This is not mere political banter; this is a deliberate attempt to misrepresent history

Sep 02, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

As a trade unionist and as a Guyanese, I respect without reservation the constitutional right of every citizen to freedom of political association. That includes the right to support the political party of one’s choice. This is a right enshrined in our Constitution, and one which every Guyanese must both claim and respect. But what I cannot, and will not, accept is when individuals in high office abuse that right as cover to denigrate the African race, distort its proud history, and insult the very legacy upon which this nation stands.

It is in this context that I take serious umbrage to Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s disgraceful statement that Cuffy, Guyana’s national hero, was a “proud house slave” — and that African Guyanese who support the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) are like Cuffy. This is not mere political banter; this is a deliberate attempt to misrepresent history, to belittle the African experience, and to justify the PPP’s ongoing policy of marginalisation and discrimination against African Guyanese. Nandlall’s ‘eyes pass the African race.’

Let me say this to Nandlall in no uncertain terms: Cuffy was no proud house slave. Cuffy was a proud African. He was captured on the shores of Africa, subjected to the inhumane horrors of the Middle Passage, and enslaved in Guyana. He survived years of the most brutal and dehumanising system known to mankind.

He laboured under conditions no human being should endure, yet he resisted. And in 1763, he led the first major slave revolt in this country and the Slave Society. The Berbice Revolution (1763) predates the Haitian Revolution (1794). It was a revolution to reclaim dignity, humanity, and freedom for his people. That is not the legacy of a “house slave.” That is the record of a freedom fighter, a visionary, and a leader whose example remains etched in our national consciousness.

So, I challenge Nandlall: identify one African Guyanese in the PPP with a comparable record of sacrifice, bravery, and leadership for the dignity of their people. Show this nation two instances where their deeds mirrored Cuffy’s spirit — not just in skin colour, but in courage, vision, and revolutionary commitment to justice. Show us!

And let me make it very clear: Your apology, Anil Nandlall, is not accepted. It is hollow, insincere, and part of a pattern of reckless rhetoric and contempt for African Guyanese that have come to characterise you as a leader in this society.

Let me remind this nation, this is the same Anil Nandlall who, at an Arrival Day event, sought to denigrate Africans by boasting of the “kings and queens” status of Indo-Guyanese, while sneering at the socioeconomic conditions of Africans. Conditions that the PPP through its policies, programmes and disrespect for the African race, as a people, have placed us.

Think Mocha Arcadia, extrajudicial killings, job loss in the public sector, mistreatment of bauxite workers, the dismantling of the Bauxite Workers Pension Plan, then worth in the excess of $2.5 Billion, the single largest pool of money owned by the African workers that has caused me to refer to the PPP’s policy as Economic Genocide.

This is the same Nandlall whose hands are not clean when it comes to the coveting of African-owned lands, lands purchased by freed Africans in the immediate post-emancipation period. These are lands our ancestors- like my forefather Cudjoe McPherson who bought Kingelly in 1851- sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to secure, only now to be eyed by the powerful with legal manoeuvres.

McPherson’s Transport dated July 1851 for the village of Kingelly West Coast Berbice, is still in the possession of his family, and stands as testament of lands that were never sold, leased, or titled to anyone.

It is the same Nandlall who, as Attorney General, continues to frustrate workers’ organisations — like the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC)—by refusing to respect the 2024 court directive on union dues, dues which sustain the very organisations that protect workers, the majority of whom are African Guyanese.

And it is the same Nandlall whose utterances today continue a coordinated PPP strategy. One we have seen before in the lewdness of Prime Minister Mark Phillips and party supporter Lenno Craig to insult and demean African Guyanese. These are not isolated slips of the tongue; they are deliberate, systematic efforts to push Africans to the margins of society and justify their exclusion.

Guyana must understand this for what it is: an attack not only on African Guyanese, but on the moral foundation of our society. If those entrusted with the Constitution and the law have such contempt for our shared history and dignity, what future are we building?

Enough is enough. We must draw the line. We must tell those in power, particularly those who hold the high office of Attorney General, that respect for all Guyanese is non-negotiable. We must demand that our leaders measure their words, their tone, and their actions against the responsibility they carry to unify, not divide.

Cuffy’s legacy is not up for distortion. His struggle was not in vain. And no Anil Nandlall, no matter his office, will be allowed to rewrite that proud African chapter of Guyana’s history.

Regards,
Lincoln Lewis

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• African race, History, Lincoln Lewis, misrepresent

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