Martin Carter: Iconoclastic notes on his imperialist saturation

Feb 28, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – There are names in Guyanese history that come in for constant criticism and it continues non-stop. Who writes history determines what goes into history. We will continue to read about the faults of Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham, Desmond Hoyte, etc.
We will see from time to time, people reminding us that Mohamed Shahabudeen, Sir Shridath Ramphal, Vincent Teekah, Ranji Chandisingh were once associated with Forbes Burnham. We will read that Jagan once gave critical support to Burnham’s government. The reminders will go on.
It is not only a case of who writes history, it is about which class writes it. The scholars of former European colonies have one thing in common. They agree that history and culture were defined by the Europeans and they handed down to us a dictionary of their own narratives not a recording of our own history.
The colonial empires left us with their understanding of who we were and we accepted their definition of us. Remember Ziggy Marley’s song – “Black my story not his-tory.” In Guyana, a welcomed version of that pronouncement should be “Indianise my story, not his-tory.”
Guyana’s historiography has treated one of its questionable achievers with an angelic pen. The story is very far from this glossy canvas. The reason for the embellishment of Martin Carter is because his life has been compiled by members of the class to which he belonged – the Creole middle class (CMC).
There is no one in Guyanese history that the CMC deifies more than Martin Carter. The sordid politics of Carter is obfuscated. His racially oriented and class-based socialisation is completely erased. His brilliant poetry is selected as the criterion on which he must be judged. So while the chastisement of who should not have associated with Burnham plays on, Carter’s closeness to Burnham is never mentioned. The CMC eulogisers are careful to erase this aspect of Carter’s life.
In 1956, the PPP under Cheddi and Janet Jagan agreed to the suspension of Carter for being a communist extremist. In 1952, Carter was part of a group that picketed Princess Alice, using strong anti-British slogans. During the May Day celebrations in 1953, Carter held a banner of the dictator of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, (for a good defense of Jagan against persons like Carter see, Jay Mandle, “Cheddi Jagan and the Ultra-Left in Guyana”).
But this gentleman that was supposed to be an overzealous radical communist turned out to be a darling of the colonialist and imperialist circles in Guyana. Here is a list of the ironic life of Carter.
1 – The same communist, immediately after being pushed out of the PPP, became an employee with the British Government’s Council’s Office in Guyana. It is either that the colonial office knew Carter was a bogus communist or Carter was a spy for the colonial government.
2 – Carter, three years later, became the spokesman for the largest imperialist company in the Caribbean – Bookers. It is either Bookers knew Carter was a bogus communist or was a spy for the colonial office. The question remains for future scholars to research. Why would a man who was a supporter of Stalin and picketed a visiting British princess, and was more extremist than Cheddi Jagan be accepted as an employee with the British government?
The ultra-leftist group that left the PPP in 1956 also consisted of Eusi Kwayana, known at the time as Sydney King. But King was seen as a purer anti-colonial fighter than Carter and the colonial government and Bookers would not have spoken with King much less employ him. If Carter was not a fake Marxist or a spy, then his colour and ethnicity were the crucial factor for Bookers and the British Council.
3 – He became a minister in the Burnham government that came to power in a massively rigged election in 1968. For a man who proclaimed he was Marxist since 1950, he was a minister in what, at the time, was the most pro-American, pro-western and pro-capitalist government in the Caribbean.
4 – He travelled to the UN to address it as Burnham’s minister at a time when the world knew Burnham had rigged the 1968 election.
5 – In one of the most twisted tale of ironic politics, after leaving the Burnham regime, he went back to Bookers, no doubt welcomed by the white managers.
6 – Carter’s entire life after politics did not feature socialisation with the ordinary folks. He was revered by the CMC and that was the class he hobnobbed with. My office was not too far from his at UG. I asked him to justify his Burnham days. He mumbled some nonsense. Carter was a brilliant poet but his biography must include the colonials’ love for him and his unashamed class attachments.

(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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