The more you live the more you learn about people

Apr 25, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I stopped writing letters in the press because there is a nauseating level of ignorant insensitivity that emanate from the pages of all the print media houses in Guyana as it relates to issues involving or connected with Guyanese of African descent.
That is why it is so urgent and important that there be African Guyanese ownership and editorial control of a print media entity in Guyana.
This country would be livid and fuming if the situation was reversed, and there was no ownership of print media by anyone from the other large population segment in the country.
The fact that there is little perturbation over the existing conditions is evidence of the superficial consciousness that prevails when it comes to the African segment of the Guyanese population. And this is exemplified by the latest issue of note in the press.
The CEO of the National Trust, in explaining the historical importance of a Land Mark in Victoria Village, is reported to have said that, “the entire village is of historical value, as it was the first one bought by slaves after slavery was abolished”. In other words, the abolishment of slavery in the perspective of the CEO, as well as the editorial gate keepers of SN, did not affect the social status of Africans.
The institution of slavery was abolished but they were still slaves, since that was their established origin.
A couple decades ago one of my daughters was told by her teacher, explaining the origin of the different Guyanese groups, that Indians came from India, Portuguese came from Portugal, Chinese came from China, etc, but black people came as slaves. In the minds of large segments of the Guyanese population, it would appear, including those in the hierarchy of national associations, Media and Education, the natural origin of black people is that of a slave. So the abolishment of the institution of slavery, while bringing about change in our social condition, constituted no alteration in our established social status. At least in the eyes of some up to this day.
Some might say I am nit picking here, but in a nation where other groups continuously claim that not enough of their history is known to the general Guyanese population, I find this kind of casual ignorance absolutely amazing. Was this a Freudian slip? Maybe. Clearly the CEO of the National Trust, as well as those who scrutinize and censor letters in the SN are so culturally distant when it comes to anything to do with peoples of African descent that they find no contradiction between what we were under enslavement, and what we became after that institution was abolished. Indentured servants reverted to their status of Indians after that institution was abolished. Slaves however, for many it would appear, had no historical, geographical or ancestral connections with elsewhere. Go figure.
Robin Williams

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