What does it mean to be Guyanese?

Apr 14, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
There seems to be this emerging agitation for national integration influenced by coalition politics and sloganeering in Guyana’s election season. It is an agitation that suggests that one has to choose between one’s ethnicity and one’s nationality.
I have seen these testimonials gain popularity on social media in light of, what I believe to be, Moses Nagamootoo’s seemingly misunderstood denunciation of his ethnic identity, “I am not Indian.” This idea, ‘I’m not my ethnic identity’ has gained current in what is widely interpreted to be a society prone to ethnic conflict.
What struck me with these emerging testimonials for national integration is their simplicity. This is usually the problem with political sloganeering. They are not given to deep intellectual thought. What does it mean to be Guyanese?
The question that these testimonials fail to properly answer is: Is it destructive to one’s patriotism to be African and Guyanese or Indian and Guyanese? As far as I am concerned, I am African, because I choose to recognize my ancestors’ stolen history, culture and language. I am African because I choose to reassert that stolen pride. I am Guyanese because I recognize my right to political determination in this entity where I was born.
Therefore, is it mutually exclusive to be African and Guyanese or Indian and Guyanese? Democratic societies have facilitated the coexistence of multiple identities – Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Heterosexuals, Gays, Lesbians as well as ethnographic identities and nationality. Additionally, humans have always placed such importance on their alignments and identities that conflicts become inevitable. This is an age-old existential rudiment of society. The challenge for democratic societies is to establish certain institutional guarantees to maintain peaceful coexistence.
The problem with nationality is that it is not readily identifiable. One can proclaim to be Guyanese or American or Caribbean, but unless told, I would have no idea. No one can identify a person’s nationality by how they look. Nationality is a pretty modern concept, especially for post-colonial societies. Inhabitants of post-colonial societies came from centuries-old polities, rich in history, languages, religions and cultures.
Our progenitors did not enter Guyana as Guyanese. They entered Guyana with hundreds of thousands of years of history. With forced migration, enslavement and indentureship, they fought and died for the right to maintain their culture. They held onto and passed down that culture to generations, so that, when Guyana became independent, it became a mixture of many cultures and ethnic identities which three hundred years of colonialism could not wipe out.
Amerindians were not Guyanese before they were Caribs and Arawaks etc. Yet the reason they are Amerindian is because they have a culture that connects them. It is this culture which global movements are now dedicated to protecting. So why do we see the need to derecognized our ethnic identity and culture for national integration? In modern progressive societies, the idea of unity is one where all identities exist with respect.
I am not arguing that one should not be proud to be Guyanese. I am arguing however, that my patriotism should not interfere with my ethnic identity, that I can be both African and Guyanese.
So the question that this coalition’s testimonials for national integration is failing to confront, or to answer, is how can we build a society where we can respect each other’s right to be African, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese and Amerindian.
This coalition’s sloganeering has failed to recognize that the reason for ethnic identity conflict politics in Guyana is because we have never sought to build a society where each is guaranteed certain rights. We have not sought to build institutions where our citizens’ rights to political and economic determinations are properly adjudicated – the right to be treated equally; the right to equality of justice; the right to equal access to resources; the right to equal employment; the right to equal recognition under the law; the right to equal access to economic determination without discrimination.
A society which strives to guarantee these rights is a society that can minimize conflict. So yes, I can be African and Guyanese and you can be Indian and Guyanese, and our cultures ought to be inclusive in this polity, as we as a people seek political and economic determination and prosperity.
Dennis Wiggins

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