- The story of a great man and his fight for a free Guyana
Kellawan Lall, Adviser to the President, reviewed Dr Cheddi Jagan's classic book "The West on Trial" which went into its 6th edition, at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre on November 25, 2004.
Chairman of the book launching was Mr Geoffrey Da Silva, CEO of Go-Invest and a member of the Committee of Management of the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre.
Below is Mr Lall's address in full:
The West on Trial written by Dr Cheddi Jagan was first published in 1996. Since then it has been reprinted several times by different publishing houses. Today, we have the sixth edition by Harpy publishers of Canada.
Over the years, The West on Trial has changed its form. The front cover of the original version differs from others, including this 6th edition. There have been several epilogues, the last one having been completed in 1997 and first published by Hansib Caribbean publishers in the same year. This sixth edition has some notable inclusions, some recent photographs and a new preface by Mrs Janet Jagan. An important inclusion, which the casual reader may fail to notice, is the small announcement that the proceeds of the sale of this edition will be donated to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. Perhaps in years to come, we will fully understand the significance of this little note.
The list of other publications by the author, which was included in the 1997 Hansib edition, is also in this one. Dr Jagan would have been pleased with the editors, Mrs Nadira-Jagan Brancier and Mr Krishna Persaud, who have done an excellent job.
I must also acknowledge the leading force behind the persistent efforts to keep the writings and works of Dr Jagan alive. That person is here with us. I want you to join me in giving full honours to Mrs Janet Jagan.
The West on Trial has always been printed in the thousands and every time the demand keeps growing. It has been reviewed by hundreds of people in many countries and in several languages. And it is not uncommon to see excerpts of, and references to, The West on Trial in current writings.
Most Authentic
This autobiographical work, written almost four decades ago, remains one of the most authentic and graphic depictions of a very important period of our history. Although there is a brief chapter on Guyana's history that summed up the centuries of colonial rule, slavery and Indentureship, its real essence lies in Dr Jagan's detailed portrayal of an unfolding new stage of our history beginning with the upsurge of the mass movement in the forties for independence. His entry into politics coincided with that period and as events would later show, he immersed himself into this growing momentum to the extent that he became the symbol of the struggle to remove the British.
And so today, The West on Trial has become not only a story of a great man and his fight for a free Guyana, but a reference point for all those who want to understand the fullness of the struggle of the time and how one man together with the masses took hold of history and guided it in a purposeful manner to become the tool of the masses. In many ways, The West on Trial, or the life of Cheddi Jagan, which is about the same thing, is a case study of how the masses made history.
Perhaps the colonial and imperialist powers together with home grown lackeys never understood or failed to accept the notion that ordinary people could fathom or even appreciate the meaning of freedom and independence. While history has shown that the masses do make history, it is also true that imperial powers have never and would never accept this reality.
Cannot stop tide of history
It was Dr Jagan's strongest position. It was this message he was trying to get over to the colonialists and people here and abroad, where the movement for independence was at its zenith. He was telling us that everywhere, including in Guyana, you cannot stop the tide of history. It was this optimism that kept him going and explains his monumental struggles, sometimes single-handedly, against some of the mightiest powers on earth.
Even to the end, he believed in this. At the time of his death, when the Soviet Union and the world socialist system had collapsed, and when there was one dominant superpower and one dominant world economic system, he held on to this view. When prophets of doom and the exponents of the theory that the end of history was here, Dr Jagan in 1997, in his last epilogue to The West on Trial wrote that "only with mass struggles and the maturing of all factors - political, economic, cultural and institutional, will fundamental changes take place."
He had faith in people. And the people had faith in him. Not so much so because they understand his world outlook and all the intricacies of politics. This symbiotic relationship existed because, in a very deep sense, the people wanted change and drastic change at that. That is why he tells us in The West on Trial that in his early political experience that the existing groups such as the East Indian Association and the League of Coloured People, never made an impact. They wanted only superficial changes. He probably knew that the people had already condemned the West, seeing the West as the reason for their down-trodden state. He did not have to put the question whether the West was on trial. The answer was already there. And he reflected that in his book, the West was already on trial and he knew what would have been the verdict. Remember his famous words: "History and time are on our side."
I am sure that there are many stories in real life to amplify this saga which still seems mysterious to some.
Learning about Jagan
At the time of the writing of The West on Trial, which was about the time we gained our independence, I was just a teenager in a remote East Canje village with a Dutch name - Goed Bananen Land. Interestingly, there were no bananas around, just sugar cane. I was never attuned to the politics of the day, although as a child I felt an air of hope among the elders. There was always talk, sometimes hushed, sometimes deafening, at public meetings, of Jagan, GAWU and strikes. I understood the strike part somewhat because my father at times was not working and we lived off the meager rations I sometimes collected from a bottom house distributed by union people. That same building in nearby Adelphi was the scene of a bomb that killed the man who planted it. The word was that the bomb was intended for Philomena Sahoye, who was indeed a fireball to us on the sugar estate, and Victor Downer of the PPP a few days earlier, a bomb had blown apart a silk cotton tree in another village called Gangaram from where came one of Canje's early women stalwarts, Arai Tantoni.
The first time I heard about The West on Trial was from my father during a usual gaff session at my home. During the discussion I heard one of them, in Canjeite creolese say that "dat man Jagan writing about us and the manga now go know wha we stand fuh."
At the time I never understood what they were talking about. And I am sure they never saw nor read the book. At least I knew my father never had the book. Only years later he was to purchase one but never read it. He would, however, every now and then pick it up and with pride show it to his friends that he had one. It was indeed a prized possession especially since we really couldn't afford it.
It was only after some reflection on my part some time later, I got to understand what was happening. For ages the workers on the sugar plantation had a limited horizon. The estate was their life and death. You lived by the estate whistle. By that whistle you wake up in the morning, you go to bed, work, the cinema... You aspire to work on the estate some day. You dream of finishing school and hope one day to be a big one, which could be either a clerk in the main office building or a supervisor.
That was the world in which the workers were locked. Their lives were meaningless. It was all work and a little recreation at the village rum shop or drinking bush rum at the backdam.
People became more self confident
And so when Dr Jagan came on the scene and later wrote his book, people began to see themselves differently and became more self-confident. Dr Jagan had put them at the center of his world - a world where there was freedom and freedom from want. It was the first time they got that feeling of not just being a statistic and a poor canecutter or rice farmer. Dr Jagan had now put them on a pedestal and allowed them to see themselves as human beings who can be masters of their destiny.
It was this sense of hope that as a young man I saw around me. And that is what I consider to be the most lasting impact of The West on Trial. The masses did not have to read it. They knew that this man Jagan for the first time in history saw them as people, went into their shabby homes, ate their plain foods and forever wearing his trade mark smile, and put them as the main players in a book that was being read not only in Guyana but overseas.
My own experience
I mention my own little experiences to point out that The West on Trial is not only a book. Dr Jagan was a propagandist, a teacher and an organizer. He used the West on Trial not only to tell of his struggles and the story of the fight for Guyana's freedom. Dr Jagan successfully used it to bring the masses together to struggle with him. More than any other politician or public figure, he removed the mental shackles that kept the people in mental slavery. But that was only to get them to be involved in the struggle.
The West on Trial will continue to stand as a permanent monument to Dr Jagan. It will always be there for generations to witness that he had a vision of Guyana and the world that would become a reality. His last epilogue, in which he called for a New Global Human Order, will be there as a manifesto to further struggles.
I have had the honour and privilege to work with Dr Jagan for years, especially between 1992 and 1997 when he became the first democratically-elected President of Guyana. I have seen and in little ways assisted him, in putting together his thesis on a New Global Order. He was always searching for answers to Guyana's and the world's problems. At the back of his mind were the national interest of Guyana and the well being of the Guyanese people. The ideas in the New Global Human Order were intended to create a world in which a poor developing country like Guyana can have a chance of surviving. His primary goal, however, as was his goal in writing The West on Trial was to put the working man on top of that world.
Sharing some
thoughts with Cde. Janet Jagan
by Mohamed Sattaur
A new book on Cde. Janet Jagan titled “Janet Jagan Unpublished Stories and Poems” was launched at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre (Red House) on Tuesday, March 23, 2010.
The book, which was edited by Mrs. Nadira Jagan Brancier, daughter of the late Presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan, is a collection of previously unpublished stories and poems dedicated to freedom fighters, children and the family of Mrs. Jagan.
In a short presentation preceding the book launch, Mrs. Jagan Brancier explained that while Dr. Jagan was known to be a prolific writer, her mother, Janet Jagan, was also very productive and has left a well organized collection of handwritten notes, diary entries, articles and papers which she has been systematically going through much in the same manner that she worked on the documents left by her father.
The book is a compilation broken down into four categories viz “Dedication to Guyana’s Heroes”, “Dedicated to Freedom Fighters”, “Dedicated to Children” and “Dedicated to Family” and presents us with a look into the mind and thoughts of Janet Jagan during the trials and tribulations as well as the happy moments of her varied life.
We thank Cde. Nadira for this work of love on the first death anniversary of our beloved Comrade Janet Jagan and encourage her to continue her efforts to preserve the memory of both of her parents by making such timely interventions. The Book is on sale at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre and the Michael Ford Bookshop for G$ 1,500.00 per copy. Proceeds of the sale will be donated to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre.