Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony has promised that the 1823 Monument will be constructed in honour of International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD).
“As you know, we had a competition for the design of the monument. So we have a winner, and we have a nice replica of what the monument will look like; and we have already commissioned the sculptor to start doing work on that monument,” Dr Anthony stated.
Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony
Minister Dr Anthony told Guyana Times International in an interview that the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry is looking to complete work on the monument early next year.
The minister made these remarks at the Sankofa event staged at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence to celebrate African culture. The historic August 1823 revolt by enslaved Africans occurred on the East Coast of Demerara.
Persons who attended the Sankofa event had opportunity to visit over 50 African cultural booths displaying various related items.
Minister Anthony noted that preparations leading up to the Sankofa event commenced some time ago.
“We have been working a lot with the cultural groups, and it’s really their event.
“While the ministry would have been facilitating in terms of getting booths and so on, it’s really the cultural groups’ works that are on display,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds took a stroll down memory lane to the times of slavery.
“Over the last 50 or 60 years, there have been great advances in the state of people of African descent all around the world. People of African descent have been making great gains; slavery has ended more than 150 years ago, but we still have more gains to make.”
Hinds, speaking optimistically, said that in the years to come people of African descent will continue to make great advances, not in Guyana alone, but all around the world.
Sankofa, one of the calendar activities to mark the United Nations-designated International Year for People of African Descent, attracted hundreds of persons who came to witness and participate in the various forms of culture, heritage and tradition of the African people.
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