Republic Day

Today is the 45th anniversary of our attainment of Republican status – no more Monarchs or their representative holding supreme power over our state, whether symbolically or legally. It has been claimed, with a large degree of truth, that at that time we “inherited a state but not a nation”. That is, we received all the paraphernalia of the modern state – Flag, Constitution, Coat of Arms, Motto, etc, but when it came to being a “nation” there was still a far way to go.
Part of the problem is that there is widespread confusion of just what being a “nation” entails. One view was summarised in the National Motto: “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”.
Probably reacting against the “divide and rule” machinations of the departed British, the early political leaders can be forgiven for trying to swing the pendulum the other way. But in fact, the urge to dissolve boundaries between peoples in a country has been inculcated conterminously with the formation of the modern state system back in the 17th century. The religion and culture of the King were supposed to become those of the people.
But by the time our Republic-hood was attained, the countries we were imitating in “dissolving” our peoples’ identities into a melange, were actually moving in the opposite direction. Recognising that different cultures could actually be strength of a country rather than a weakness, the ideal of “multiculturalism” was promulgated. The United States, which had accepted as its unofficial motto from its inception in 1776 the ideal of “E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One”, led the way in this movement. In 1956 it adopted as its official Motto, “In God we trust” and made as a central principle of all Government actions and policies the commitment to increase “diversity”.
While in our own country, there has been a growing recognition that “Unity of Diversity” might be a more appropriate motto and goal of our Republic, unlike in the US, this has not received official state imprimatur. Today, as we commemorate Republic Day, this state of affairs will be very obvious in the official celebrations of “Mashramani” or “Mash”. Initiated in what is now Linden as “Carnival” in imitation of the Trinidadian festival at the beginning of Lent, it was renamed with the Amerindian word for “Celebrations after hard work”.
But the movement to broaden the celebrations did not go far beyond that gesture. And there was obviously no thought of the appropriateness of commemorating the attainment of Republican status that started with the first mass slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere with a Carnival that has totally different roots. So today as the bands “Mash” through the town they will be dominantly reflective of one cultural strain. And in other citizens desire to be part of those celebrations, they have to bend to the old pressures to jettison their own expressions of celebration and merge into the officially sanctioned one.
This year, the Government has initiated moves to remind citizens of the great contribution that Cuffy made to our Republic becoming a reality today. There will be a number of public lectures on the event. But these will inevitably be confined to a cloistered audience: the efforts to connect Republic Day with the Berbice Rebellion of 1773 must be translated to the masses of ordinary citizens.
And this will only be successful when those same people are facilitated to express their feelings of appreciation for that seminal event in their own forms and cultures.
Diversity is part and parcel of the nature of all creation. The challenge is not to deny it nor obliterate it but rather to deal with it so that it becomes a positive rather than a negative force for progress. As we go out to celebrate Republic Day via Mashramani let us resolve to allow a thousand flowers to bloom.
Happy Republic Day to all Guyanese.