An Open Emancipation letter to African Guyanese in the presence and hearing of the rest of Guyana

Jul 29, 2018 Features / Columnists, Hinds' Sight with Dr. David Hinds

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Dear African Brothers and Sisters,
As Guyana observes another emancipation anniversary, it must not only be a moment of celebration but also a time of deep reflection, especially among African Guyanese. There is, of course, much to celebrate. Any people who would have been the victims of the most inhumane system in human history and overcame that experience must indeed celebrate that overcoming.
As we reflect on emancipation, therefore, we must reflect on the memory of the experience of enslavement. Historical memory is important, for its serves as a reminder of a period in human history that should never be repeated.
The brutality of the slavery system has no parallel in history. It reflected an assault on the humanity of the African peoples and the inhumanity of slave-owning classes and races. African Guyanese, therefore, are always in the process of recapturing their humanity. This is no easy task, given the fact that some of the social and power relations that informed the system of slavery are still with us today.
The second area of reflection should be on the very overcoming of slavery. Emancipation among other things, meant overcoming. In that regard, the resistance ethos is central to an understanding and appreciation of African Guyanese history, culture and identity. There could be no slave oppression without resistance–the many slave rebellions and other forms of defiance are testimony to this spirit of resistance.
A third area of reflection must be on freedom. Emancipation meant freedom. The objective of resistance obviously was freedom. We know that freedom is a process that involves conscious and unconscious interventions by those to whom freedom is denied.
As Brother Bob Marley reminds us “no chains around my feet, but still I am not free”. The struggle for freedom is always constant and this emancipation observance must remind us of that continuing journey.
It should be noted that when African Guyanese in 1838 freed themselves, they ensured that other groups that subsequently came to Guyana, could come free of chains. The freedom won in 1838, therefore, was freedom not only for African Guyanese, but for all of Guyana.
A fourth reflection as we observe emancipation must be in the role of the descendants of enslavement in helping to craft a humane society in Guyana. After the end of slavery in 1838, African Guyanese transformed Guyana from a slave trading and inhuman space to one that was worthy of human habitation. In pooling their meagre resources, earned during the period of Apprenticeship, and buying lands, which they turned into villages, they struck the first major blow for a humane Guyana.
When African Guyanese created their villages, they were embarking on constructing the country’s modern political economy. They constructed their churches as a reflection of their deep and abiding faith in both their present and future. They created schools next to their churches.
Here were people who could barely read and write, but who understood the importance of education. They were investing not only in their education, but the education of future generations. They also set about creating the economy by allocating lands for farming.
What we know today as our Agriculture Sector has its origins in the pioneering work in the village economy.
Finally, they created their own form of government in the form of village councils which were geared at administering the day-to-day business of the villages.
The Village Movement, therefore, was African Guyanese gift to Guyana and the rest of the world. It was a unique intervention by people who were barely out of more than two centuries of forced bondage. It reflected a spirit of entrepreneurship and cooperativism. It, therefore, pioneered what we know today as the private and cooperative sectors. This disabuses the notion that African Guyanese have not contributed to the business ethos of Guyana.
A fifth area of reflection should inevitably be a frank, self-assessment of the current African Guyanese condition. I have said on previous emancipation anniversaries that the condition of African Guyanese is worse than it was at the time of independence. In every sphere of life in Guyana—economics, politics, culture, education, entrepreneurship, sports–, African Guyanese seem to come up short and consequently lag behind the other major ethnic group. For a people who contributed so much to the foundations of Guyana, this is shocking and unacceptable.
This condition has been allowed to fester to the point where it has become institutional and normative. In ethnically competitive societies like Guyana, ethnic unevenness is to be expected as different groups gravitate to different areas of the political economy. But when that unevenness turns into permanent imbalance, it is time the society takes notice and acts to correct it. The consequences are too risky. There are economic and other woes in our major ethnic groups, but the disproportionate underdevelopment of African Guyanese is cause for great concern.
There are three contributing factors to the African Guyanese condition. First, there is a nauseating stubbornness among our political parties and leaders in not recognizing that in our deeply ethno-racialized society, economic policy cannot be colourblind or race neutral. This approach to policymaking has had the opposite outcome to the one intended—instead of creating a race-neutral society, it has constructed an ethnically imbalanced economy.
I can point to no policy in the last four decades that contributed to African Guyanese empowerment. Whether it’s Burnham-Hoyte structural adjustment or Jagan-Jagdeo Ethnic-Statist domination or Granger’s neo-liberal thrust, African Guyanese have been left behind.
It is time we craft policy that speaks to the ethnic imbalance in our political economy–not to create an African domination but to balance the outcomes. Since the Burnham-Kwayana policies of the early independence years, no government has crafted policies which have contributed to African Guyanese empowerment.
The second contributing factor is the direct and indirect effect of the PPP’s unconscionable and deliberated transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars of common wealth to one ethnic group. The average economic gap between our two major ethnic groups has contributed to imbalance in outcomes in education, business ownership, home ownership, marketable skills and employment in the top-end professions. This in turn has affected African Guyanese confidence and their sense of their self-worth.
The third contributing factor is African Guyanese own self-destruction. Here I wish to be blunt with our people. Over the last five decades we have progressively lost our way. We surrendered our collective dignity to the dictates of party politics—we make no demands of our political leadership. Unlike other ethnic groups, African Guyanese do not put a high price on our votes and political support. We have become a Follow-the Leader race, always blindly cheerleading our own and ever ready to cuss-out the other side.
We excuse our own contributions to our underdevelopment and place all the blame on the “Indians.” Whatever wrongs the Indian Guyanese political leaderships have done to African Guyanese, Indian Guyanese people cannot and must not be ultimately held responsible for the deterioration of the African Guyanese condition.
African Guyanese have bought into the nonsense of substituting “Guyanese” for “African Guyanese.” We are the only ethnic group in Guyana which cannot see how we can be both ethnic and national. We are beaten down because of our race, while we shout that Guyana does not have a racial problem. In the end, African Guyanese leaderships take us for granted and Indian Guyanese leaderships ignore or patronize us. It is high time African Guyanese leaders, especially those who hold power, discharge their responsibilities to the group.
I ask not for special government favours for African Guyanese, but for government to facilitate policies that ensure ethnic equality. We cannot wait longer for this—it’s long overdue. It is the height of madness for us to have a government in office thanks to a majority African Guyanese vote that does not see African Guyanese empowerment as one of its principal tasks. I am not talking about African Guyanese domination, I am talking about policies that facilitate equality of opportunity and equality of outcome for African Guyanese and other ethnic groups.
African Guyanese boys drop out of school more than any group in Guyana, they are more likely to be criminalized and to be lured to a life of crime. We leave our youth to drift while the privileged Africans look after ourselves. We send a little barrel to our villages, give prizes to our few top achievers and ignore the multitude that is left behind. We fight for a little donation from the rich but don’t fight for liberating policies. We turn out in numbers to events when we hear money is sharing but suck our teeth when we hear of an educational symposium or meeting .In the end we wittingly and unwittingly accept our second-class citizenship in exchange for a “bubble session”, a little hustle and a gun.
We must ask ourselves as a collective, whether we have remained true to the promise of emancipation. Are African Guyanese as committed to the freedom journey that was reflected in 1838? Are African Guyanese committed to the economic and political empowerment of the group? Are African Guyanese committed to the affirmation of Black pride and dignity? Are we as a people, still committed to the spiritual and educational liberation of our people?
These and other questions should form the basis of a collective self-examination aimed at returning the African Guyanese nation to its roots and refocusing our eyes on true emancipation.
So, as we beat our drums and move our dancing feet and wear our African attire and pray to our gods and ancestors, we must do so in a spirit that is geared towards the renewal of our African identity and our reason for being, and working to turn back the negatives which have overtaken us and risk permanently consuming us.

More of Dr. Hinds ‘writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to [email protected]

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