Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 21, 2016 Countryman, Features / Columnists
By Dennis Nichols
Well, we’re deep into the bewitching month of February, with its unique 28-day span that adds another 24
hours every four years. Like 2016 of course!
For many Guyanese, these four weeks hold special historical and cultural significance, as they do for the United States, especially Black Americans who commemorate the history of their forebears, including slavery, during this period. I thought it a good idea to take a retrospective look at this unique month, and at a few of the people, events, and customs associated with its drama.
Interesting tidbits: The name February derives from the Latin Februum, meaning Purification, linking it to the Roman festival of that name. It was formerly the last month of the year as suggested by the preceding four (Septem – 7th, Octo – 8th, Novem – 9th, and Decem – 10th.) January was the 11th and February the 12th. Previously, those two months didn’t exist, as that period, in the heart of European winter, was given little significance in early agricultural societies. And February 29, occurring every four years, is known as – what else? Leap Day!
A fanciful custom in Ireland makes it fashionable for women, while wearing red petticoats, to pursue men and, on bended knee, propose marriage to them on February 29th. If a man declines he could be ‘fined’ with payment for a silk dress. (Presumably for the injured and embarrassed proposer) Incidentally, February 29th and February 14th (Valentine’s Day) are still popular wedding dates in many countries.
Locally, February is forever linked with the Berbice Slave Rebellion and our Republican status, and with Forbes Burnham and Cuffy, two prominent and controversial Guyanese who, for better or worse, helped determine our country’s political path and shape its vacillating image and future. Their lives and ‘exploits’ starting more than two centuries ago, are to some the stuff of legend; to others, a pseudo-historical mix of fact and distortion.
The conflation of the two personalities and their achievements has led on one hand to a National Hero, a Republic state, and Mashramani; on the other hand to the allegation of a perceived contrivance by the then ruling P.N.C. to marginalize and undercut the true national hero and father of our independence, Cheddi Jagan. Of course the 1763 Berbice Slave Rebellion did actually start on February 23rd and Burnham was born, serendipitously, on February 20, 1923 – a beneficial coincidence.
Another aspect of February for Guyanese is its link to fire tragedy, with the two worst being in this hapless month, and on the ‘bad-luck’ day, Friday, 17 years apart. The first, on Friday, February 23, 1945, saw the destruction of the commercial centre of Georgetown. It incinerated the Bookers Drug Store where it started, razed the historic RA&CS Building and the General Post Office, destroyed 20 other buildings, and raged for hours, well into the night. It was allegedly sparked (a literal pun) by the flame from a blow lamp which ignited a drum of alcohol used in the manufacture of the company’s famed Limacol product, ironically sold as a cooling and refreshing skin balm. The blow lamp user was killed in the inferno.
The second, and even more tragic fire, was on Friday, February 16, 1962, during that well-documented period of political and social unrest in our country. Politically and racially-fueled ‘anger’ heightened by the rumour of a child’s death by teargas, erupted into riot, arson and looting, during which more than 50 buildings (mostly business places) were destroyed, at least two people killed, and several injured. The sky turned a devilish red that evening and, as was the case in 1945, the fires burned and smouldered long into the night, well after relative peace had been restored by the police and British troops.
In the United States, February has become immortalized due to its association with the births of the nation’s ‘father’ George Washington, and its Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, (commemorated with the Presidents Day federal holiday) as well as the celebration of its African heritage despite the horrors of slavery. The three are indelibly linked. George Washington and his wife Martha owned a few hundred slaves. Abe Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War, prompted mainly by the North and South row over slavery, and then initiated its abolition. And Black History Month is now an ingrained annual February feature.
There are more African American tie-ins. On February 1st, 1960, four Black college students walked into a North Carolina Woolworth’s store and ordered lunch. They were refused service since the lunch counter had a Whites-only policy. In protest of this rule they refused to leave, and stayed all day, until closing time. They returned the next day with more students, and subsequently with hundreds; thus launching the most pivotal phase in the American Civil Rights movement.
In Nazi Germany, the February 13, 1945 firebombing of the city of Dresden turned out to be one of the most horrific and enduring images of World War Two. On that day, British and American planes pounded the metropolis, reducing it to the kind of rubble reminiscent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and killed maybe as many as 135,000 people. To me it was one of the bluntest definitions of overkill, as the conflict was drawing to a close and, in the eyes of many war experts, little, if anything was accomplished strategically.
Next, who amongst us are so cynical as to forget the romance and the flair of Saint Valentine’s Day, despite its now ridiculous commercial exploitation; and despite the February 14th 1929 Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago in which five of Al Capone’s mobsters gunned down seven of his rival, Bugs Moran’s gang? Maybe Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had they been alive 80 years after they had published their ‘Communist manifesto’ on February 26, 1848, with its searing commentaries on materialism and capitalism.
Finally, on February 1st 2003, on the tiny island of Rum Cay in The Bahamas, my family and I watched the much-anticipated, televised return of the space shuttle Columbia from outer space. At around 9 o’clock, excitement turned to shock and disbelief as we watched the barely recognizable streak that was the shuttle, zoom into Earth’s atmosphere and break into smaller streaks falling away from the main craft. Instinctively I knew what was happening. Like the Challenger disaster 17 years before, the shuttle had disintegrated. Seven astronauts died. Poor star-struck February!
But just to big up the bewitching month a bit more, let me say that I, two of my sons and my brand new grandson, along with Washington, Lincoln, and Burnham, share this intriguing birth-month with a few literary, scientific, political, and sports giants – Charles Dickens, James Joyce, and H.W. Longfellow, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus, Ronald Reagan and Rosa Parks, W.E.B Dubois and Bob Marley; and even ‘royalty’– The Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, His Airness, Michael Jordan, and soccer ‘King’ Cristiano Ronaldo – not the worst company I guess.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 29, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – After a series of outstanding performances in 2023, Tianna Springer, dubbed the ‘wonder girl’, is eagerly gearing up to compete in this year’s...Kaieteur News – Good Friday in Guyana is not what it used to be. The day has lost much of its solemnity. The one day... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – In the face of escalating global environmental challenges, water scarcity and... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]