Celebrate the bounty of Guyana’s soil this Saturday

May 20, 2018 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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By Dennis Nichols

On Saturday, Guyana turns 52. Although Independence Day celebrations have become somewhat muted over time, many of us still see May 26 as an iconic commemorative day in our brief history. Some say there isn’t much to celebrate.
In last Tuesday’s edition of Kaieteur News, a letter-writer listed a litany of laments as he questioned what achievements were there to laud. Listed were ‘monotonous blackouts, internet failures, crimes daily, suicides, moral degradation, bribery, corruption, accidents, poor drainage and irrigation, pot-holed roads etc …’
True, but without being facetious, I seem to remember we had some of these from way back, before 1966. And something else we always had in abundance, local or imported – Food. Well, not quite.
In the late nineteen-seventies and ‘eighties, some of our Caribbean and North American neighbours heard that Guyanese were starving. Yes, the importation of a number of foreign/imported commodities had been restricted and they included basic food items like flour, cooking oil, potatoes, split-peas, salted fish, and evaporated milk. But even at the height of the virtual ban, many Guyanese found a way to get at least some of those items.
There was brisk business in contraband goods including cross-border trade as a so-called parallel economy sprung up when foreign currency became scarce. Additionally over the years, the ‘Feed The Nation’ and ‘Grow More Food’ campaigns must have been taken seriously enough by some farmers, and so we more or less always had at least locally-produced foods.
Of course there were some for whom the restricted items were mostly unavailable or used as an occasional ‘luxury’ replacing or supplementing local rice flour, palm oil, and coconut milk. Among the less fortunate there were reports of an increase in malnutrition-related illnesses such as beri-beri and marasmus. Those were tough days, devastating to some, but starvation? Can you starve in a country with a population of three-quarters of a million people and ample agricultural produce in the form of rice, sugar, a variety of greens, ground provisions, coconuts and fresh fruits, chicken, beef, pork, fish, eggs, and seasonings among other food items? Resourceful and imaginative chefs and housewives could still whip up tasty dishes minus foreign ingredients.
The valid point had been made that some of the banned items were needed for certain special and traditional uses including religious functions, and because of this, some persons felt the restriction deliberately and unfairly targeted a particular ethnic group.
But as alluded to earlier, many Guyanese were still able to secure the banned items, thanks to traders and smugglers, with an eye out for the ‘food police’ (a few of whom were sympathetic or turned a blind eye) and cook and enjoy their traditional dishes in relative, if watchful, comfort. In any case, it would have taken a lot more than an unpopular food ban to halt centuries-old culinary customs.
Massive kudos must be given to our farmers, then and now, whether in vegetable, poultry, dairy, or fruit; our fishermen, rice farmers, canecutters, and those manufacturers who add real value to our primary resources.
Independence is as much about their labour and commitment as it is about the larger economic and political issues the government and media so love to harp on. Were I to live my life over, farming would be a definite venture, if not a vocation. Even now in my senior years, I still hope to do a bit of soil-tilling if my application for a piece of land on the Essequibo Coast is processed before senility steps in.
In 1985 Forbes Burnham, the architect of the ban, died, and his successor, Hugh Desmond Hoyte, with his IMF-blessed economic reform package, wooed and won the appreciation of most Guyanese when he subsequently lifted restrictions, so that wheat flour, cooking oil, potatoes, and split-peas returned to the kitchen table, legally.
The days of gritty rice flour and crude palm oil were numbered. But even then you could have tolerated a jaw-aching rice flour bun by washing it down with a local drink made from fruits like cherry, guava, pineapple, passion fruit, golden apple, and tamarind, or a frothy, old-fashioned glass of mauby.
Even though I’ve seen it hundreds of times, I still marvel at the abundance of fresh local produce available in our marketplaces. At Bourda Market for example, earth’s bounty seems to overflow in a veritable cornucopia – from hefty pumpkins, bunches of plantains and heaps of ground provision to slender bora and everything in between – cabbage, boulanger, ochro, callaloo, carilla, pak choi, lettuce, pepper, tomatoes, eschallot, celery, thyme… In addition there are the foods mentioned in the third paragraph, and more. Almost all are found at other municipal markets around the city and in rural locales, while some can be had in a few supermarkets.
From the western end of Bourda Market it’s a short walk to the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) where every product sold is locally manufactured, bottled, and packaged, from cassareep and wine to plantain chips and sugar-cake. Again, most of these are also replicated in shops and marketplaces around the country. (Incidentally, it’s strange that whenever I’m there, I can count no more than three or four persons perusing the shelves or actually buying something. Because of its small area, space may be a problem for shoppers, but more robust advertising may also help)
Local foods have evidently had to compete with the foreign fare, but that just adds a cosmopolitan flavour to everything, and there is even more of a variety to choose from. You can swap a puri with sour for a pizza with pepperoni, but the backbone of Guyanese cuisine is still local.
Most of us like to eat ‘fancy’ occasionally; some even frequently, but chances are that even the most expensive and foreign-looking dishes would likely have more than 50 percent Guyanese ingredients. So whether local or foreign, we can’t dismiss the fact that we have food; lots of it, and despite current miseries, few if any, can honestly say they’re starving in this blessed, besieged country.
Compare Guyana with certain countries where people may actually be starving, (Since US President Donald Trump’s sh****** remarks, I’m cautions about country naming-and-shaming) and you’ll see how favoured we are in food. In one such country people scrounge the trash for leftover restaurant chicken to wash, bag, and sell to poor families. In another, people faced with severe economic hardships had started hunting cats, dogs, and pigeons for food, according to the mayor of a town there. In a third, it was reported that the majority of the population gets by on less than US$2 and one rice-and-beans meal a day. And there are even more distressing statistics out there.
Here’s a suggestion: This Saturday, May 26, turn off the TV, disconnect the computer, and leave the newspaper at home or at the news-stand. Keep the cell phone on for emergencies, but tune out the gossipessimists. (My contribution to this year’s OED New Words list)
Forget the fast food and foreign-flavour joints if any of them opens for business. Make traditional Guyanese dishes, snacks, and beverages with local ingredients, hit the roads and open spaces, and celebrate our 52 year-old nation as food-consciously as possible. And spare a thought for those who are actually starving in the world. Happy Independence Day in advance!

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