Race relations in Guyana

Mar 23, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Anyone familiar with our political history would agree that as a country we have come a long way in terms of race relations.
Not that the country was at any time in its history ethnically polarized, but that there were periods when race was used to drive a wedge among the races in Guyana, in particular Indo- and Afro- Guyanese who together constituted over 80% of the total population.
Recent census figures suggested that the two major races in the country are showing significant declines as a percentage of the total population is in favour of those categorized as Mixed and Amerindians.
The issue of race surfaced in during the early 1960s when attempts were made to destabilize the PPP administration by western vested interests in collaboration with local reactionary elements.In his concluding remarks at the 1963 Independence Conference, Duncan Sandys, Colonial Secretary, said that it was his wish to break the political deadlock and above all to end the problem of racialism in Guyana which he said was the ‘curse’ of Guyana.
He attributed blame for our state of affairs on ‘the development of Party politics along racial lines. In the present acute form, this racialism could be traced to the split in the country’s main political party in 1955.
It was then that the Party which had previously drawn its support from both major races broke into two bitterly opposed political groups, the one predominantly Indian, led by Dr. Jagan and the other, predominantly African, led by Mr. Burnham.”
This position of Sandys was debunked by Dr. Jagan who correctly observed that the split was hatched by Winston Churchill the then Prime Minister of Britain and father-in-law of Duncan Sandys. Actually, it was the Robertson Commission set up by the British Prime Minister that engineered the split of the PPP in 1955, aided and abetted by the US government, who deliberately fomented racial disturbances in order to prevent the PPP from attaining political power and take the country into independence status.
There were, and continue to be, many who shared the view of Sandys regarding race tensions in the country by making it appear that the problems were essentially racial and that the two major race groups, East Indians and Africans were opposed to each other. Dr. Jagan, however saw it differently. This was how he put it during a May Day Rally way back in the late 1960s:
‘The four cornerstones of our present needs are racial harmony, national unity, national independence and peace and progress.
Without racial harmony, there can be no national independence and without independence there can be no progress.”
Dr. Jagan recognized the potential harm that racism and racial conflict could do to the country even though he was fully conscious of the fact that Guyanese are by nature a peaceful people who exist and co-exist with all groups and ethnicities.
Actually the superficiality of race has been recognized way back in time by a Commonwealth Commission that came to investigate the racial disturbances of the early 1960s and this is what they had to say:
“We found little evidence of any racial segregation in the social life of the country, and in Georgetown, East Indians and Africans seem to mix and associate with one another on terms of the greatest cordiality, though it was clear that the recent disturbances and the racial twist given to them by some of the unprincipled and self-seeking politicians had introduced slight, but it is hoped, transient overtones of doubt and reserve.
Among the inhabitants of Georgetown there is, of course, always present the danger that hostile and anti-racial sentiments may be aroused by a clash of hopes and ambitions of rival politicians.
We draw attention to this possibility because there have been indications of such friction in the past, although as will appear in the course of this report, the disturbances of February 16, did not originate in a racial conflict, nor did they develop into a trial of strength between the East Indians and the Africans.”
Whatever else could be said of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, he was never a racist and throughout his life sought to promote racial unity and national reconciliation. He was violently opposed to the slightest insinuation of him having racial inclinations as could be seen from the following: “as regards the charge that we are racialists, let me say this, that if I were to be leader of one race then I will assure you that tomorrow I will retire from politics…”.
“Racism is the greatest curse of our land……anyone who spreads racial propaganda must be severely dealt with. Such a person is an enemy to himself and his country. From this day forward we shall need the goodwill and hard work of all our people so that we may proceed to make our country a fit and proper home for heroes in the struggle for political and economic independence. Let there be an end to sectional racial quarrels and suspicions so that national unity may be restored”.
The fact is that race has never been a serious problem in Guyana. Indians and Africans throughout the decades have played, worked and lived together. This is evident in Guyana today more than in any other period of our recent history.
Hydar Ally

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