The Village Movement was Guyana’s greatest entrepreneurial event

Aug 17, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
On Freedom Day, Freddie Kissoon wrote a very important article entitled “What about a Black Guyanese Entrepreneurial Class?
In this article he highlighted the historical discriminatory practices that have led to today’s economic inequality of the descendants of enslaved Africans in Guyana. Freddie stated “East Indians dominate the economy ninety five percent to one percent for African with other races making up the other four percent. Among other races in Guyana, outside of Indian Guyanese, land-holdings are extensive. It seems that the only race that does not possess vast plantations of land is African Guyanese. I know some Portuguese Guyanese who have countless acreage of land that the combined population of African Guyanese do not have. It is time for ethnic balance in Guyanese capitalism”.
Freddie has revealed what the  Guyana Reparations Committee captured in a 47 page document which detailed the 15 purposeful historical discriminatory steps implemented by Europeans in Guyana that  have led to African Guyanese inequality in Guyana today. The last 23 years of racist governance widened the gap that existed in Cheddi Jagan’s time when he stated “Africans are at the bottom of the ladder”..
Ravi Dev responded to Freddie’s article and was surprising fair in his analysis. Over the years, Ravi has written much about the Indian and African Security Dilemmas. However, this was his first article in which he described actual systemic African marginalization and offered some solutions such as affirmative action. To be fair to Ravi, in 2014 he was very supportive in featuring African entrepreneurship.
Harry Hergash also wrote on this issue in a letter entitled “Granger addressed a matter of importance to all Guyanese”. Mr. Hergash revealed that for the 175th anniversary of Indian Arrival he had written “as a result of historical and cultural factors they [Indian Guyanese] have dominance (in terms of net worth and corporate control) in the private sector (in Guyana) where risks and rewards go hand-in-hand but are under-represented in the public service where job security is more valued.” Now that the new President has spoken, I hope his call will be heeded and we will see more African Guyanese becoming risk-takers and succeeding as entrepreneurs”.
Harry is dead wrong and it is time we permanently kill these purposefully false ideas about Africans in Guyana. History will show Africans have always been the most entrepreneurial group in Guyana and have always been purposefully denied equal access and equal rights. Yet, they have made remarkable achievements in spite of these historical and current.
Harry knows it was not because of the lack of entrepreneurship that has resulted in today’s inequality. It was racism on one hand and affirmative action provided to Indians, the Portuguese and Chinese on the other hand.
The Village Movement was the greatest entrepreneurial event in the history of Guyana. Africans have been the group that diversified both the public and private economies in Guyana.
Harry also knows enslaved Africans in Guyana were the most productive in the entire British slave system as witnessed by the 50 pounds awarded to slave owners in Guyana for each freed African compared to an average of 17 pounds in the rest of the Colonies.
Harry should also understand the following historical facts about African entrepreneurship against all odds and should celebrate these achievements that have been hidden from the general public.
1. History has recorded the genocide of over 450,000 Africans in the development of Guyana from the swamp land it was. This genocide has not been addressed by European colonizers. At Emancipation, 84,075 enslaved Africans were freed. The survival rate in the British colonies was 15% overall and less in Guyana.
2. History has also recorded and forgotten that (Guyanese) Africans “had driven back the sea and had cleared, drained and reclaimed 15,000 square miles of forest and swamps. This is equivalent to 9,000,000 acres of land. In short, all the fields on which the sugar estates are now based were cleared, drained and irrigated by African labor forces. In essence, Africans cleared 18% of Guyana without pay. Is this a Case of prescriptive rights?
3. History has recorded that all the plantations now turned Villages and cities were built by unpaid African labor. In the process of building these plantations, careful research has shown that Africans installed the following (1) 2,580,000 miles of drainage canals, trenches and inter-bed drains, (2) 3,500 miles of dams, roads and footpaths, and (3) 2,176 miles of sea and river defense.
4. The Venn Commission also reported that “to build the coastal plantation alone, a value of 100,000,000 tons of earth had to be moved by the hands of African slaves “(without machinery).
5. History has recorded that at Emancipation, 2761 British Colonizers received 4.281 M British pounds for 84,075 freed Africans. In today’s value, this is worth 3.13 Billion pounds. The slave owners were paid in pounds while the Africans paid with their lives.
6.  History hides the fact that in 1834 just prior to Emancipation and for centuries before, Africans created 100% of the economy in Guyana but OWNED zero % of it.
7. History hides the fact that Africans in Guyana and the Caribbean were the only group to have suffered the double hardship of mass enslavement and genocide. Both are crimes against humanity.
8. History hides the fact that Africans were the pioneers of both the modern private and public sectors in Guyana. They diversified the economy in gold, balata and cocoa among other things.
But let’s return to the three letters which seem to be advising Africans in Guyana about what is best for them.
Personally, Africans in Guyana know what is best for them. Just treat us fairly and equally, repair the historical economic genocide through reparations and leave us alone.
The Village Movement and other remarkable feats in Guyana are testimony that if given equally access and equal treatment….Africans in Guyana will flourish.
Eric M. Phillips

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