I don’t know how the United Nations came
to decide that June 19 should be World Sickle Cell Day; the
ways of international organizations are mysterious. But it was a good decision.
One suspects that America must have had a
hand in the choice of the date, since sickle cell continues to be a significant
public health problem in that country.
Dates matter. We can be sure that had it not been for
an event that occurred on a certain date in America’s history, sickle cell
disease would not have become the burden there that it is today. The event that
I am thinking about took place in August 1619 and possibly marked the beginning
of an infamous trade that lasted two centuries. The event was believed to be the
first ever landing of Africans on North American soil at a small place in Virginia to which disgruntled Englishmen had fled away from the
religious intolerance that blighted their native land. In the event, after the
wasting of ten, or may be, twenty million black lives and the passage of two
centuries, the worst ever example of human trafficking came to an end. Sort of.
But it took a civil war for the institution of slavery itself to end in the
American republic. Again, sort of. It is an irony impossible to ignore because
that republic had been founded ostensibly in response to what the descendants
of those refugees escaping religious persecution deemed tyranny, rooted in the
actions of a mentally unstable monarch in far-off England. As it happens, that
war is still being waged today, to the extent that, many in the republic feel
bound to own assault weapons as their own personal guarantee against
oppression.
Dates matter. The American civil war had been fought
over the southern states’ refusal to abandon slavery, and it was not until May 1865,
when the pro-slavery gang had been utterly defeated, that their resistance to
the notion that all men are created equal was broken. And on June
19, 1865, Major-General Gordon Granger, commander
of the military District of Texas at Galveston, TX, issued his General
Orders, Number 3 that declared, The people of Texas are informed that, in
accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all
slaves are free and that… this involves an absolute equality of personal rights
and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection
heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labour.
Yes. There was, naturally, jubilation among those who believed that they had been made free by the order, and the
day, nicknamed “Juneteenth”, (“June” plus “teenth”) became a holiday.
Dates matter.
You see where I’m going? June 19th
is a significant date in the history of blacks in America, marking emancipation
from the burden of slavery. So, perhaps it is not a coincidence that Juneteenth,
the 19th of June, has become the day of observance for sickle cell
disease and the date to note the work that remains to be done to emancipate, worldwide, the
30 million suffering under the public and personal burden that is sickle cell
disease. So, we must mark this day in 2016 in whatever way we can, but, best of
all, by donating towards the struggle. If you want to donate, go to the website
of The Sierra Leone Sickle Cell Disease Society at www.sleonesickle.org. and follow the
links. This could very well the most important thing you do for the rest of the
year.
Tell Fren Tru
