Andaiye was a brave woman

Jun 03, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Andaiye who died this past week was a brave woman. A protégé of the late Dr. Walter Rodney, she faced down the oppressor’s hate and scorn and became one of Guyana’s strongest advocates of women’s rights.
As a member of the Working People’s Alliance, she was never far in the background during the party’s struggles to rid the country of Burnham, her father’s patient. Burnham’s viciousness knew no boundaries and extended even to her father.
Her father and mother were associated with the PPP before 1953 but when the split between Jagan and Burnham occurred, her father went with Burnham. And Andaiye was bold enough to admit that she thought it was because of racial loyalty.
The same label cannot be pinned on her. She had no such loyalties.
She did not speak out on public issues very often but when she spoke, it was most often when it mattered the most. Even in recent years when her health deteriorated, she still managed to speak out when she felt it was absolutely necessary.
Andaiye was quite unlike so many of her colleagues who craved attention and position. She stood on principle, regardless of how unpopular it made her.
In 2016, as part of the Walter Rodney Committee, she called on the government to publish the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney.
In a public letter, she called on the President and the Coalition Government to recognise the historical significance of the enquiry and the role it can play in bringing closure to Rodney’s death and in helping in the process of national reconciliation.
Last January, she along with Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana described the decision of the APNU+AFC government to dismiss thousands of sugar workers as “callous, foolish, ill-advised and economically unfeasible.”
She is better known of course for her letter during the criminal violence of the early 200s. In 2002, Andaiye, along with Kwayana and David Hinds opposed the use of extremist violence to pressure the PPP into constitutional reform.
First, they said that such as position was immoral since it would justify innocent people having to endure rape and terror and turn young people into child soldiers and spies in order to bring the government to its senses. They also said that the naked and inter-ethnic violence had created a climate of fare and mistrust, which was counterproductive to any objective it may had of forcing the PPP government to address power sharing. Andaiye and her pals from the WPA predicted that if the violence continued, by the time we get to power sharing, there will be no power to share, as political parties would be prisoners of violent extremists, criminals, and drug lords.
She was not afraid of going out on a limb or of confronting the government on issues of concern to women. In one case, she along with others from Red Thread questioned the purpose of an anti-trafficking-in-persons (TIP) raid in Bartica. She was not afraid to suggest that if prostitutes were persecuted, this could push sex workers underground where they would face more unsafe conditions.
When the new APNU+AFC government assumed office, she was among the first to lament the gender imbalance on state boards. This forced the government to reconstitute most of the Boards.
Andaiye was also a respected women’s advocate regionally. She was a strong supporter of sexual and reproductive rights in Guyana and had supported the legalisation of abortion in Guyana.
Her advocacy of such rights was not just national, she also had a regional perspective. In March of this year, she called on Jamaica to legalise abortion.
She was one of the earliest voices – if not the first – who drew attention to the need for contingent rights for women under the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), noting that while the CSME had allowed domestic workers to move freely across the region, the same privilege was not then accorded to their children.

Her public statements and letters, even though far too intermittent, represented a plea to the social conscience of the nation. They reminded us of what really matters in our society.
Rest in peace Andaiye! Brave voices like yours do not come along very often!