Some 50 years ago Leonora made a heroic contribution for bread with justice for the working poor. On the 13th of February 1939, a female sugar estate weeder, Sumintra and two other sugar workers, Robert Carter and Gunpat, lost their lives at Plantation Leonora in defence of workers’ rights.
Again on March 6th, 1964, the nation mourned the death of a heroine, Kowsilla a/k Alice, whose young life was taken on the Leonora “high bridge” on that faithful day, Kowsilla and other women including Jagdai, Daisee Sookram and Kisson Dai stood firmly against the agents of the oppressors. Kowsilla suffered death; Jagdai and Daisee Sookram broken backs, and Kisson Dai was left with a punctured kidney.
Those heroines took great risk in standing up for the cause of freedom and justice for all Guyanese.
The AFC is not comforted with the thought that only the good die young. As a young force, we take courage from our fallen sisters who had no fear of death, even as that was the price they had to pay in pursuit of their cause. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something that is worth dying for, he isn’t fit to live.”
As we reflect on their sacrifice, we sadly note the reverses being made by the new masters who have betrayed their dreams in exchange for petty power and privileges.
Today, there are others who have taken up the torch of struggle for a better life. The reaction today is similar to that 50 years ago. The result is the same: loss of lives, injuries and grief. Shemroy Bouyea, Ron Somerset and Allan Lewis in Linden were also on the “high bridge” when they were cruelly cut down. Their death reminds us that we should not pay tribute to Kowsilla and the other martyrs and at the same time turn a blind eye on the injustices that are taking place in Guyana today.
Their death, like Kowsillia and others at Leonora, call on us, irrespective of race, political persuasion or geographic locations, to continue the struggle.
To the descendants of Sumintra, Robert Carter, Gunpat, Kowsilla and the other slaughtered heroes of Plantation Leonora, we the members of the AFC salute you and will commit ourselves to the struggle to bring reality to the dreams of your ancestors for economic justice, security in life, better working conditions with higher pay, and freedom from the plunder by a corrupt new-born “massa”.
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