The Coil: Remembering at Wismar, Linden

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

“The disturbances – I was ageable, I remember. The river was full of East Indian people. A man was trying to swim across, and he did not reach and he could not come back an’ he drown”

The man had stopped to talk when he saw me taking pictures of the Hamilton Sawmill Boiler in Wismar, Linden.  There is something about the way the boiler ruins still stand up. The man and I marvelled at their strength. There was bush growing on the ruins.  I could hear birds singing inside – probably from a nest somewhere. The man spent most of his life in Wismar and said that the boiler was always there. There are not many places in Guyana which have memories of our ‘industrial revolution’ .

The man and I talked about the 2012 protests.  The police had killed Ron Somerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis on 18 July 2012 at the Wismar Bridge. The man said, “Dem police did come fuh kill, was bullet,  no pellet”. The injuries included gunshot wounds.  The police were found ‘culpable’ but there were no sanctions against any of the police involved.

I asked about the “disturbances” of 1964. He said “Linden does get news late” . People had heard their friends and relatives on the coast were being attacked by East Indians.  He talked about what a man on TV had said, that even though the body was in Wismar, ”the heart was where people had come from. and that people get angry”.  Wismar in May 1964 became the site of racial violence which resulted in the evacuation of East Indian people.

“Look, the Son Chapman,” he said “That day, you know, no East Indian was on the launch? How come that happen? “ On July 6 1964,  the Son Chapman launch exploded. Forty Three persons are named on the memorial  . (Some reports say  54 persons were killed. )

There has never been any inquiry. Most Guyanese who know of the incident  believe it was related to the racial politics of the time.  Survivors have talked about the threats against the launch.  Some persons ignored the threats while others had been cautious.

The evening of the 6 July, 1964, five East Indians were murdered in Linden during the racial violence which manifested. One of the persons who was killed was my relative.
The man and I talked about Linden now. He laughed and said Lindeners are peaceful people. “Look, hear dis. Dey send Jewan, wid a chainsaw fuh cut up de logs. Imagine, you got a whole set of ignorant black people…  nutting aint happen to Jewan” I joked that .. true, “nobody aint throw he in de river” and we said it might be a sign that things changed.

I am writing this and wondering if this joking is irreverent.

The Linden Commission of Inquiry,  awarded a man who had helped the police to cut logs less damages than he claimed because  “Having examined Mangra’s evidence, it seems rather strange that all the equipment in the building and the zinc sheets which were on the building were removed.  We  are  convinced  that Mangra did not testify truthfully as to his actual loss. “

Another relative of mine had gone to live and work in Guymine for about 15 years. People remember him even though he had left a long time ago.

Another man who was there through the 1964 disturbances said that Wismar was a bustling place before the disturbances. Plenty businesses. All kinds of people who came because of the opportunities. He said that Wismar never recovered. He was small, so only remembered that his father moved his sisters out of the place while he and his brothers remained.

He said he understood the reasoning for the 2012 protests but that it got tiring after awhile.
The man who stopped to talk to me near the Hamilton Boiler  and I talked about Linden moving beyond bauxite. He said ‘Burnham wanted Linden to be self-sufficient.. West Watooka was to have rice” . He said that he was proud of how the young people stood up to the police “throwing back de tear gas” when the tear gas was thrown at them.  It is sad though, he said, “no jobs”. “Imagine,
Linden is supposed to be one of the gateways to the interior.”

President Granger, then Leader of the Opposition , at the 2013 commemoration ceremony of the Son Chapman explosion, had called for “the river to be a channel of prosperity of commerce” and not of “division and hate”.

There is something about how the river front at Wismar and Mackenzie are accessible. You can sit at the river front – a different experience from sitting at the seawall.

The passenger boats are on the river. There are bauxite boats. The river is mostly quiet.

I asked a man selling ital about why he was not using calabash. He laughed and said that he did not think people would want to eat in it, but he would get some from his tree.  The only place I have eaten ital at the side of any water is in Linden. I am not sure how relevant that would be to the local economy or whether how  much anyone else would pay for that experience.

A young businessman said that he went to show his face at the 2012 protests.  He said everyone supported it at the beginning, but then it got out of hand. He is concerned about the electricity thing because “Granger already sign the bill to increase the rates. Nobody voting fuh Granger because dey all feeling de squeeze now”  He did not think that the protest achieved what it intended.

A young man, one of many who commutes to Georgetown for further education, hopes to stay in Wismar. He does not want to leave. He is not too bothered about the past (including whether the 2012 protests succeeded or failed), but focussing on his future. He said that regardless of the differences during the elections and the protests ‘Lindeners are one’.

He is concerned about his employment but is hopeful that some changes will come.

The man who stopped to talk with me hoped that work would proceed on the monument to Ron Somerset , Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis. A site has been identified. “The PPP keep this place down” and now that the government has changed “Tings must get better”.