The African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA) is celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year. It is also hosting its 21st Emancipation Day Festival at the National Park on Freedom Day, Saturday, August 1, 2015.
This is ACDA’s first Emancipation celebration during the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) which began January 2015 and will end December 31, 2024.
ACDA’s theme for Emancipation 2015 is “Rekindling Our Past Glory through Youth Innovation.” Their sub-theme is “Building Strong Families through Entrepreneurship.”
These themes are chosen in recognition of the importance of our youth knowing their history and the legacy of their ancestors whom have been on this earth for three million years as manifested by the skeleton of Lucy (Dinkenesh). The themes are chosen out of the need to build Guyanese families through economic strength via entrepreneurship.
Honouring an African country
As is tradition, ACDA honours an African country every Emancipation festival by building an educational booth for that country. This year 2015, the country to be honoured is NIGER (The Republic of Niger).
ACDA celebrates an African country annually because most Guyanese of African descent cannot trace their ancestral roots to a particular African Nation. Hence, ACDA chooses one county every year to educate young and old about African countries and to remind them that Africa has 54 countries and is not a single country like China or India or the United States.
Honouring an Afro-Guyanese village:
Wakenaam
One of the greatest entrepreneurial acts by freed Africans in world history was the village movement which started in 1839. Freed Africans combined their resources to buy villages so that they did not have to return to plantation life and cheap punitive labour.
For Emancipation 2015, ACDA honours Wakenaam in the Essequibo River.
HISTORY: Wakenaam is an island in the mouth of the Essequibo River. It is 17.5 square miles and is one of the largest islands in the river. In 1690, after the French invaded Fort Island, the Dutch plantation owners moved to and settled on the island of Wakenaam. The name Wakenaam is Dutch and means “waiting for a name”. One of these Dutch men started a plantation and named it Maria Johanna, which is thought to be named after his twin daughters.
The British in the 1716 took control of Wakenaam and Maria Johanna. In 1803 the plantation’s owner was Hugenoltz. Maria Johanna was bought by Mr. Boddart and Company in 1832 and then by Adam Ramkin in 1851. The plantation was surveyed by Henry Rainford and 88 house lots were laid out, most of them to accommodate the workers.
The colonial government took control of the plantation because of bankruptcy and later sold it to a company in April 1871 whose shareholders were predominantly former slaves. The sale price $700.
Due to a major fallout among shareholders as to what was the best way to develop the land, there were many disagreements. Ultimately, the plantation was taken over by the Partition Ordinance in 1914. In 1921, a village was created and a tax system was introduced.
Any visitor to Maria Johanna can still observe evidence of a Dutch occupation and the fact that slaves worked there. There is a unique Dutch sluice, which after a century, still stands immaculate and spectacular. Every now and then, various types of Dutch bottles and coins are found in the ground.
Wakenaam has multiple villages including Good Success, San Souci, Melville, Eagles Rust, New Belle Plaine, Sarah, Caledonia, Zeelandia, Meerzorg, Fredericksburg and Maria Johanna.
The main economic activity of Wakenaam is agricultural (cash crops), poultry and coconut oil.
The island still contains old Dutch graves at various locations and there is also a Dutch well.
Global African leaders being celebrated for Emancipation 2015:
LUZIA: This young African woman’s skeleton was found in Brazil in 1975. Tests proved she lived in the region over 12,000 years ago before Amerindians came through the Bering Strait.
KING TUTANKAHAMEN: Or better known as the “Boy King”. His tomb revealed the richness and creativity of ancient Egypt. The pyramids of this period highlight the technology, mathematics, science and engineering skills of African people.
MARCUS GARVEY: At age 28, he founded the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) just over 100 years ago in 1914. At his Madison Square Garden conference in 1921, there were 50,000 people. His most famous economic venture was a shipping company known as the Black Star Line, a counterpart to a white-owned company called the White Star Line. Garvey started the shipping company in 1919 as a way to promote trade, but also to transport passengers to Africa. He believed it could also serve as an important and tangible sign of black success.
IMHOTEP: Born in Egypt in 2649 BC, this Black African was the world’s first multi-genius. He was the world’s first recognised physician (father of medicine); an architect (built the world’s first stone pyramid); an astronomer; philosopher; poet and scribe. He was worshiped as a god for over two centuries after he had died.
