Patrick Dargan – Guyana’s original non-White politician

From 9A

In 1906 Dargan also moved a motion in the Combined Court for prison reform: “I beg to give notice that I shall move for a return for the year 31st August 1906 of all prisoners in the Colony whose sentences have been prolonged by the Inspector of Prisons, showing the names of the prisoners, their offences, the original term of imprisonment, the prolonged-term, and the nature of the misconduct for which the sentences were prolonged.”

LAND ACTIVISM FOR AFRICAN GUYANESE

Dargan not only dealt with transformative issues like the 1905 rebellion. He was simultaneously in the craw of the colonial authorities with other issues that subsumed the Combined Court. One of these was his advocacy, along with others, for land on behalf of African Guyanese. The so-called Dargan land scheme of 1906 was intended to settle African-Guyanese on the land and establish homesteads and place “motions for a commission to devise a scheme for settling black labourers on the land.” It was preceded by a Combined Court resolution he sponsored calling for a Commission of Enquiry for land:

“Whereas the chronic complaint of the people is that the Government will not assist them in cultivating the lands in the colony, and Whereas the number of unemployed is increasing, and whereas this court is of the opinion that the time has arrived when the Government should give suitable lands and build dwelling houses thereon with a view to inducing the people to settle on such lands and ultimately to acquire ownership of the same…”

Dargan clashed with several Governors – none more so than Governor Frederick Hodgson (1904-1911) on the condition of African Guyanese. In March 1906 Dargan severely reprimanded the Governor: “I find from your speech this afternoon that your Excellency does not care for the black man but the immigrant that comes here and the planter.” The Creole, for its part in the wake of Dargan’s criticism, lamented the Governor’s “well known indifference to the claims of the negro inhabitants of this colony,” labelling the Governor a “negrophobist of the most aggressive type.” So belligerent was Dargan’s advocacy that a manager of Plantation Schoon Ord, a “Mr Leslie,” derisively told a group of black workers to “go to Dargan for work for he is the only fool in the Colony who is speaking against the whites.”

In spite of his concentration at the time on the African Guianese conditions Dargan on occasion also questioned the treatment of Indian indentured labourers, at one point posing the following question: “Were the indentured immigrants sent to prison by Skeldon magistrate for offices committed under immigration laws made to walk from Skeldon to New Amsterdam?”

DEATH

The pithy information available in the records on Dargan’s private life indicates that he was married to Maria Judith Dargan, formerly of Dulwich, England, and that Dargan’s second son, Frank Dargan, who followed him into the legal profession, and was set to follow his father into politics, passed away in 1916.

Dargan passed away at the relatively early age of 58 in 1908. His funeral was one of the largest in the colony’s history and described as “huge and overflowing,” with the Dominica Guardian newspaper estimating the size of grievers at 8,000.

Because of his renowned oratorical ability in the courts, on the political hustings on the street, the Court of Policy, and his life’s contributions, a debating award called the Dargan Debating shield for inter-club debating was established at Queen’s College for this early Guyanese politician. Patrick Dargan’s House, built in the 1880s and commonly known as Dargan’s House is located at Lot 90 Robb and Oronoque Streets, Georgetown. Dargan also lived at 6 America Street.

Dargan’s imprint on Guyanese politics in the twentieth century was profound and influenced other black and brown Guyanese politicians, including AA Thorne, ARF Webber, Nelson Cannon, AB Brown, and even politicians of later vintage.

As historian and politician ARF Webber wrote, Dargan’s enduring popularity overshadowed everyone in the “imagination of the people.”