Dear Editor,
Recent public events have opened discussions of ‘cultural imperialism’ in Guyana.
Dr Prem Misir in a letter in the Guyana Chronicle of July 4 (and published previously) appeals for an understanding of the context of President Jagdeo’s call for Guyanese not to succumb to “Western defintions of child abuse.”
This letter was a response to a criticism of President Jagdeo’s position published in Stabroek News: (http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/letters/04/13/what-is-a-western-definition-of-child-abuse/
The President made his comment at an event organised by the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha to promote child protection.
Stabroek News reported on Tuesday, June 29, that Mr Edghill, Chairperson of the ERC and member of the Inter Religious Organisation listed several reasons for the IRO condemnation of the SASOD Film Festival. He reportedly said that Guyanese should not “subscribe to the Western culture. We cannot allow the Western world to come and foist their lifestyles and thinking on to us.”
History shows how colonialism and invasions have sought to destroy cultures and peoples, whether by damaging places of worship, burning libraries or forcing people to change their religion. In Guyana, Amerindian children were beaten when they spoke their own language in school. Hindu and Muslim people had to convert to Christianity if they wanted to get ‘jobs.’ Some people who migrated to North America had to shorten their names to ‘American’ sounding names. Cultural imperialism exists in other forms – in subtle ways in which, for example, Bolly-wood seems to be the identification of what is Indian and what is not Indian. Dr Misir (and President Jagdeo) and Mr Edghill and many of us have valid concerns about cultural imperialism, and we have done what we can to change dress codes (Burnham’s shirtjac) and to preserve cultural traditions.
Dr Misir, however, suggests that there are some Western values which might be okay to use. And we do that as it suits us. So some of us have reverted to the colonial respectability of designer suits and ties, for example.
When it comes to beating children, we apparently have these honourable cultural practices which suggest that we are not capable of rejecting violence towards those we are to love the most. We forget that it was the colonialists who enslaved children and left the beating of children in the law books. It is fascinating how many Guyanese enjoying life in North America and Europe yearn for the paradise which they left behind where children could be beaten without impunity and gay and lesbian people are less visible.
Cultural imperialism also includes the shutting up of people and the prevention of the telling of stories and recording of alternative histories. The SASOD Film Festival included stories from 14 countries, the majority of them not Western.
African and Indian scholars have advocated that it is homophobia and not the acceptance of people of different sexual orientation and gender identity that is the colonial/Western imposition on the colonies. Recent attempts by sections of the American religious community to influence the Uganda ‘death to homosexuals’ bill is part of this strain of colonialism.
The use of the word ‘evil’ is one of the ways in which cultural imperialists sought to define what they did not know about, or what they refused to engage with.
The Inter Religious Orga-nisation uses state resources to try to silence SASOD (they are not homophobic they say), but worse, also to condemn and penalise Sidewalk Cafe.
How dare the Sidewalk Cafe give a voice and let people challenge what they have been told about gay and lesbian people? And to muster up rage, let us invoke the abuse of children and accuse Sidewalk and SASOD.
One of the joys of the SASOD Film Festival, is that different views are discussed through the films and in the audience. We have had people of faith there; they have expressed disagreement and have argued and debated, but in an atmosphere which does not need to resort to the language of ‘child abuse and paedophilia’ and ‘pornography’ to shut up and silence, because everyone’s humanity is respected. We have people walk out of some films because they thought the films were boring, or in one case, promoted strongly anti-abortion views.
One retired St Lucian trade unionist and activist, who sat outside the last night of the film festival, spoke of his horror that Guyana seems to be a place where it is not possible to debate or discuss without humiliating or condemning. He encouraged the SASOD members to articulate a vision for Guyana which he finds depressingly absent in any public discussion. This conversation would not have happened without the IRO condemnation of the Film Festival.
In the early days of Help & Shelter’s work we were cautioned especially about ‘Indian culture,’ that it would be hopeless to do anything with ‘Indian’ communities. Help & Shelter’s founders were described as godless. Some Christian people used the sanctity of marriage and culture to say that women who were beaten should pray and stay. We were expected to stay away from talking to Muslims. It was believed that being human in Guyana was different for women and children. But the human spirit triumphed as it always does, and there are many people who rejected those ideas and refused to sustain those cultural perceptions. The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha is the most recent of a list of faith-based organisations which refused to believe that those cultural values of abuse had to be tolerated.
There are many Guyanese who have stopped beating their children and who have not lost their families as a result. There is no need for sophisticated nuances and concerns about who did the definition – the people know their own experiences as children.
There are Guyanese who are keen to imagine a different place where children are not abused in any fashion and where beating is not used to discipline. There are Guyanese who long for a place where people can express their views without being humiliated and condemned and criminalised. These Guyanese are rejecting the cultural imperialist values which assume that Guyanese cannot think for themselves and cannot overcome the oppression which we were taught, terrorised or whipped into believing is supposed to be part of our humanity.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
