Writing about ethnic groups in Guyana: The facts

Dec 14, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – The contents of the paragraphs below took the form of a letter sent to the Stabroek News (SN). It was my response to a missive I saw in the newspaper in which Akola Thompson had made some comments on me.
Surely, to clarify comments made on my output by Ms. Thompson, I had to send my notes to the newspaper where they originated. To date my letter has not been published. What is sickening and morally horrible is that none of the so-called decent people who write often in the newspapers about this or that minister or the wrong things the government is doing is going to ask SN for an explanation on my right to reply. Here now is the original response.
I reject the theory that Guyana has inherent anti-Blackness. On the contrary, for reasons of argumentative provocation, one could say anti-Indianess instead. I am referring to Akola Thompson’s letter (Thursday, December 9) in which she mentioned some thoughts of mine.
I am much older and would never deter a young person like Ms. Thompson from expressing her feelings. It is for this reason I was very circumspect in my observations. By Black, I think she means African people. For me, anti-Blackness means anti-dark skinness.
Ms. Thompson is too young to know the humiliation Indians have gone through in this country from the time they had to fight for the right to vote in the early 20th century to systematic discrimination by the Burnham regime to systematic violent attacks from 1992 to September 2020.
My advice to Ms. Thompson is that she would be better able to shape her presentations by doing research. If any slogan is relevant in this country it is this – “Indian Lives Matter.” Indians have borne the brunt of cultural, racial and religious discrimination for over 100 years. Dark-skinned Indians suffered all three types of humiliation plus colour snubbing.
If Ms. Thompson had my complexion and went to UG in the days when UG was a recipient of privileged students, then she wouldn’t write about anti-Blackness but anti-dark skinness. What I would concede is that Africans have borne the brunt of economic and financial discrimination in the immediate post-emancipation period.
I cannot keep emphasising to Ms. Thompson that she must do her research. Indian and Portuguese economic and financial power was virtually decapitated from 1968 until 1989 when President Hoyte opened up the economy. There was no Indian rich peasantry and rural Indian petty bourgeoisie after 1974.
You did have an Indian urban middle class but they were found among private professionals. I would suggest that Thompson read two very well done books on the near erasure of Indian money power under President Burnham – John Gafar, “Guyana: From State Control to Free Markets,” and Ramesh Gampat, “Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990.”
What people need to know is that Indian money that has been flowing in Guyana since 1989 does not belong exclusively to local Indians but those who went away after 1970. A perfect example is the Beharry family that earned its money from the US during the time Burnham was miniaturising Indian businesses in Guyana.
Let me remind Ms. Thompson that there are few other Indians in the history of Guyana that have embraced the passion of the cause of removing disadvantages of African-Guyanese than me. She should read my research papers on that topic when I lectured at UG. But my research also shows me that Indians have been brutalised more intensively in Guyana than Africans. I point her to my essay, “African extremism in an Age of Political Decay” in Cedric Grant & Mark Kirton (eds), “Governance, Conflict Analysis, and Conflict Resolution.”
I don’t think Ms. Thompson at her young age wants to know what I know about the Buxton mayhem, 2002-2006. No Indian mind would entertain the horrible anti-African racist thoughts that went through the anti-Indian minds of those Buxton-based gunmen.
They used to have history and politics classes and I would be sued for libel if I tell you who would creep into Buxton and lecture to those gunmen. Those classes resulted in widespread murders of Indian people. Trust me Ms. Thompson I know what went on in Buxton.
Finally, it is a total caricature in Guyana’s sociology to apply Black Lives Matter to Guyana. Historically, Black Guyanese have been in charge of every aspect of state functionalism including the sugar industry under the PNC from 1968 to 1992 and then from 2015-2020. As a Black Guyanese, Ms. Thompson, tell me what you know about state discrimination against Indian people in their own country?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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