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Arrival Day
To a large extent, the history of most post-colonial societies is a history of their search for identity. This observation is most relevant to us in Guyana. It has been observed, with great insight, that at independence we inherited a state but not a nation.
That state – for three centuries ruled and shaped by Imperial European powers – had very fixed ideas on how the Guyanese nation ought to be constituted. Dragged from practically every continent across the globe to replace the ex-slave labour on the sugar plantations, the resulting diverse “six peoples” were supposed to become a “Guyanese” nation through the simple expedient of jettisoning their cultures and imbibing British language and culture. It was not that simple for the people and certainly not simple for the formation of a viable identity.
Firstly, the “jettisoning” of cultures was not left to chance. During slavery the most violent and odious measures were unleashed on the African slaves to ensure that they were denuded of their culture. The reasons offered were that that culture was “barbaric”, “savage” and “pagan”. Not mentioned was that in the proffered culture, the slave – by definition – was relegated to a subservient and permanently (at the very best) second-class status. It was through tremendous individual and collective acts of resistance that aspects of African culture were retained. And the nucleus of a healthy identity.
While the abolition of slavery saw a shift in the tactics of cultural denudation by the British, the “white bias” in the Creole culture that had evolved by then was so strong that all the new arrivals – Portuguese, Indians, Chinese – faced great pressure to abandon their culture. Many succumbed. The shift in tactics was in furtherance of the ‘divide and rule” policy that the European colonial powers had unveiled in the nineteenth century. Be as it may, at independence in 1966, most of our people had retained enough of their original cultures within the interstices of the dominant culture to give hope that the new nation could be constructed on foundations that were not entirely or reflexively debilitating.
We chose as our national Motto: “One People, One Nation: One Destiny”. But very presciently, our founding fathers (and mothers) did not equate “unity” with “uniformity” – especially as it had to do with the insidious culture that had been fostered in the colonial era. Guyana was declared a “multi-cultural” and “multi-religious” nation. There was going to be a unity based very firmly on diversity. The prescience of vision was proven by the failures and abandonment of all the other models of “nation-building” – in both the developed and developing worlds – that were based on the old “assimilationist” premises of cultural denudation.
In the multicultural model of national integration – accepted now by the overwhelming majority of countries in the world – the citizen’s original culture which defines his “ethnicity” – is accepted as an integral, inalienable aspect of his identity – and simultaneously, the national identity. There is no contradiction but everything commendable, for instance, in the hyphenated identity of African-Guyanese, Indian-Guyanese or Amerindian-Guyanese.
No Guyanese is forced into a position where he is compelled to accept that his culture of origin is irredeemably, totally and irrevocably second rate or second class. At the same time, all Guyanese can share in the potpourri of arts, dances, foods, festivals, clothes and perspectives that abound in our land. To be Guyanese is to be unique.
All of this is encompassed in our commemoration of “Arrival Day” that has now been a Public Holiday for the past seven years.
The fears by some that Arrival Day would degenerate into orgies of ethnic jingoism have proven to be unfounded. To an ever-increasing degree, the ethos of Arrival Day has solidified into “Unity in Diversity” where all Guyanese can, and do, reflect on the contributions of all of our people to build and sustain this land we call “home”. We may not have inherited a nation but we have come a long way in the always difficult task of constructing a viable and sustainable one. Happy Arrival Day to all Guyanese.
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