Formerly enslaved people in Guyana embraced collective action | Letter
We should learn about emancipated people’s extraordinary capacity for mutual endeavour, writes Prof Kathryn A Monk, in response to an article in the Cotton Capital series Your report (British corporation...
By Guardian Staff · The Guardian Opinion
We should learn about emancipated people’s extraordinary capacity for mutual endeavour, writes Prof Kathryn A Monk , in response to an article in the Cotton Capital series Your report ( British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition, 23 August ) tells one important part of Guyana’s post-slavery history. There is another that deserves to be better known. In 1839, little more than a year after full emancipation in British Guiana, 83 formerly enslaved men and women pooled their savings to buy the 200-hectare (500-acre) Northbrook plantation. They renamed it Victoria. Other purchases by other groups followed, developing into what became known as the communal African village movement. Continue reading...