Birthdays

The Kabaka
In their free, sponsored Muckraker KN’s column, the PNC expanded on their founder-leader Burnham’s “weltanschauung”. No, that’s not his proclivity to ride round on horseback while insisting that civil servants weed ‘bush’ at Hope Estate. It’s a fancy German word the image-makers at Sophia dug up that means ‘world view’. They’re engaged in their never-ending yeoman efforts to rehabilitate Burnham’s legacy.
You have to give them credit. Then again, King Canute couldn’t stop the waves by his command, could he? But he tried. Anyhow, not unexpectedly, the Sophia wordsmiths filled their piece with hosannahs to the “Kabaka” as their leader was known to the faithful, once upon a time. The Kabaka was the hereditary ruler of the Baganda peoples of Uganda and we guess the acolytes wanted to remind one and all about Burnham’s kingly aspirations with an African word. Roots and all that.
Now far be it for us to deny that Burnham did some positive things. As the dear departed Robert Williams once reminded an audience at Stabroek Market, Burnham constructed the Demerara Harbour Bridge, didn’t he? People from Georgetown, noted Robert, could now go over to Tony’s on the West Bank, dance past midnight, and still get home before daybreak. But he was human – not the unblemished god, the PNC column made him out to be. So we thought we’d offer a corrective.
Our foremost historian Walter Rodney, a Queens College graduate like Burnham, acknowledged the latter’s royal ambitions, but as one who’d spent time in Africa, didn’t agree with the “Kabaka” title. He dubbed Burnham, “King Midas” – who, according to Greek mythology, was the ‘man with the golden touch’. But with a twist – everything that Burnham touched, however, noted the world famous historian, turned to “sh*t”.
By the late 70s, when Rodney made the observation, all the projects the PNC mentioned in their columns recently, had indeed turned into faecal matter. Sugar, bauxite, rice, timber… everything had collapsed as people scavenged to make flour (banned) from rice. Burnham, apoplectic at Rodney’s taunt and at the Square of the Revolution, advised the WPA of Rodney (not to be confused with the present lot) to ‘make their will’ because his ‘steel was sharper’.
Within a year, Rodney was assassinated by elements linked to the army, which by then was headed by the newly-promoted David Granger. Of course, with the WPA’s Roopnaraine now Granger’s second in command, all might have been forgiven. So the PNC propagandists didn’t have to mention all of this. Happy Birthday!
Guyana’s Birthday
So on Saturday, we celebrated our 43rd birthday as a republic. And we certainly celebrated in fine style – with dancing and prancing in the streets of Georgetown to the sounds of high decibel music. We call our celebrations for Republic Day – Mashramani – which in case you’ve forgotten, means “celebration after a hard day’s work”.
We’re not so sure about the ‘hard work’ part but we’re quite sure of the ‘celebration’ part. With the Marriott going up at one storey every week, we know where ‘hard work’ is being done for sure – but we didn’t see any Chinese flouncing around. We guess they don’t celebrate after every day’s work. But if they hang around much longer, we’re sure they’ll pick up our Guyanese ways soon enough.
But one thing that stuck out was in all this ‘Guyanese’ celebration, the vast majority of the floats were sponsored by either the central government ministries or the various regions. What’s going on? If we’re all so gung ho about the occasion, shouldn’t more private citizens and companies sponsor floats? Or have we nationalised Mash?
Go Clive Lloyd!
We ask all patriotic West Indians to look beyond parochial interests (like what goes on in Caricom) and back Clive Lloyd to be called on for the revival of cricket in the West Indies. There’s no one more qualified – in every aspect – than Lloyd.