Honouring the life of a Guyanese patriot
The Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, which is privately run by Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s family and friends, was declared open March 22, 2000.
The Centre, located at High Street, Kingston, aims to promote research and publish materials on the life, work and ideas of Jagan and his wife, Janet. Additionally, this will promote research on the history of Guyana’s struggle for independence and social justice, the history of Guyana as a whole from the early 1940s to 2009.
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 U.S.A. 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 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.
On March 19, 2009 a photographic exhibition featuring various stages of Jagan’s life, political activities and the struggle of the People’s Progressive Party, which he founded and led for decades, was opened at the National Library, Georgetown.
This exhibition was sponsored by the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre and all of the prints, mounted on single sheet panels, have been seen by the public on previous occasions.
What is striking about these images, especially for students and others who may know relatively little of the foremost Guyanese “freedom fighter”, is the fact that Jagan always appears as though he was actually evolving with the given process.
The 1943 to 1949 years, as outlined in the exhibition and described as “Getting in Struggle”, reveal the early Cheddi Jagan – the radical people’s dentist and politician.
“The Third PPP Government, 1961-1964” gives the viewer some idea, some mental picture of what was the reality of the PPP as a “party in government” after it had confronted severe challenges from Anglo-American imperialism and its local allies.
“The Struggle Continues – 1964-1969” as well as “The 1980s”, all form part of a broader assembly of pictures that depict Jagan in his public role (speaking at the East Coast, Lusignan, GAWU rally for instance), or at the head of a PPP march for the democratisation of the electoral process.
But there are also other scenes showing him relaxing with his family, on holiday with his wife in Egypt, playing with his grandchildren and at his desk and office at his residence.
Photographs from the period 1992-1997 “Victory at the 1992 Elections” as well as “Father of the Guyanese Nation” are of a special interest to young people, and these may well irk those who have always ranked the PPP as “communist” and concerned only with personal power.
Viewers can see Dr. Jagan with the Tanzanian ex-President Julius Nyerere and the late Guyanese poet and political activist Martin Carter. There are prints of his speaking to (then) United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Ghali, and also posing for a group photograph with his first Cabinet Ministers appointed after October 5, 1992.
Obviously, those prints over time would require renovating as the monochrome process lasts for about 15 years or at the most two decades. This exhibition provides an excellent insight into how Dr. Cheddi Jagan was involved at the leadership level, the role of photographs in identifying personalities and associations, and most of all the legitimacy of the nation building process coupled to the development of a new national culture.
The informative exhibition is currently displayed at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre and is opened for public viewing and research. There is also a comprehensive showcase of Jagan’s published books and journals and a few memorabilia, such as pinbacks, on exhibit.
For more information on the exhibition and on the Centre, visit http://jagan.org or call 223-7524. (Sunday Times Magazine)
