribe to visit his kin in British Guiana since the era of the slave trade.

He was a spiritual and temporal leader by ancient religious doctrine of the Obibi-Ezena tribe of about two million people. Eze's was a non electable post of leader of the Obibi people. Eze inherited the post from his grandfather since his grandfather's eldest son had died.

Africans of British Guiana had never received a royal African from Africa, whereas East Indians and Europeans had received distinguished visitors from their lands of origin for generations. There was therefore great rejoicing on his arrival - like unto a coronation event. Thereafter, EZE DAY was celebrated from 1951 to 1954 at December 27th with parades and dances in Georgetown and African communities throughout British Guiana. What brought its end were the actions and ideology of Premier Jagan of the Peoples Progressive Party, PPP government of 1953 and as such the governor suspended the constitution on October 3rd 1953. A state of emergency existed, a curfew was imposed, British troops patrolled throughout the colony and celebrations had to stop.

Kwame Nkrumah's memory remains to this day. On March 6, 1957 the Gold Coast colony of Britain became the independent nation of Ghana. This event was celebrated throughout British Guiana particularly by Africans singing and dancing a calypso composed by Kitchener entitled "Ghana is the name Ghana". Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the first Prime Minister and then President of independent Ghana. He was a Pan-African fighter against colonial rule and Euro-American imperialism. He also propagated Marxism and socialism as the new anti-oppressive way of living between man and man after the famous 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England in 1945. That famous Congress was financed and hosted by a Guianese from Buxton named Cyril Griffith (later Ras Makonen) who owned cafes and restaurants in Manchester England and used his business to host African affairs. The congress was chaired by Dr. Peter Millard, a Guianese medical doctor living in Manchester England at the time. Hence, Kwame Nkrumah was a household name among Guianese years before 1957. On March 6, 1957 until about March 6, 1964 GHANA DAY was celebrated in British Guiana by Africans. University students of social philosophy are still expected to study his books and speeches.

Apart from these two natives of Africa, my slide show has 16 distinguished Africans of Guyana so far. They are Gershom Browne, Rev. A. Theophilus Peters, Dr. Claude Denbow, Herbert Henry Nicholson (aka Vigilance`), Forbes Burnham, Jane Phillips-Gay, Iris Leich, Winifred Gaskin, Lynette Dolphin, E. R. Burrows, Frederick Mahaica, A. J. Seymore, R. C. G. Potter, Edgar Mettleholzer, Claude Geddes, and Cleveland Hamilton.

2. Stirring Political Awareness

I thought I should start this presentation pointing to Eze Day 1950, Ghana Day 1957, and "ancestors of distinction", because they are pointers to the registration and subsequent rise to political power of the PNC - Peoples National Congress. The 1950s was the decade of realpolitik in British Guiana and the moulding of Forbes Burnham as a political leader.

1950s was the decade of realpolitik because of its legacy - Marxism, socialism, anti-imperialism, suspension of the constitution, Burnham & Jagan, Poems of Resistance, adult suffrage, political detention, apan jaat, bottle throwing protest at cricket to stop a test match between West Indies and England. There was also a Civil Service Association 'protest' in May 1959 led by Mr. Wilfred Stoll assisted by Mr. Low-A-Chee. Civil servants did not work throughout the month of May because a Black man was denied the post of Post Master General and a White man from England was appointed. White people had put into the heads of civil servants that it was sacrilege to strike. This mental barrier was broken as the 'shirt & tie' marched through Georgetown most of them mixed or coloured.

Before Eze Day in 1950, as Claude Denbow of the League of Coloured Peoples, LCP wrote in: Seven Amazing Days in the life of Eze A Ogueri II,

"It is difficult for anyone to understand the feeling of national inferiority who has never experienced the status of a colonial, especially the status of a colonial in an imperial system where the non-white in an adopted land had not until recently played a significant roll in leadership".

All coloured races of British Guiana had a feeling of inferiority in relation to peoples of the governing British race. The British Guianese who broke these feelings of inferiority, were some of the ancestors of whom I made the composition of my slide show. Furthermore, some of them coalesced after 1955 - the PPP split - into the 1957 People's National Congress, PNC political party. The PNC was a coalition of National Democratic Party, NDP, National Farmers & Workers Party, United Democratic Party, UDP and the People's Progressive Party, PPP (Burnham faction) parties. This coalition called upon Forbes Burnham to be their leader.

Forbes Burnham was chosen to lead because first and foremost he was a spellbinding orator. His other qualities included his charisma; being the first Guyana Scholar who returned home as a political scientist able to speak to his people "on a soap box" about Marxism, socialism and anti-imperialism; being the brilliant son of a respected Kitty Head Master; and being a lawyer who was dedicated to represent the hungry and the poor at court. He was born in 1923 and the PNC was registered as a political party in 1957. Hence, let me recount some ideas and events that stirred political awareness during those years.

The oldest politician on my slide show is Gershom Browne who died age 101. He was a soldier in the West Indian Regiment in World War 1 and fought on the front line in Palestine against the Turks as a sniper. As a corporal he led patrols. But, when he returned to British Guiana the highest political position for him was chairman of Bagotville village council from where he never challenged White rule.

Interestingly, according to the Moyne Commission Report of 1938, East Indian communities of British Guiana did not have local authorities and East Indians did not take part in national politics.

So, one race had a barrier to the governor, and the other was overlooked by the governor and cared by the White sugar plantocracy - possibly because of India. First, the British had a sympathetic ear for Indians having ruled India since the 18th century through the concept of the British Raj. Second, it is possible that being indentures, emissaries from India who came frequently to British Guiana, interceded for their kin to governors and there was no need for local authorities in their communities.

In the county of Demerara, bordered by Abary in the East, Boerasirie in the West, Soesdyke in the South, and the Atlantic Ocean in the North, there may have been at least 150 Local Authorities. Their numbers tell a story. If there were 150 village chairmen then there were 150 prejudices draped with the sash of Whiteness in an 'animal farm' between 1923 and 1957.

The African forces that stirred political passions between 1923 and 1957 were principally the British Guiana Labour Union, BGLU, the Negro Progress Convention, NPC and the League of Coloured Peoples, LCP. The Local Authorities were dumb.

Gershom Browne as village chairman was muzzled by the colonial power he inherited to keep in place the colonial system - muzzled by the food he ate according to poet Martin Carter. It was the next generation, the children of Gershom Browne, who agitated, initiated reform politics, and made possible the formation of the PNC in 1957.

In the period 1923 to 1957 we had strike leaders. Critchlow was most famous on the waterfront in the 1930s. In the bauxite industry there was Charles Carter. These leaders of strikes in the 1920s and 30s resulted in the Moyne investigation by the imperial government in Britain. Interestingly, the BGLU was formed in 1917 and no other trade union was formed until 1939, after the Moyne Report of 1938, when the Man Power Citizens Association MPCA was formed. The BGLU was always led by Africans and the MPCA always led by Indians.

The most famous strike of the 1940s was the Enmore strike of 1948 where five East Indians were killed. Cheddie Jagan, through the MPCA where he was treasurer, led this "cut and load / cut and drop" strike and afterwards marched annually then built a monument to its memory.

Forbes Burnham did not lead a memorable strike until 1962 - the improperly called Kaldor Budget strike when three Africans were killed including a senior superintendant of police. Let me say something that is not propagated in print. What triggered this strike that started on February 16, 1962 was not the budget. Dr. Jagan was live on radio delivering a speech during the budget debate that many races across the Coast regarded as insulting.

Africans and other races reacted to Apan Jaat. For them it was the final straw of an anger that was building for years. Masses of people but particularly African and Portuguese roamed Georgetown singing "Hit the road Jack" as they stormed parliament gates, stormed PPP headquarters in Robb Street, looted and set fire to mainly Indian shops although some African, British and Portuguese businesses e.g. DeFraitas and Forgarty in Water Street and Harlequin in Camp Street were caught in the 'crossfire'.

As an eye witness to the start of that strike let me say that I saw the Portuguese leader Peter D'Guiar with a bull-horn - maybe with British assurance - among the working people outside parliament gates. A day or two later T-shirts were being worn by citizens: VOTE FOR PETER.

My recollection is that Forbes Burnham reacted very carefully to the marching of the masses and the rumour of murder in rural communities - maybe because of the history of assassination of African leaders in British Guiana. When Forbes Burnham took control of the masses the general strike was in full flow - Transport & Harbours, civil servants, hospital workers, the docks, power supply workers and so on. The February 16th 1962 general strike should more aptly be renamed the 'Apan Jaat' strike.

This brings me to class consciousness and class struggle. H N Critchlow started the British Guiana Labour Union, BGLU, during 1917. Critchlow then journeyed to Moscow during the '30s as a 'guest' of the USSR and returned tutored with the ability to lead the masses. He embraced working and middle classes throughout the Caribbean and influenced the middle class management of political ideas and events such as Pan-Africanism, the visit of Marcus Garvey to the colony in the 1930s, and LCP fairs.

Earlier I pointed to the legacy of the 1950s and Marxism. Marxists discuss three things - materialism (particularly dialectical materialism), socialism and the class struggle. The principal person who injected Marxism and socialism into the PNC was VIGILANCE. Vigilance was residing in British Guiana at the state of emergency in 1953. He was an outstanding scientist, science teacher and Marxist and at the state of emergency and curfew he left the colony.

Vigilance returned to British Guiana after 1957. He was the sibling of a highly respected professional family - his brothers J. A. and C. C. Nicholson were medical doctors. He was a scientist (later Curator of the Guyana Museum), science teacher (he taught science at Queen's College) and Marxist. He began educational work among Africans on Darwin's Theory of Evolution, science - using a microscope, the fundamentals of Marxism, and exposed racism in the 1957 - 1961 PPP government. His lectures among Africans were electrifying.

The impact of racism during 1957 - 1961 was realised when Vigilance was invited by senior reporter JAKE CROKER to write for the Chronicle newspaper. Being a learned scientist and Marxist, Vigilance wrote that the repeated use of budgets by the PPP to expand lands for rice, and the rice industry, was not socialism but racism. No attention was given to agricultural pursuits of the Africans like cattle farming and vegetable farming. No serious budget provision was allocated for education of the masses and improvement of the lot of the pork-knockers. Jagan talked about changing the racial balance in the civil service, teaching service, health services and in the Police Force. Racism, not socialism, was the principal policy of the 1957 - 1961 PPP government.

From my own experience, I recall the tension the expanding of lands for rice cultivation caused along parts of my ancestral Courantyne coast and West Bank Demerara where I resided. Pastures, where cows and other animals grazed were destroyed in these districts and lands for rice were developed. Any cows that went on a rice farm was chopped or impounded in the nearest police station. The result was the destruction of African farming enterprises and the laying of the foundation for Indian supremacy. Cattle farming, vegetable farming and pork-knocking were at the core of land-based wealth for Africans since emancipation.

It was Vigilance who lifted the veil of inferiority from Africans with lectures and tours during 1960 - 61. He lectured on the fundamentals of Marxism and African civilisations. Lectures on Africa were relayed through home prayer-groups tailor and barber shops and other small groups throughout the countryside. The Museum of African Heritage in Bell Air Park is his legacy. Its origin is the collection of artefacts that Vigilance returned home with after living in Africa for many years.

Then in 1961, SYDNEY KING (later Eusi Kwayana) as editor of New Nation invited Vigilance to submit political articles to him. Written with elegance, they attracted such a mass of readers that week-end sales of the New Nation rivalled the Argosy, Chronicle, and Graphic. Some of the articles were headlined thus:

Government incites people of BG,
Cheddie Jagan "Spectre of Racial Disharmony",
Vigilance to Benn: You must read all of my words,
This is the New Road: there is no other,
Gangster Politics,
Blood Sucker go away!,
Your Grace why not attack Jagan?,
'White Jady Jew' insults Guianese,
Madam Rohee, Woman of Virtue.

Vigilance and Sydney King made PNC a mass organisation with the newspaper.

Previously, Premier Jagan had shamelessly petitioned the United Nations that East Indians of British Guiana were suffering from "a sense of national oppression". This petition also stated that Indian business men supported him because they understood the 'cause'. The petition particularly angered the British and Portuguese of the society as their retail trade were declining. Vigilance in the Chronicle and New Nation exposed this racism as Africans and Amerindians had been oppressed for centuries.

Premier Jagan, Minister of Trade & Industry 1957 - 1961, diversified trade links by reducing those from Britain and creating links to commercial compradors from India such as Kirpalani and Thani. These compradors acted as mentors to the local Indian community of estate labourers and led them into business. Jagan facilitated the formation of the "Junior Chamber of Commerce" made up principally of Indian business men in opposition to the established and older 'Chamber of Commerce' which was made up principally of Portuguese and British business men. The new trade links and the formation of the JCC contributed to a decline of business of the Portuguese and British and their reason to migrate.

No trade links were ever created with Africa. No African compradors were invited to mentor the local African business community in Urquhart Street, Bourda and Stabroek markets and tutor them in stock taking, income & expenditure, and the balance sheet of more complex organisation of business. Africans were being overtaken in business by Indians. Before 1962, Africans owned stalls in the main whereas other races owned larger establishments. Here is a letter to me by Neville Quelch who worked in the Town and Country Planning Department at that time.:

I can safely say and prove that there were many Black business people in 1963 and prior years. My proof is the Land Use Plan that I prepared for the Town and Country Planning Department in 1962 or 1963 before I left BG. Yes, it took me about 6 months going through every street to map every business and another 3 months plotting them on a map of Georgetown. You should be able to get a copy from the archives. At the time, less than 10% of Georgetown's population was East Indian and they were more involved in clothes merchandising. The Chinese were involved in "Salt Goods Stores" and the Portuguese were fading away in ownership of "Cake Shops." On the Land Use plan, I believe that I indicated Markets as commercial but Urquhart market was purely Black vendors. It was not as popular as Bourda and Stabroek because it carried a less variety of inventory. Bourda had many Black businesses and your parents would know "Gertude" who was a very strong political activist (with a loudest mouth), at first for the PPP and after the split, the Burnham faction of the PPP. She not only owned a stall in Bourda market, but also expanded into probably the largest and had to hire additional staff. There were also many Black owned businesses in Stabroek market but I seldom frequented it.

Vigilance exposed these trade manoeuvres as racism by an 'apan jaat' government

So when the disturbance occurred on February 16th 1962 parliament, PPP headquarters in Robb Street and Indian businesses were particularly targeted by working people. Portuguese and British shops and stores and African market stalls were hardly touched. Hence the general strike of February 16th 1962 should correctly be relabelled the 'apan jaat' strike. The PNC and Trade Union Congress TUC should commemorate it because it was a general strike against the evil of racism.

3. Burnham's leadership of PNC

It was on February 16th 1962 that Forbes Burnham first obtained valuable experience in field leadership of working people. There is nothing like field experience or practical work in the learning of cause and effect. Burnham led another country-wide strike in 1964 with intoxicating results. Thereafter he became the master of the craft of calling strikes and breaking strikes. Strikes had politicised "ancestors of distinction" who became the core of the PNC.

There is no annual march and monument to this 1962 strike. Why this is so should be the project of a think tank. When the PNC came to power in 1964 they discouraged Africans from commemorating Ghana Day. When PPP-Jagan returned to power in 1957 they encouraged East Indians to commemorate the 1948 Enmore strike. The February 16th 1962 strike that was across the coast is not commemorated. In my opinion, the PNC looked for unity in British Guiana while the PPP fostered disunity; and this gave effect in the run up to Independence

When did Burnham emerge as a real leader? History points to the year 1961 - after the March PNC 'Guiana's New Road' conference, because of Cuba's 'Bay of Pigs' invasion in April, at the PNC's loss of the December 1961 election when he begged a crowd at Bourda Green to "watch with me one more hour".

The PNC member's conference in March 4 & 5, 1961 was massive. New Nation sales had soared prior to the conference and the party's Africa embrace was displayed by the front page headline of February 17, 1961 'Party Strongly Protests Lumumba Murder; Leader raps betrayal of the West'. The rise in the level of news from Africa was drawing members together. After Day 1 at the auditorium in Charlotte Street, Day 2 was switched to the Empire Cinema in Middle Street. The venues were packed. The PNC prepared a "Guiana's New Road" policy document with the party's philosophy and also commercial concepts such as the creation of cooperatives. The brilliance of this public document matched the brilliance of Burnham - the Guiana Scholar. It energised all PNC towards the ideas of socialism. Burnham wrote in the New Nation in answer to the Sunday Argosy that PNC is a socialist party and its economic vehicle is the cooperative. Two daring words matched a daring mood.

In April 1961 Cuba was invaded by the Cuban exiles from the USA with the support of the USA President John Kennedy. Burnham wrote in the New Nation an article in support of Castro. The headline was 'Hands off Cuba'. Such daring endeared him to comrades across the country.

December 1961 saw for the first time in the history of the colony, BLOCK-VOTING of Africans for the PNC. African leaders of all strata dared them to do otherwise. The feeling of inferiority was broken! Mentally, Africans displayed toughness against previous demons. The party campaigned that Africans must vote "like a rock" to bargain with the PPP. Words such as 'solidarity' were used liberally. The party got fewer votes that the Indian PPP but many members were satisfied at the near dead heat. Burnham at Bourda Green asked for 'one more hour' and the propaganda machinery was switched to Proportional Representation, PR in parliament.

Eleven years earlier, at a meeting on the night of Sunday December 31, 1950 at Bourda Green, R B O Hart of the League of Coloured Peoples lamented:

"According to the census of 1946 there are 72,000 souls in our capital city, Georgetown, and 40,000 of these are African or black. Would you believe, O Eze, that at the last Municipal Elections, out of nine Councillors elected in a free democratic vote, we the 40,000 Africans refused to elect even one of our number to assist in the administration of the city? With all our vaulted literary and numerical majority we were not yet sufficiently enlightened to see we must use our freedom under the law and the democratic institution under which we live; to see that we elect from time to time a few of our own to speak for and on behalf of us all; and this in spite of the teachings of the League of Coloured Peoples".

Having examined the political awareness among Africans from the era of World War I fighter Gersome Browne and strike leader H. N. Critchlow, I find it hard that accept the Africans were not "sufficiently enlightened". Forbes Burnham lost at Georgetown Municipal Elections in 1951. But white people were in charge of elections and ensured that their choices were elected. No one has investigated the 'rigging' of Municipal elections by Whites in the colony to prevent Blacks from participating in the administrating of the city. Yet, rigging was rampant in Kenya, South Africa and southern USA throughout the 20th century to deny Blacks access to the administration of power. Therefore it is possible that the Georgetown municipal polls were rigged to deny Burnham a seat at the city council. Voting and rigging are two sides of the same election coin all over the world.

I have some numbers published by the MPCA's newspaper, The Labour Advocate, on that same Sunday December 31, 1950:

163,434 Indians
143,385 Africans
2,480 Europeans
8,543 Portuguese
16,382 Amerindians
37,685 Mixed or Coloured
236 Asiatic
49 Unclassified Persons

Total = 372, 194. This total divided by two gives 186,097. What this reveals it that in British Guiana every race is a minority.

Adding African with Mixed or Coloured the total is 181,071 persons and this is a PNC numbers majority. This is how rigging is possible by the authorities - as demonstrated in Florida USA in their 2000 presidential elections. Adding Indians and Asiatics the total is 163,660 and the PPP vote. These proportions of figures down the decades were to inform Proportional Representation and influences Power Sharing.

On December 31st 1950 the Labour Advocate wrote to Eze thus: "instil in the minds of the African people of British Guiana a pride of things African". From my background - my parents belonged to the NPC - I do not accept that African people of British Guiana did not have pride in things African. What my survey of the history of race points to is that voting was invented by Whites and it was a matter of course that Whites had to win elections.

Project the numbers of 1950 to 1962 and guess: 181,071 persons that are African/Mixed/Coloured as against 163,660 that are Indian/Asiatic - a difference of 17, 411. The difference is higher than the number of 16, 322 Amerindians, or 8,543 Portuguese, or 2,480 Europeans. Eusi Kwayana told me at conversation in Buxton village in 1962 that with intense political work the PNC can win the next elections based on PR. Blacks were in a majority situation without power. First however, the 181,071 souls must be made to identify themselves as Africans.

Being unaware of one's ethnicity could lead one to become a member of the underclass. I have personally recognised that all civilisations are inherently dependent upon their underclass that they invariably treat cruelly and by whom the dirty work is done. A race is not a race unless it recognises itself as a race and a whole race can become an underclass as in recent slavery of Africans. This is the situation right now in the Somalia where Africans are identifying themselves as Arabs.

The souls that created the PNC in 1957 became Africans by 1964, and were adamant that Africans in "Independent Guyana" should never be the underclass. But, as Fanon wrote, every generation fulfils or destroys its mission. The African souls in the population of British Guiana as at 1961 were given their mission by Burnham, Croker, Kwayana, and Vigilance as AFRICA, CO-OPERATIVES AND SOCIALISM. African block-voting for PNC began in 1961 and the party used this solidarity to negotiate power sharing with the United Force UF party of Peter D'Guiar in 1966.

Immediately on Independence in 1966 Burnham linked Guianese to their kin in the Caribbean. Two Burnham legacies are Carifesta and Caricom. These thrusts were visionary. A third legacy of Burnham's leadership in the Caribbean is the joint Cuba Caribbean Summit of Heads of State in the face of opposition from European states and the United States of America. A fourth legacy was "free education from nursery to university' to usher in 'The New Caribbean Man' that the first Caricom Secretary General William Demas frequently addressed.

Africans of Guyana began to have a vision to turn around imperialism or even defeat it. Nationalisation of imperial businesses was programmed by Burnham and that empowered Guyanese. This was visionary.

But Burnham also recognised that thrusts had to be taken at the spiritual level. At a meeting of party faithful he delivered an address in which he said he would "legalise Obeah" - the rituals and rites of Africans of Guyana before they were outlawed and suppressed through the introduction of European Christianity in 1808 by Europeans. This was visionary leadership.

The subsequent emergence of Comfa, Shango and Rastafari, is a legacy of the PNC. Burnham himself once declared that he was a Rastafarian. The 1763 Monument is also a spiritual legacy of the Burnham's PNC. It is a nation building monument. It is a fix on the year when this nation was born. Civilisations always have a time and place of "start". The PNC through the 1763 monument put our start at 1763.

Burnham's education thrust had a liberating effect on East Indian girls particularly. Formerly, it was the custom of Indians of Guyana to arrange their daughters' marriage at an early age and stifle their ability to read & write. During Burnham's era young girls of all races were encouraged to attend school until the age of eighteen before getting married.

School feeding started during the FCH (Feed, Clothe, and House) programme. It allowed youngsters to attend school rather than being on the streets and being delinquent.

The last legacy of PNC under Burnham I would like to mention is the official name of the country as the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. The vision was that through the practice of cooperative management and the management of cooperatives, all Guyanese would improve their quality of life. The opposite of inferiority is not necessarily superiority; it could be confidence.

Forbes Burnham died in 1985 having led the PNC for 28 years. For seven of those years he was in opposition politics. From August 1985 to December 2002 the PNC was led by Desmond Hoyte who spent ten of his leadership years in opposition politics.

4. Beyond Burnham

There is a saying that emerged in the 1990s that "Desmond Hoyte as President left us worse off in 1992 than when he collected us from President Burnham in 1985". This was the rhetoric among ordinary folk of all races, even East Indians. It is worthy of study using the scientific method. In the scientific method, objects or features are examined and described factually and from the assemblage of facts a deduction (or series of deductions) is made.

Fact: When Desmond Hoyte assumed the Presidency of Guyana in 1985 the official mode of dress was the shirt-jack. When Desmond Hoyte relinquished the Presidency of Guyana in 1992 the official mode of dress had reversed to the colonial jacket & tie. Deduction: Desmond encouraged us to believe that the power of the colonial masters was better than the power we had.

Fact: Let's assume wealth has to do with ownership of assets, particularly property and especially equipment and machinery - what is called 'the means of production". Desmond Hoyte abandoned the members-owned cooperatives as the wealth building tool for Guyanese and introduced the ERP, Economic Recovery Programme, in which foreign goods once more flooded or were dumped in Guyana. This right wing offensive destroyed the local productive forces particularly members-owned industries and encouraged the old notion that "foreign is better". Deduction: Hoyte was not a cooperative visionary like Burnham.

Fact: Desmond Hoyte created the Guyana Prize for Literature and the Iwokrama Rain Forest Project. Both projects were praised at home and abroad. They attracted the attention of non-Guyanese, Guyanese who have dual citizenship and the Diaspora Guyanese. But to win the Guyana Prize for Literature a writer's instinct is that it is better to do it from outside of Guyana. Deduction: Desmond Hoyte moved our locus of spirituality out of Guyana by 1992.

I define spirituality as the soul on fire. This presentation is not the occasion to discuss the concept of the soul except to remark that mechanical minds equate it with the heart. Spirituality is expressed through the arts such as songs, poems, storytelling, and design. The most famous song after PNC relinquished power in 1992 was "Desi yo wrong". It was composed and sung by the Mighty Rebel. This was another way of saying that Desmond Hoyte left us worse off in 1992 than when he collected us from Forbes Burnham in 1985. Desmond Hoyte shifted the 'Africa, cooperative, socialism' mission of the PNC root. This could have contributed to the 1992 PNC loss of the elections.

The PPPC still holds close their India mission of the 1950s. Dr. Jagan made a statement in Canada that Africans are the bottom rung of the ladder. The PPPC government's lack of attention to this condition shows the innate apan jaat culture of that party.

After 1992, the PNC began to split up. No visionary idea (or set of ideas) linked the different classes within the PNC as the ideas of 'Africa, cooperatives and socialism' between 1961 and 1964. I introduced African videos in October 1999 on HBTV. Soon after, Desmond Hoyte telephoned me and inquired where I had acquired them. We had a discussion. I deduced from that discussion that 1/3 of the void in PNC's politics was filled. He sent me $5,000.00 because he wanted make a contribution to the cost of doing the production and I issued a receipt to his messenger to give to him.

About the year 2001 Desmond Hoyte spoke to his people of "slow fire / more fire". Since Africans traditionally associate symbols of fire with power, expressions such as "bring down fire" meaning bring down power began to gain currency among PNC activists. Desmond Hoyte died in December 2002 and this religious slogan was dropped by new leader Robert Corbin.

In opposition, the PNC has fractured and also twinned. Hamilton Green and the GGG was a PNC fracture although there is evidence of a recementing taking place. Raphael Trotman and the AFC is a fracture. Team Alexander is fracture. Twinning PNC to a Reform group led by Eric Phillips and Stanley Ming took place during Hoyte's leadership - hence PNCReform. But this was followed by a cleavage when Hoyte died. Twinning with individuals not with the same philosophy by offering them seats in parliament has resulted in what I call parliamentarism which is the politics so far of present PNCR leader Robert Corbin. Robert Corbin leadership has coincided with three of four above fractures.

Corbin manipulated the PNCR's vision at the recent Strategic Leadership Retreat on 20 - 22 February 2009. His PNCR vision is to be "open and inclusive, appealing to all groups, classes, ethnicities and persons". This is a vision for disaster and disintegration of the PNCR while it is out of government. In my opinion, the vision of the PNC at this time must be the INTEREST of Africans in Guyana although mindful of the goodwill of other races in Guyana. Former British Prime Minister Harold McMillan once famously declared that Britain has permanent interests, not permanent friends. And, recent USA President Barack Obama has also declared that his paramount interest is the American people.

The stories and documentaries from and of Black Africa, south of the Sahara, can spearhead that vision. Like history, they are tools of agitation and inspiration. PNCR has to capture block-votes of Africans for shared governance to happen.

The roots of the PNCR are embedded in sacrifices and labours of "ancestors of distinction". We must celebrate their contribution by commemorating them and their deeds in physical structures as well as spiritually. The PNCR must add to the 1763 monument. Two locations deserving of similar public art are Buxton and Bagotville. Buxton is legendary for its spirit of struggle but has no monument - like Enmore. Bagotville holds a special pride of prominence at the end of Canal #1 and is the focal village for generations of the descendants who dug the Canals #1 and #2 during the period of slavery under the Dutch.

The PNCR must show daring now and commemorate the apan jaat general strike of February 16th 1962 the way British and French commemorate Guy Fox and Bastille Day events. In 1980, Martin Carter wrote the poem "Bastille Day Georgetown"; but the rage of 1980 against the Catholic Church's opposition to 'Africa, co-operatives and socialism' that brought about the murder of Father Darke was not equal to the rage of 1962 when all races were involved in a general strike and a police officer was killed. Our Bastille Day was February 16th 1962 and it may have been the cloud on the poet's mind ever since then.

The PNCR in opposition must be daring if it is serious about 'shared governance' and commemorate at a national level Holocaust Day (October 12th), Ghana day (March 6th) and Eze Day (December 27th). These events are in the historical memory of activist and members of the PNCR and must be in the annual calendar of events of the PNCR.

The Coptic cross must replace the Latin cross on all Christian buildings in Guyana. The leader of a political party such as the PNCR, taking cognisance of its roots, must identify Africans to be trained as Coptic in Ethiopia and Egypt. The PPP in opposition continuously sent cadres to be trained in Eastern Europe. The root of the PNC is in African based religions like the root of the PPP is in Hinduism, like the root of British imperialism is in Christianity. I witnessed the unchristian like rites and rituals of the "Jordanite" faith when Eze Ogueri visited in 1950. Where is the PNCR support for Coptic religion in Guyana? Many of our recent forefathers were Christian Coptic - even Hebrew. The Ethiopian church in Princess Street is a silent reminder of generations past.

Matters spiritual and temporal were controlled by the British governor and colonials over the past 200 years and so the PNC must issue a decree that the Coptic Cross must replace the Latin cross on all Christian structures. Burnham understood very well how the British colonialist governors used religion and spirituality as a controlling tool.

Rev. John Wray arrived in British Guiana from the London Missionary Society in 1808 and Rev John Davies followed him in January 1809. Their task was to make converts to Christianity of Africans. Their task also was to select a band of Africans to be sent to England to be trained as catechists, deacons and teachers so as to spread Christianity rapidly among Africans. Ancestor of distinction N E Cameron wrote, "On the 14th February 1814 the first five deacons were ordained". This same movement was to hang Damon in 1834. It was the era of Onward Christian Soldiers.

Another necessary task of PNCR leadership is to prepare an Africans of Guyana Agenda AGA. In 1992, I attended a meeting of the Black Think Tank of the Pan-African Movement in Nigeria called by Naiwu Osahon. We discussed and pass resolutions on THE BLACK AGENDA TO THE YEAR 2000. These issues we deliberated: Repatriation and Dual citizenship, Pilgrimages, Economics, Reparations, Hunger, Refugees, Liberation, Environment, Black NGOs, Education, Communication, Science & Technology, Self-assertion and Racism, Culture, Family, Aesthetics & Fashion, Holidays, Language, Honorific titles, Hall of Fame, PAM flag, Rastafarianism, Religion, and Politics. The PNCR or some affiliate organisation must prepare a political agenda for Africans of Guyana.

What to do to make Africans block-vote again for the PNCR to achieve the immediate goal of shared government? I do not wish this to be an intellectual exercise. The ideas and actions I suggest here must make sense to PNCR. Guyana is getting more and more under the control of rascality. Where is the new breed of leaders like Norman Cameron, Basil Hinds, Gertrude of Bourda Market - the grandmother of the proprietor of Nigel's Supermarket, R B O Hart, Dr. Carlyle Miller, Martin Carter, John Carter, J O F Haynes, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Henry Cameron, the footballers "Ginip Seed" and "Waterboat", cricketer Robert Cristiani, band leader Tom Charles, and even stevedore "Slack-foot Johnny"?

'Slack-foot Johnny" distinguished himself not only as a strike leader on the waterfront, but also as a 'fearless fetcher' of flour, rice and sugar bags. He earned notoriety by dropping occasionally the bags so that the sweepings from the burst bags can be shared among fellow dock workers. He was a merciful champion amoung the hungry and poor.

This presentation is a means of changing Guyana. The members- owned cooperatives vision of our founder-leaders was a means of wealth sharing and establishing equality for all races in Guyana. Our choice is cooperative vision or Mash jail-break show down.

REFERENCES
[1] The Sunday Chronicle, (1961) February 12
[2] New Nation, (1961) February - April
[3] League of Coloured Peoples of British Guiana, (1954) Seven Amazing Days in the life of Eze A. Ogueri II, House of Edinboro, Publishers Boston, Mass.
[4] Greensmith J. T. (1967) Practical Geology for schools, Leonard Hill, London
[5] Lenin V. I., Collected Works: Karl Marx
[6] Cameron N. E. (1968) 150 Years of Education in Guyana (1808 - 1957) with special reference to Post-Primary Education
[7] Padmore George, (1955) Pan-Africanism or Communism, Doubleday & Co. Inc. Garden City New York

REFERENCES [1] The Sunday Chronicle, (1961) February 12