In the March death anniversaries of two of Guyana’s most popular heroes, the Cheddi Jagan Commemoration Committee planned a number of activities at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in commemoration of freedom fighters Dr. Cheddi and Mrs Janet Jagan, who died March 6, 1997 and March 28, 2009 respectively.
A number of activities were planned in various regions countrywide, and activities were held throughout the month. As the month drew to a close, March 27 saw a Family Fun Day being held at the State House, which started at 14:00 hours. On March 28, there was a wreath-laying ceremony at Babu John. On that same day a monument of Janet Jagan was unveiled in Anna Regina. There were already a number of lectures and cultural events held countrywide earlier in the month.
The photo exhibition on the life and work of Dr. Cheddi and Mrs Janet Jagan can be viewed at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre.
The inseparable revolutionaries
The year was 1918 when, on March 22, in a rural village in Guyana, the remarkable life of an ordinary sugar worker’s son began. His name was Cheddi Jagan, and before his time was over, he would change the course of his country’s history by first struggling to liberate it from British colonial domination, then by waging a 28-year-long struggle for the restoration of freedom and democracy; and finally, by ascending to the presidency as Guyana’s first democratically-elected head of state.
Alongside Dr Jagan in all these struggles was his American-born wife, lifelong friend and political partner, Janet, who left the USA for life in Guyana, where she remained until her death on March 28, 2009. She was a woman of a number of firsts in her long history of involvement in her adopted country’s politics. She was to reach the pinnacle as first woman head of state in December 1997, following the death in office of her husband on March 6, after first serving as prime minister.
They were the founders of the country’s first mass political movement, and they were unquestionably the leading political figures in the history of Guyana for over the last 66 years. Through their tireless efforts, the small country of Guyana experienced a wealth of benefits, social advancement and economic prosperity. As international figures, they are well known for their fight for peace and freedom around the globe. Dr Jagan’s ideas on debt relief, as well as his proposals for a New Global Human Order, were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 14, 2002. As such, he deserves credit as a major figure in modern history.
The Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, which is privately run by Dr Jagan’s family and friends, was declared open on March 22, 2000. Its aims and objectives are to promote research into and publish materials on, the life, work and ideas of Dr and Mrs Jagan; and this will also promote research into the history of Guyana’s struggle for independence and social justice, the history of Guyana as a whole from the early 1940s to 2009. (jagan.org) (Taken from Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
