Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, has urged citizens to use Emancipation Day as a moment of reflection, while paying tribute to the resilience and sacrifices of African ancestors.
Marking the annual observance commemorating the abolition of slavery, Ali paid tribute to African ancestors who endured “the most abominable system ever known to mankind.”
He stated that the Transatlantic slave trade and the machinery of chattel slavery were the most abominable systems known to mankind.
“Though subjected to the horrors of enslavement, they never relinquished their dignity, their humanity, or their quest for liberation,” Ali said.
A central focus of the Head of State’s address was the foundational role African Guyanese played in shaping the nation’s economic and social landscape following emancipation.
He also highlighted the post-emancipation Village Movement, in which freed Africans pooled communal resources to purchase land and establish self-sustaining communities.
He described these communities as “the bedrock of resilience, the crucibles of culture, and the seedbeds of nationhood.”
Ali noted that the foundational contributions of African Guyanese span every sector of modern Guyanese society.
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He listed agriculture and commerce, which cultivates farms to supply domestic markets and establish early local enterprises as one of the contributions.
He also listed resource extraction and civic and public life as further contributions.
“Their contributions are the very pillars upon which modern Guyana stands,” Ali remarked.
He added that those pillars were erected so that subsequent generations “might stand taller, reach further, and dream broader.”
Social Division
Beyond historical reflection, the president used the national address to urge citizens to reject social division, prejudice, and political hostility.
Commending the ancestors for transforming “their sorrow into solidarity and their pain into purpose” rather than succumbing to hatred, the President called on present-day Guyanese to maintain faith in one another.
“Let us refuse the seduction of suspicion and the poison of enmity.
“The greatest honour we can pay to them is in the work we do to create a society rooted in mutual respect, genuine equality, and shared prosperity. It is in the bridges we build across every divide.”
Ali reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to delivering a free, prosperous, and equitable Guyana for every citizen, invoking the guiding spirit and resilience of the nation’s ancestors.
