Each week we post an article or paper submitted by a member or "silent participant" of Guyana Caribbean Network. The featured article runs from Monday to Sunday each week. To submit an article for feature of the week contact us at admin@guyanacaribbeannetwork.com This week's feature is brought to you by "BK".

Happy Emancipation day to all Afro-Guyanese: A day of celebration and remembrance to honor the memories of those who slaved till they breathe their last breath. by "BK"

PART I The "GOLD" Rush

This year (2008) marks 427 years since the Dutch first settled in Essequibo on the Pomeroon River bringing with them some of their house slaves. When the Dutch failed to enslave the native Amerindians to work on their plantations they resorted to purchasing African slaves from other Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish slave traders, to work on their cotton plantations since this was the first crop they cultivated, later they expanded their plantations to include tobacco, cocoa, sugar and rice - yes rice!. (The cultivation of rice was introduced in Essequibo by Governor Laurens Storm van Gravesande in 1738, to supplement the diet of the slaves on the plantations, this rice was of a better quality than the rice produced in the Carolinas, and some people believe that rice cultivation started when the East Indian immigrants were brought to British Guiana). The Amerindians were later used by the plantation owners to "hunt" runaway slaves since they had the natural ability for this sort of "scouting" as they knew the geography of the land having been the sole inhabitants for centuries prior to the European settlements. In 1621 Abraham Van Pere (he acquired the largest plantation in Berbice where the white plantation owners hid during the 1763 slave rebellion) colonized Berbice, which was administered separately from Demerara and Essequibo. Almost four centuries under colonial rule, Guyana changed hands several times - from the Dutch (the longest rule in totality) to Spanish, French and British, until 1814 when the latter acquired Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice following the signing of the Anglo-Dutch treaty, in 1831 the three colonies were consolidated into British Guiana and on May 26th, 1966 the country attained independence from the shackles of the British Empire (just over 200 years after the famous Berbice Slave Rebellion). August 1, 2008 also signifies 174 years since slavery was abolished in Guyana.

How it all started

European explorers and sailors first enslaved Africans towards the end of the 14th century when they were taken against their will to work as house slaves in affluent European households. The Europeans justified this exploitation claiming that they were "providing" the Africans with the opportunity to become civilized Christian human beings, with the Europeans having the full backing of the Christian Church. (The fear of the Ottoman Empire expansion into Europe was the main reason for the Spanish Inquisition that started in 1478 and ended in 1848; many Muslims and Jews were executed during the Inquisition and their holy books and religious texts destroyed). When the early Europeans began their exploration of the New World they brought with them their African house slaves. Some of them proved to be excellent explorers and sailors alongside their masters. When slavery was introduced in the Americas, many of the house slaves, since they spoke European languages as well as their native languages, served as interpreters/translators for their masters in the new colonies, and some were made "drivers". The drivers had a lot of power/authority over their fellow slaves punishments of slaves were ordered by the masters and were meted out by the drivers.

From whence they came

With the rapid colonization of the New World in the 16th and 17th century, the demand for slaves grew exponentially and to meet their labor quotas African tribes raided other rival villages to capture young able-bodied men (and some women). Also, those were captured during tribal wars were bartered by village chiefs in exchange for goods, trinkets and guns from Europe. The majority of the slaves were taken from Sub-Sahara Africa, off the coast of West Africa"s slave coast stretching from Senegal to Nigeria and Angola/Congo region – most of them were from the following tribes - Akans, Ashantis, Minas and Yorubas (from Ghana, some Minas also were from Angola, Guinea and Togo); the Mandingos or Mandinkas (from Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia), the Bakongos, Mbangalas, and Mbundus (from Angola and Congo although these were in smaller numbers), Ibos, Hausa-Fulanis (some from Nigeria). The latter were traditionally pastoral and nomadic cattle herders and traders who converted to Islam several centuries earlier they were perhaps the single largest group among the slaves (some historians believed to be about 30% of the 12 million African slaves brought to the Americas).

Another popular myth

It has always been a very popular and misguided belief held by many Indo-Guyanese (both Muslims and non-Muslims alike) that Islam made its way to British Guiana with the arrival of the first East Indian Indentured Immigrants in 1838 brought to replace the newly freed slaves. However, evidence has shown that this was not the case Islam already had a presence in British Guiana when Muslim slaves (which included the Hausa-Fulanis) were brought to the colony first by the Dutch and later by other European settlers. The term "fula" is derived from the word Fulani; (it is also a common language for countries in West Africa); when the slaves saw the Indo-Guyanese Muslims observing Ramadan, Eids etc., in their newly adopted homeland they referred to them as fulaman (however, especially among non-Muslims this is considered to be a derogatory term as it is associated with that of a cunning person).

Many of us may know that the conditions and long hours the slaves were forced to toil under were extremely harsh; they were subjected to severe cruelty at the hands of their slave masters on a daily basis. In addition they were not allowed to practice their religion or to speak in their respective mother tongues. There was no family unit as relations were purposely split up and disperse to different plantations. Eventually, they were literally stripped of all semblances of their native life, traditions and rituals of the land of their birth. Ultimately they were acculturated with the dominant forces at work in the colony, converting to the religion of their masters and in the process their African/Islamic names were Anglicized. Thus, by the time slavery was abolished in 1834 in British Guiana the practice of Islam among the slaves in the colony had long since disappeared. However, up until the early 1830s, a number of the slaves still bore their Islamic names such as – Bacchus, Mohamed, Mammadou, Sallat, Mousa, Hannah, Sabah, Feekea, Russanah etc. as listed in the Berbice Official Gazette dating back to 1803, in which a number of runaway slaves were listed after being captured by bush expeditions during the years 1808 to 1810.

Nonetheless, despite the loss of the Islamic roots among the slaves, traces of the Arabic language were referenced in the early 1800s in several books that ascribed to materials written by the slaves in Arabic that were found on the colony. A clear indication that they were literate in the Arabic language as many would still write, read and speak it, this debunked another myth that the African slaves were illiterate (some think that the definition of literacy is the ability to read, write and speak English or the language of their masters). Sylviane A. Diouf in her book "Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas", quoted from James Rodway"s "History of British Guiana From the Year 1668 to the Present Time," which stated that evidence of Arabic writings was found on one of the sugar plantations. According to Rodway, "in 1807 papers were found on a plantation in Essequibo, when a slave exposed a rebellion plot that was planned for Christmas Eve of the same year, based on the slave"s accusation 20 slaves were arrested. One piece of evidence that was presented during the trial was a letter supposedly written by one of the rebel in Arabic which was addressed to the other slaves, however since no member of the Court could read Arabic its purport could only be guessed at", since the Court did not see the need to have the letter translated as it would not have make a difference in the outcome of the case where all the ringleaders were executed. The year was no coincident since the British Slave Trade Act was passed which outlawed slavery.

The second book an autobiography titled "A Soldier"s Sojourn in British Guiana, 1806-1808" written by Thomas Staunton St. Clair and published in 1834, made reference to a slave plot on the colony in 1807. St. Clair, a British soldier was stationed in Demerara from 1805 until 1808. From his personal recollections he mentioned that "a slave woman who lived with a young Scottish overseer on an Essequibo plantation betrayed the conspirators" and when they were found they had a piece of paper written in Arabic in their possession. More importantly, in 1836, two years prior to the arrival of the first East Indian Indentured servants in British Guiana, the London Missionary Society reported that Thomas Lewis, a freed African educated in England, started the Mission Chapel School in New Amsterdam. Lewis was formerly a Hausa Muslim known as Toby who could read the Arabic text of the Holy Koran.

These are clear indications that towards the end of emancipation many slaves were still literate in the Arabic language and some may have undoubtedly still maintained most of their "Fulani" or Islamic customs – reciting from memory verses from the Holy Koran, observing Ramadan, eids and praying (as was in the case of Toby).