Guyana’s Minister of Education and co-chair of the National Commemorative Commission Nicolette Henry will join Consul General Sattie Sawh, chair of the 50th Independence Anniversary (Canada) Committee, at a pre-independence dance at the Armenian Community Centre on Saturday (Feb. 27) at 7:30 p.m.
The celebration is a call for all Guyanese to work together to build a better country, putting Guyana first.
“There will be breaking bread – and tearing roti – in the Guyanese Diaspora and among Caribbean friends as they sway to the sounds of Fabulous DJ Jones and De Original DJ Terry along with the popular GT 2 + Band” on Saturday, said committee member Victor Yacoob. The venue is at 45 Hallcrown Place.
Meanwhile, in Guyana President David Granger addressed the nation, saying, “The declaration of republican status was an audacious and ambitious political decision. It consummated the covenant of Independence that had been earned four years earlier in 1966.
“It severed the residual vestiges of Guyana’s dependency on our former colonial rulers.”
Granger called on Guyanese to seize this opportunity to work for greater national unity.
“We can be one nation only if all sections of our population feel that they are an integral part of and share in our country’s development.”
His appeal for national unity at all levels, narrowing the differences and divisions between political parties through promotion of dialogue and cooperation was in action at the Guyana Consulate recently as the Guyana Diaspora met to promote Forward, Ever, Dear Land of Guyana.
“On May 26, 1966, at midnight the Union Jack – symbol of British colonial rule from 1803 to1966 – was lowered and the new flag of Guyana, the Golden Arrowhead, was raised to the top of the mast,” said Yacoob.
Yacoob, the president of the Association of Concerned Guyanese, established in Canada for a free, democratic and peaceful Guyana, recalled that just before the flag-raising ceremony before a huge crowd, then-prime minister Forbes Burnham and former three-time elected premier of British Guiana and then-opposition leader Cheddi Jagan publicly embraced, demonstrating that Guyana had finally won its political independence.
Jagan, who went on to become Guyana’s president, called on Yacoob to serve and he answered the call.
Burnham appealed to Guyanese nationalism by declaring, “The days ahead are going to be difficult. Tomorrow, no doubt, we as Guyanese will indulge in the usual political conflicts and differences in ideology.
“But today, to my mind, is above such petty matters. For today Guyana is free.”