Indigenous people’s tolerance for intolerance

Jan 11, 2015 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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COUNTRYMAN – Stories about life, in and out of Guyana, from a Guyanese perspective

 

By Dennis Nichols

For this year, 2015, I will attempt to let my countryman stories have a more philosophical tone and a more global perspective, even as things Guyanese still form a crucial element in each one. Like, for example, this one that just touches on the distress native indigenous peoples continue to face through discrimination, dispossession, and the disintegration of traditional lifestyles.

A few weeks ago, U.S president Barack Obama opined that the only people who can legitimately object to (his) immigration (policy) are Native Americans. It probably wasn’t the most politically-correct thing to say as far as conservative Americans are concerned, and he took some flak for it. But I wonder what native North Americans think of it, and of the tolerance they displayed in accepting their ‘reservation’ lot nearly 200 years ago.

A major problem faced by indigenous peoples is described by the human rights organization ‘Cultural Survival’ as the ‘ignorance, negligence, greed, and the good intentions of those who sought to bring development to “backward” groups, which combined to undermine centuries-old ways-of-life, obliterate languages, and isolate and marginalize individuals whose sense of identity depended on cultural and group cohesion.’ That’s a mouthful of an issue.

Like many such groups worldwide, Guyana’s Amerindians have been subject to past indignities including being viewed as inferior to other ethnic and cultural groups, some of who came, saw, and took. Asked for neither permission to occupy, nor evidence of wanting to be ‘civilized’ they soon had their culture demonized and their numbers decimated by Europe’s gift of domination.

Here in Guyana no less an eminence than the president of our republic was recently alleged to have spoken in an insulting and belittling manner to an Amerindian Rupununi villager, while another was allegedly slapped by a member of the presidential Guard. This at a public meeting, reportedly because of their heckling and disrespect to President Ramotar. Were these simply heat-of-the-moment exchanges, or a glimpse of something more despicable?

It’s funny how prejudices can pop up when your guard is let down. We’ve all undoubtedly been guilty of this. I know I have in my youth, a trend which I swiftly and forcibly curbed, particularly with respect to Amerindians, and more so when my life partner and I chose each other, since she and the children I fathered all have some Amerindian blood coursing through their veins.

Living and working in the North West Region also gave me a great deal more insight into the indigenous way of life of the people there, admittedly not always positive or pristine, but unfailingly compelling.

On one hand there was the subservience and deference show by them to those perceived to be in positions of authority, no matter how dubious their command; on the other hand a cunning, sometimes subtle assertiveness of their natural (or supernatural) superiority over outsiders in a jungle setting.

One aspect of negative perception was the way some of them seemed to accept the inferiority tag, not only from coastlanders, but also from other Amerindians, often laughing derisively at epithets like ‘Buck and people’ alluding to some imagined genetic attribute that separated one from the other. I detested it as much as I disliked being told that I wasn’t Black. However, not all of them took to being abused and belittled lightly.

One such person was Patrick Rodrigues, a young, well-liked boat captain/engineer attached to the Mabaruma Regional Office. Gregarious and amiable, he died at the hands of a Guyana Defence Force soldier in the township in 1977.

It was alleged that he had to defend a female cousin against the unwanted advances of the soldier which eventually led to a confrontation and fight between the two outside a disco/bar in Mabaruma. Eyewitness reported that Patrick ‘won’ the fight, and that the soldier felt humiliated at being beaten by a ‘Buck’.

The soldier reportedly went to the barracks, retrieved his gun, drove back to where Patrick was, and shot and killed him. He was subsequently found guilty of murder and jailed. The regional administration later named a boat, the ‘Pat R’ after Patrick. Should he have ‘known his place’ and meekly allowed the girl’s submission to the soldier’s unwanted advances? That, as far as I am concerned, is a rhetorical question.

On other occasions I witnessed exchanges between ‘Amerindians’ who were obviously of mixed heritage and others who were most likely full-blooded natives, in which the latter group appeared to unquestioningly accept the platitudes, deceit, and condescension of the former.

In one instance, a shopkeeper offered a ridiculously low price for some beautifully-sculpted paddles which I assumed would be sold for a huge profit. The paddle-maker, a Warrau Indian, smiled nervously, protested hesitantly, and quickly gave in. The shopkeeper remained cunningly calm. Another time I was struck by what I felt was the unconscionable manipulation of a group of illiterate workers who toiled in the field of a big-time farmer who also ran a grocery.

I watched one Friday afternoon, almost dumbstruck, as several workers came forward sheepishly to collect their wages only to have most of it returned to the boss’ wife as payment for goods credited to them during the week, and for alcohol bought right there and consumed with the boss’s tacit encouragement. Cash flow? Incidentally, the wife of the boss upheld herself as a stalwart of Christian righteousness in the community.

In many local communities, Amerindian men are still seen as an easy source of cheap labour and the women/girls as objects of sexual gratification and domestic servitude. Add to these perceptions the very real weaknesses that many of them have for alcohol and the readiness of others to exploit that weakness, and you have a recipe for domination.

In spite of these machinations, several of our country’s ‘first people’ have risen from relative obscurity to become community leaders, politicians, artists, and entrepreneurs among other professions. This is obviously a great example of how to break out from the mould of other people’s prejudices and notions, and take your rightful place in society. Sadly though, many others are still locked in this prison of perception, and struggle to break free.

Some say Guyanese Amerindians are ‘lucky’. In some other countries with indigenous populations ‘Indians’ are said to be faring much worse than ours. I don’t know. But I’ve heard and read that in places like Australia, Indonesia, Central America and South America, aborigines, mestizos, and other first peoples are indeed marginalized and discriminated against.

An online report, sourced to the Margareta Weisser Foundation for Indigenous People, states that they are ‘among the most disadvantaged groups on earth … subjected to slavery and forced labour. They face discrimination, poverty, poor health, unemployment and high rates of imprisonment.’

It goes on to say that many such communities have their land and resources expropriated or spoiled by activities such as deforestation, mining, road construction, and toxic waste dumping.’ Sounds familiar?

When viewed against such atrocities, a slap, or some words of chastisement in response to perceived disrespect, may seem, to use a well-worn idiom, small potatoes. But such small potatoes can bud and grow into tubers of bigotry and intimidation, on both sides of a confrontation. And not everyone has the same level of tolerance for intolerance.

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