#london-guyana

[yellodisney]

[banji-effect]

Sacred to the memory of CHARLES D. WILLIAMS Who on the 8 of Nov. 1843 in a gale of wind at sea was lost Overboard from the Ship Troy on her pas age from London to New York in Lat. 11 deg 45 m. North 56 deg 30 m. West Longitude aged 23 years.

[kittyj58]

Guilty Pleasures Part 1: Movies 🍿🎞️🎬📽️

Guilty Pleasures Part 1: Movies 🍿🎞️🎬📽️

*Any mention of mental illnesses expressed on this post is due to personal experiences, not the opinions of licensed professionals* What movies have you watched more than 5 times? There are but a handful of movies and shows that I’d rather rewatch for the 100th time than to feast my eyes upon something new. New? I don’t know her. (more…) “”

[theskillystory]

They see the time piece, they don't see the time it takes us!

[nakeddeparture]

Politics: Barbados-Guyana. Podcasters say they don’t want Mia Mottley, et al., in Guyana.

https://youtu.be/ivGbJGMTddU

Keep your blackbelly sheep and your fowl cocks! Naked!!

Like. Share. Subscribe. Comment on YouTube.

[charminglygrouped]

One of the major legacies of the British control of India was the planting of peoples of Indian origin all over the British Empire, including Britain itself. India was considered to be a reservoir of cheap labour. After African slavery was legally ended in 1833, ‘indentured’ labourers were recruited from India to work on plantations in Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, and Jamaica. This was slavery in a new guise: many laboured under conditions no less degrading than slavery. Thereafter wherever need arose, Indian labour was employed. Indians worked in the plantations and mines in Ceylon, Malaya, Burma, South Africa and Fiji. Indian labour provided the manpower to build the East African Railway. Indian sailors worked the British merchant navy. Indian soldiers not only helped to maintain the British Raj in India, but were used as cannon fodder overseas in colonial wars of conquest to extend its frontiers.

Indians were brought to Britain too. They did not come as ‘indentured’ labourers, but the principle of cheap labour applied here as well. Many Indian servants and ayahs (nannies or ladies’ maids) were brought over by British families returning from India. Indian sailors were employed by the East India Company to work on its ships. Some of these servants and sailors settled permanently in Britain.

One of the results of the policy of introducing western education in India was that, from about the middle of the nineteenth century, many Indian students began arriving in Britain, some on scholarships, to study law or medicine or to prepare for other professions. Some came to take the exami­nation for entry into the Indian civil service since this exami­nation could only be taken in London. Some Indian students settled in Britain after qualifying, to practise as doctors, lawyers or in other professions. Some Indian business firms opened branches in England. Nationalist politicians came to London, the centre of power, to argue the cause of Indian freedom. Indian princes and maharajahs visited England, not only as guests of the Crown on formal occasions, like the coronations, but also to pay their ‘respects’ to the monarch or for pleasure. London, as the metropolitan capital, attracted many visitors from India. Exhibitions of Indian arts and crafts were displayed in England too. The Asian presence in Britain therefore goes a long way back and forms a prelude to the post-independence migration of Asians to Britain.

— Rozina Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: Indians in Britain, 1700-1947 (London: 1986), pp. 9-10.

[annavolovodov]

i fear ctm is super close to wrecking lucille, cyril and rosalind. i cannot fathom a couple as devoted to their faith as cyril and lucille jumping to divorce so quickly without trying to work things out. i can't imagine the cyril of previous seasons giving up on lucille and chasing after someone else. even if he didn't want to leave poplar permanently, it would make way more sense for him to plan more trips to jamaica in response to lucille's request instead of giving up on his marriage.

and i know the whole thing is complicated because leonie wanted to leave but zephryn didn’t, and i don’t think zephryn should be forced to quit because leonie wanted out, but the way it's been handled has been awful. like ctm has kinda make cyril look like an asshole. like lucille went through a traumatic miscarriage that required medical intervention, had to deal with rising levels of racism at her work and was close to committing suicide. when she went back to jamaica he visited her a handful of times AT BEST instead of staying for any extended amount of time and supporting his wife while she was seriously ill. when he did eventually go on a lengthy trip to visit, her mum died unexpectedly and, again, he basically went back to london asap. when lucille asks for a divorce after all this (which tbh is understandable), he isn't willing to put in any effort to save his marriage and is more interested in how this will impact his social standing at the church. and when the divorce goes through, he already has a younger replacement ready for his next wife. truly a character assassination for the ages. they took a man who was genuinely sweet, decent and cared for others and have totally annihilated him. yet the prevailing attitude i've seen from the general audience is that LUCILLE is the selfish one for “leaving him behind” which is absolutely boiling my blood. you cannot tell me that if the shoe was on the other foot, if cyril had moved back to guyana permanently after experiencing a traumatic medical event, rising levels of racism and the community, and suffering from suicidal ideations and lucille had decided to stay in poplar, she wouldn’t have been CRUCIFIED for being insensitive, heartless and evil for abandoning her husband when he needed her most.

rosalind has only been on this show for two minutes! we've barely gotten to know her! yet we're shoving her into this disaster of a storyline!! my god, all three of these characters deserve better. hell, i didn’t even want lucille and cyril together, but what a slap in the face this has all become to the fans who were invested in their relationship.

idk. I like cyril, or at least i did before the writers decided to do this. but the show is call the MIDWIFE. it’s about the women, and I don’t like that the first Black main character of the show is essentially getting written out of her own story for the sake of her husband. that’s not even getting into the issue of the show having a Black mentally ill woman being replaced by a younger, white blonde woman.

[sankofaspirit]

Walter Rodney (1942–1980) was a prominent Guyanese historian, political activist, and scholar whose work and activism significantly influenced Pan-Africanism and anti-colonial struggles in the 20th century.

Rodney earned his PhD in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London in 1966, with a focus on African resistance to European colonization. His landmark book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), became a seminal text in Pan-African studies, critiquing the exploitative relationship between Europe and Africa and exposing the ways in which colonialism stunted Africa's development.

A committed Marxist and Pan-Africanist, Rodney believed in the liberation of all oppressed peoples and was deeply engaged with grassroots movements. He travelled extensively, including in Tanzania, where he taught at the University of Dar es Salaam and advocated for African socialism and self-reliance.

Rodney’s activism often puts him at odds with political elites. In 1968, he was banned from Jamaica after criticizing the government and the capitalist structures that perpetuated inequality. This led to the famous “Rodney Riots,” as his followers protested his expulsion, sparking broader conversations about social justice.

In his native Guyana, Rodney co-founded the Working People's Alliance (WPA) to challenge the authoritarian rule of Forbes Burnham. His outspoken opposition to oppression and his advocacy for the working class made him a target of state repression. On June 13, 1980, Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown, Guyana, under circumstances widely believed to involve state security forces.

Rodney’s life and work continue to inspire Pan-Africanists, social justice advocates, and scholars worldwide. His legacy is one of unwavering dedication to the struggle against imperialism, racism, and inequality. 🇬🇾

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 20 June 1967, boxing legend Muhammad Ali was convicted for refusing the draft for the Vietnam war in Houston, Texas. Ali had been a vocal opponent of the US war, saying “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?” To try to quell the escalating resistance to the war, Ali was given the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. But their efforts were unsuccessful, and the anti-war movement continued to grow. Despite the Nation of Islam beginning to distance themselves from Ali, demonstrations supporting him took place around the world, from Egypt to Guyana to London to Ghana. Four years later his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. Ali had no regrets: "I wasn’t trying to be a leader. I just wanted to be free. And I made a stand all people, not just Black people, should have thought about making, because it wasn’t just Black people being drafted. The government had a system where the rich man’s son went to college, and the poor man’s son went to war. Then, after the rich man’s son got out of college, he did other things to keep him out of the Army until he was too old to be drafted." Learn more about the movement against the Vietnam war in our podcast episodes 43-46: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/09/23/e43-46-the-movement-against-the-vietnam-war-in-the-us/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=647623424077543&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[naomis-daydream]

essence in the air // letitia wright

summary: interviewer!reader. it seems there’s a lot of underlying chemistry between you and your interviewee, Letitia Wright

a/n: saw clips of tish flirting w interviewers and here we are. i included a lil piece inspired by @drletitiawright and @aaliyg talking about a Dr kink 😏

warnings: just fluff. flirty reader and flustered tish. reader is from the Dominican Republic and speaks Spanish (very minimal)

✧

you exhale softly as you get last minute touch ups to hair and makeup. you glance across from you to look at your interviewee—Letitia Wright. she was dressed in a off white hoodie with matching sweats, a black jacket, and air forces, scrolling on her phone while her glasses reflect the bright screen.

you were very excited for this interview. you had gotten great reviews from many stars and prided yourself on having laidback, fun sessions with all guests for Essence Magazine. from Lashana Lynch to Keke Palmer, your issue of celebrity interviews in the magazine and on their channel had been something viewers looked forward to, which was very beneficial for your paycheck.

she looks up, catching your gaze as she offers a smile. you return the gesture, crossing your legs in the lounge chair. “you ready?” you ask as the cosmetologists left.

she inhales sharply, “yep, though i wish you’d told me about the dress code,” she says, eyeing your exposed legs from the slit in your dress. “i would’ve come in something nicer.”

“girl, you’d look good in a trash bag. besides, the whole point of this is for you to have fun and be comfortable. as long as that’s happening, you’re good.”

“says the one wearing a body con dress,” she says as you wave a hand at her. “you go out in designer everyday, you’ll be good for 30 minutes, hon.” she laughs, humming in agreement.

the tech guy comes in, cueing you as the cameraman starting rolling.

“hey guys, I’m y/n y/l/n with Essence Magazine, and today i’m here with esteemed movie star, devoted Christian, and—as of recent weeks— doctor in arts and letters, miss letitia wright. how you doing, angel?”

a smile dances across her face, eyes surely lighting up behind her black sunglasses. “wow, what an introduction. thank you. i-i’m well, how are you?”

“great, thank you,” you begin. “so, tell me a little about how you earned your doctorate, what’s it in, and what it means to you?”

she sighs briefly, “man, it’s um, it’s definitely an honor, such a blessing to even be considered for something like that. it’s in arts and letters, as you said, and to have it come from a school in my home country, Guyana, made it that much more…moving for me. i’ve been acting since I was a teenager and never dreamed of any of this happening.” she said, gesturing around us with her hands. “from small projects in London to…”

“being an international award-winning actress?”

“yes! it’s all a lot, but being recognized for my work is-is great.” she finishes.

“do any of your friends or family use the title or is it just a formality?”

“nah, after i got it some did as a lil joke but for the most part I’m same ol tish.”

so, can I call you doctor?” you tease.

she laughs lightly, shaking her head. though her words contradict her as she replies. “i-i suppose so, yeah, yeah you can.”

“dr. wright.” you said. “has nice ring to it. though mrs. wright wouldn’t sound too bad either.”

her laughter was fuller this time. “bad. you are bad.”

you shrug lightly, a knowing smile on your face.

“but in all seriousness, it’s nice to see representation for Afro Caribbeans out here. being an inspiration for so many across the world, and a role model for young people everywhere to see someone who looks like them, who comes from a place like them, on screen. we don’t see enough of us gettin’ our flowers. I’m glad you are.”

she nods humbly. “you Caribbean? stop playin, what part?”

“la República Dominicana, act like you know,” you said smiling. She hummed in admiration. “oh, the accent, ok I see you. you speak any Spanish?”

“eres muy hermosa y tienes mucho talento.”

you’re very beautiful and have so much talent.

you say the short sentence to her, none of which she understands, yet she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees as she listened. “i don’t know what you said, but it sounded hella good,” she smiles.

you shook head as you laughed. “man, you something else,” you said as you looked at her again, to which she put her hands up in defense.

“speaking of accents, in a lot of your productions you’re seen using your regular British accent, as well as those from various parts of Africa.”

“mmhm.”

“yet, we rarely hear you with an american accent onscreen. can you give me your best american accent right now?”

“right now?” she asks, pointing down.

“right now, go.”

she shakes her shoulders out before turning to the camera. “hey y’all, i’m letitia wright here with Essence Magazine,” she says in the absolute worst attempt of a southern accent you’ve ever heard.

your eyes go wide before you bust out laughing, shaking your head. “come on, now. don’t do me like that,” she says, a shy smile on her face.

“i’m sorry, i’m sorry,” you begin as you calm yourself. “it’s just refreshing to know there’s something you’re not good at.”

“i haven’t had any roles that require an american accent yet, so there’s time to perfect it.” you nod in agreement.

“so for the real question of the hour,” you say as she leans back in her seat, waiting for you to continue. “why you always got them glasses on?”

she smacks her teeth, trying—and failing—to suppress the smirk that grows on her face. “man, i thought we were gonna get deep.”

“oh, we can get deep, angel. i mean, why hide the eyes? the windows to the soul. i bet you have a beautiful soul, yet the entire time you’ve been here i haven’t got to see for myself.”

“my eyes or my soul?” she asks, tilting her head back.

you open your mouth to respond, yet can’t find the words. you begin to smile as she points at you. “ahh, i got you there, huh?” she says, grills glowing under the studio lights.

you roll your eyes as you reply. “alright, alright. don’t let it happen again.”

“my bad, baby girl. here,” she says, reaching up to take off her shades. “to make it up to you.” she sets them down on the small glass table between you.

“aw, thank you, dr. wright.” you say, thankful for the gift of melanin, and blush applied previously, that the heat rising to your face isn’t visible.

“so?”

“so…”

“my eyes…do they live up to your expectations?”

you lean forward, not missing the way her eyes drop to your cleavage as she does the same. you pause to really look at her, defined jawline, toned skin, fresh haircut, before going back up to her eyes.

“they are…subpar.” you say, swiping her glasses from the table as you slide them over your eyes.

“wow,” she says, bringing a hand to her heart as she leaned back. “it’s like that?”

you wave her off. “i’m just teasing, relax,” you assure as she mumbles, “yeah, ok.”

with the glasses off, you can really feel her gaze on you, though luckily part of yours is hidden this time.

“now look who’s hiding,” she comments, nodding her chin up at you.

“a nice change of pace. i think i look good, right? real official.”

she laughs before she responds. “yeah, you look good.”

you smile as you take them off, putting them on the neckline of your dress.

“so, can I count on seeing you at Essence Fest?” you ask with a sickeningly sweet smile, one that prevents her from answering with anything other than yes. “yeah, yeah you’ll see me there.” she replies while nodding with a smile.

you turn to the cameraman, “ok, i think we’re good!” you turn back to her, “thanks again for coming! it’s been a joy to have you.”

“thank you for having me. truly one of the best interviews i’ve had in a long time.”

“just doing my job, angel.”

she shakes her head, looking at the floor. “of course, of course. would you mind if we have a picture?”

“not at all,” you say, going to sit on the arm of her chair. you do a few sitting, her signature smize and a couple hand motions. you both get up to do standing shots, some with her hands clasped in front of her and others with her arm around your middle.

once you’re done she pulls you in for a hug. your hands slide up her shoulder blades as hers find their way around your waist once more. she gives you a caring squeeze which you reciprocate. you feel pressure between your chests which makes you pull away as you realize. “oh! don’t forget your glasses,” you pull them from the hem of your dress, extending a hand towards her.

“please, keep ‘em,” she assures, giving you one last smile—small yet warm—before heading out.

“bye, doctor!” you call as she leaves.

she turns around, walking backwards with her hands in her pockets. “see you soon.”

-

you packed up for the day, locking up your office and the main studio. walking out the building, your stride pauses as you feel your phone buzz in you purse. you pull it out to see a notification from instagram.

letitiawright started following you

you smiled at the message, seeing you missed two others from a couple hours ago.

letitawright mentioned you on their story

letitawright tagged you in a post

liked by essence, danaigurira, and others

letitiawright new issue of @essence for the March 2023 issue. You can watch the interview on their channel and see the wonderful photos this spring✨

koffee 😍🖤

load comments

✧

a/n: best believe she looked up whatever the hell you said and blushed

[fatehbaz]

This was a world [...] of breathtaking extremes: on one end were early modern European aristocrats who decorated their salons with sugar sculptures; on the other were millions of enslaved men and women, overwhelmingly of African origin, who were overworked so mercilessly on Caribbean plantations [...].

In the late 1600s, sugar confectioneries were introduced into Siam by a [...] woman of Japanese and Portuguese descent, Marie Guyemar de Pinha [...], who married the king’s Greek prime minister. Two centuries later, a sugar planter like Leonard Wray could effortlessly move between the Malay Peninsula, Natal (in today’s South Africa), and the American South, receiving land in Algeria from Napoleon III and conducting sugar experiments under the auspices of the former governor of South Carolina. Bosma traces the rise of a sugar bourgeoisie in places like Java, the Caribbean, Louisiana, and Brazil that was, by its very definition, transnational. Sugar, after all, constantly required new commodity frontiers as cane monoculture ravaged the soil and turned lush tropical forests into wastelands. Politics and war accelerated this scramble for new frontiers. [After the formal legal abolition of chattel slavery in British territories] [a] man like John Gladstone -- father of British prime minister William -- had to quickly pull up stakes in Demerara (in today’s Guyana) and Jamaica in 1840 and try his luck in deltaic Bengal instead. [...]

Of course, many of those transnational connections were sealed through acts of unspeakable brutality. [...] The workings of the slave-sugar economy [...] guaranteed that the enslaved were reduced to the absolute wretched of the earth [...]. Slaves were shuttled across the Atlantic’s western littoral as new sugar frontiers developed and as European colonies were gained [...]. Saint-Domingue sugar workers might have cast away their chains during the Haitian Revolution, but French planters simply carried those chains across the Windward Passage to Cuba, where they got to work establishing a new, brutal sugar frontier powered by yet more slaves. Equally unsettling, [...] the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834 was followed [...] by the resumption of British mass imports of slave-grown sugar from areas beyond London’s imperial control. Sugar from Brazil and Cuba was simply cheaper, and business and consumer interests trumped any questions of morality. [...] [W]ith massive refinery complexes lining the waterfronts of American and European cities, the commodity remained utterly reliant on slavery, coerced labor, and - in places like Java, where the Dutch designed a system of forced cultivation - suppressed land rights. [...] [G]rossly impoverished workers were cheaper and more easily dispensable. [...] Sugar was only profitable when churned out in mass quantities: consequently, sugar industrialists deliberately overproduced, which artificially drove down prices (and workers’ wages).

---

All text above by: Dinyar Patel. ‘Sugar, Slavery, and Capitalism: On Ulbe Bosma’s “The World of Sugar”’. Published online by LA Review of Books. 9 May 2023. [Some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[yellodisney]

[lboogie1906]

Ivan Van Sertima (January 26, 1935 - May 25, 2009) worked to transform the way people viewed and taught African History. He was born in Kitty Village, Guyana. He worked as a Press and Broadcasting Officer for Guyana Information Services. He did weekly broadcasts to Africa and the Caribbean as a journalist.

He married Maria Nagy (1964) and together they adopted two boys. He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, graduating as an honor student with a BA in African Languages and Literature. He began his graduate work at Rutgers University. After his divorce from Maria, he married Jacqueline Pattern (1984) and they adopted two sons.

He began publishing before he came to the US. In 1967, he published a dictionary of Swahili legal terms. He published his most famous work, They Came Before Columbus (1976). The book introduced his argument that people of African origin came to Central and South America long before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.

He received his MA and became an Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers. He founded the Journal of African Civilizations. Its articles described early African advances in agriculture, mathematics, arts, engineering, architecture, writing, medicine, astronomy, and navigation.

He discussed many of these topics in his several published books including Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern (1983), Black Women in Antiquity (1984), The African Presence in Early Asia (1985), Great Black Leaders, Ancient and Modern (1988), and Egypt: The Child of Africa (1994). His research discussed the early African civilizations that had disappeared from history. He republished, in the African Renaissance, earlier essays that discussed the scientific contributions of Africans.

In 1974 he was asked to join UNESCO’s International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind. He was asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy (1976-80) to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[wildandmoody]

GROUP: Classical music

Highlights from the Ballet - Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker - Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra (1966)

^this was a record i randomly found in my closet when we were moving out, and I had no idea where it came from. I play it every Christmas.

Franz Berwald Symphony in E flat - London Symphony Orchestra (1968)

Middle row: Bach Brandenburg Concerti No. 1-6 - Württemburg Chamber Orchestra (1968)

The Halle Orchestra - Tchaikowsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor & Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (unknown years, probably sometime between 1964-67)

GROUP: Vintage OSTs

The Salsoul Orchestra - Christmas Jollies (1976)

Technically not an OST i guess but it was definitely a soundtrack of my childhood, as this orchestra was very popular in Guyana and my family plays this album everyyy holiday season without fail.

Richard Rodgers - The Sound of Music OST (1967)

Scenes From Gershwin's Porgy And Bess (1963)

This is another record my mom gifted me and I'm not sure why bc I can only tolerate opera when I'm listening to it live. Still a cool thing to have I guess and it's the oldest record in my collection currently.

[bubbleblowinggirl]

This is huge for Letiboop. One would think a wax figure would've been made of Chad. Especially after his passing and considering how much his career could've taken off. I'm happy for her.

Letiboop is so cute to me oh my goodness 🥲 and wax figure of his would instantly tear me up. But I’m soooo happy that she got hers! Next up is a statue in LONDON and GUYANA! She deserves it for all her hard work and dedication she put into her career.

[muspeccoll]

We're celebrating #ArchivesUnderTheSea today with NARA and friends, and we have a series of fishes for you. These are from Fishes of British Guiana by R. H. Schomburgk (1860). Schomburgk was an explorer who was commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society of Britain to explore and document the flora and fauna of Guyana. He carried out his expeditions between 1835 and 1839, and first published his research on the natural history of the region in 1840.

Schomburgk, Robert H., et al. Fishes of British Guiana. W. H. Lizars ; London, 1860.