Injecting Afro-centric ideology into Guyanese politics is a disservice to all Guyanese

Aug 22, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Ever since its displacement from political power, PNC leaders and supporters embarked on a campaign to discredit the PPP/C as an Indo-party. Intent on promoting divisiveness, they constantly seek to propagandize Afro-Guyanese, misleading them into believing that they would be better served under a PNC government. Emphasizing Afrocentrism and/or racism, they fail hopelessly to substantiate any claim of Indo-centrism, especially since no such ideology exists, not in nation states, or as a political or religious philosophy. Just ask the Afro-centrists to provide citations of the ideology of “Indo-centrism,” and they would most likely stutter, distort, or bamboozle their way out of the question.

Anyone with some awareness of the political philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, would readily realize that these remarkable leaders championed inclusion and advocated against divisiveness and racism. In case the reader harbors doubts about associating Mandela and King with Gandhi, then it would be of benefit to examine Gandhi’s fight against oppression and discrimination in South Africa, and Mandela’s and King’s expressions of admiration for Gandhi – the former referring to Gandhi as the “sacred warrior,” and the latter’s dedication of an entire Palm Sunday sermon to Gandhi.

If Guyanese Afro-centrist proponents deny their advocation of indifference and divisiveness, then let them explain if, and how, they subscribe to, or uphold the political philosophies of inclusion promoted by Gandhi, Mandela, and King, three renowned leaders who challenged and reshaped White domination the world over. Failing this, let them explain the origin of their Afro-centric ideology and how it applies to Guyanese society and the politics of racism. Neither Gandhi, Mandela, nor King advocated for any type of ‘centrism.’ They advocated and practiced the political philosophy of inclusion, similar to that practiced by today’s PPP/C government, with President Irfaan in the forefront, openly demonstrating acceptance of Guyanese of all races and ethnicities.

As Dr. Randolph Persaud eloquently explained in a newspaper article a few days ago, Afro-centrism emerged out of the advocacy and politicking of Marcus Garvey’s Pan Africanism, and the written works and lectures of W. E. B. Dubois, and George Padmore, among others. Later, popularized by Molefi Asante and Chiekh Diop, African American academicians utilized the Afro-centric approach primarily to challenge White racist ideology and Anglo explications of African American history, and the continued subjugation, oppression, and discrimination of African Americans.

Hence, injecting Afro-centric ideology into Guyana’s politics is a disservice to Guyanese of all races, including Afro-Guyanese. Why? Afro-Caribbean scholars and writers promoted the Afro-centric ideology to explain the realities of Africans outside Africa – African realities from the perspectives of Africans, and not from the biased and distorted views of Whites. As Walter Rodney pointed out in his essay, ‘The Grounding with my Brothers’, “It was the white plantation owner who produced a number of pseudo-scientific and theological theories attesting to the inferiority of the black man.” Rodney’s words also ring true for Indian indentured whom the Whites considered inferior as well.

No one can deny the atrocities White colonizers committed against Africans in Guiana. Colonizers not only inflicted harsh penalties on Africans, but stripped them of their names, beliefs, indigenous cultures, and identities, while indoctrinating and proselytizing them to view Whites, and everything white, as good, and everything black as bad, or evil.

Colonizers succeeded in transforming the Africans mainly because of the heterogeneous nature of the slave population. Captured and sold from among diverse African groups, slaves did not constitute a homogeneous group, sharing a common language, system of belief, culture or identity, characteristics which would have militated against conversion. This is not to overlook the fact that some slave did rebel.

To lay blame then on today’s Indo-Guyanese for the atrocities endured by Africans, and the formulation of today’s Afro-Guyanese belief structures, socio-economic relations, and identity, is simply foolhardy, and a deliberate attempt to promote divisiveness and race/ethnic hostilities. Indentured Indians suffered many of the same cruelties White colonizers meted out to Africans, but they tenaciously clung to their ancestral identity, language, culture, and beliefs in Hinduism and Islam. In this regard, their cultural homogeneity assisted in their resistance to conversion, and subscription to Anglo-Saxon values and social-cultural characteristics.

Given Guyana’s history, no one can underplay, or deny Indo-Guyanese contributions to well-being of emancipated Afro-Guyanese and their descendants. Having left the sugar plantations, the majority of emancipated Africans and their descendants moved to live along Guyana’s coastal villages. From their new residential locations, many turned to alternative modes of survival, including, teachers, nurses, dispensers, post-masters, clerical workers, civil servants, railway workers, road workers, policemen, dock workers, Christian ministers etc. The few who remained on the plantation served as carpenters, black-smiths, engineers, boat builders, and only a handful worked in the sugar cane-fields.

Except for the sugarcane-field laborers, all of the occupations staffed by Afro-Guyanese were financed from surplus income generated from the exploitation of Indo-Guyanese sugar plantation laborers. In addition, while working on the plantation, Indo-Guyanese also became the primary producers of rice, a daily food staple of Afro and Indo-Guyanese.

While it is clear from the above that Indo-Guyanese have contributed to the well-being of Afro-Guyanese, today’s Afro and Indo Guyanese existences reflect that of an interdependent reciprocity, a reciprocity facilitated and promoted by the PPP/C government, one that takes into consideration the wellbeing and upliftment of all Guyanese, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or political allegiance.

As President Irfaan, Vice president Jagdeo, and Prime Minister Mark Phillips have demonstrated, and continue to demonstrate, there is accommodation for all, and inclusion of all, and no Afro-centric, or racist ideology, would deter, or detract from the building of a just society, a unified Guyana.

Regards,

Narayan Persaud, PhD

Professor Emeritus

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• Emeritus, Guyanese, Narayan Persaud, PhD, Professor

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