GRADE FIVE SOCIAL STUDIES
Hello Boys and Girls, Let’s continue looking at other national monuments which have been set up to keep an event in history or famous persons from being forgotten. Name a few such monuments.
This monument which is located in Company Path Gardens, in the Avenue of the Republic, is a tribute to the four presidents who founded the Non-Aligned Movement – Gamal Abdel Nassar of Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia. Guyana’s first President, Arthur Chung unveiled the monument in 1972. The monument has four busts sculpted to the likeness of the founding leaders mounted on a concrete base made of quartz stone and in front of it are four jasper rocks in a pool of scattered stones.
Statue of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow
This monument located in the compound of Parliament Buildings, at the corner of High Street and Brickdam, was unveiled on December 4, 1964 by then Premier Cheddi Jagan. It is a tribute to a great trade unionist – Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, known as the “Father of the Trade Union Movement in Guyana”. On January 11, 1919 he founded the British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU). Now it is known as the Guyana Labour Union (GLU). He was the first to represent the local labour movement overseas. The first labour college in Guyana is named after him. What is the name of the college and where is it located?
Critchlow dedicated his life to bring changes to the harsh conditions people were forced to work under then. We remember his work especially on 1st May, which is set aside as a national holiday in his honour. What are the highlights or the most interesting or exciting things that happen on May 1 every year?
This monument is located at Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast. It was erected in honor of Damon an enslaved African who was the leader of a protest against the new system of apprenticeship. Under this system, the slaves who were expecting their full freedom from their cruel masters had to, instead, work for an extended period. Imagine the feelings of disappointment, bitterness and anger of the enslaved Africans who were eagerly waiting for their freedom. The protest took place on August 8, 1834 in the Trinity Parish churchyard, at La Belle Alliance on the Essequibo Coast. Damon was arrested, tried and executed by hanging outside of the Public Buildings in Georgetown for stirring up a rebellion. The nine-foot, three-ton statue was sculpted by Ivor Thom, a lieutenant in the Guyana National Service.