Some Afro-Guyanese considerations

Achievement, identity, then what?

On this the 170th Anniversary of the Full-Freedom Emancipation (1838) of African slaves in the Guiana colony, please do not conclude that today’s approach is derived from my occasional laziness.

No such thinking on my part. Rather, I’ve chosen to present four excerpts of fuller presentations by prominent respected Afro-Guyanese leaders, scholars, analysts for consideration by today’s celebrants of African descent. The quotes might not capture or reflect the context of the larger discussions, but they are most likely to provoke serious reflection by many.

If that alone is achieved my minimal contribution to today’s Freedom Day observance would have been worth the time and sharing.
First quote is from the late President Desmond Hoyte in an address titled: “The African Diaspora – the problem of self-esteem”.

“But consider too, that long before the time of the Slave Trade, there was an African Presence in the New World, as Ivan Van Sertima so persuasively argues in they came before Columbus, many crops which we now take for granted in Latin America and the Caribbean, like cotton, the banana, the gourd, the yam, were brought by Africans who visited this region long before Columbus.

This early African presence in America is of importance…not only to African history but to the history of world civilizations…”
“It is crucial to the psychological well-being of people of African descent and to the quality of their future contribution to world development, that their education should be firmly rooted within the context of a full appreciation of the evolution of Africa and its magnificent contribution to the process of civilization and human development”

Point taken Mr. Hoyte, but does this education, realization, discovery, appreciation do anything long term for Africans really? I return to this after “Discovery and achievement” a few paragraphs hence.

Eusi Kwayana, in discussing the “foundation principles” of ACDA, advises:
“It is the leadership function of race-based organizations to ignore the parties, yes, the parties they may be even supporting, and declare whether they will oppose violence, ghetto violence or container violence, to declare whether their policy is to live and let others live; to declare whether they will meet representatives of other races to send out joint peace vibrations to the society”.

As usual Kwayana is profound in the simple significance of his declaration. ACDA has often stood alone on its position regarding elections. But on violence? And do not the local political parties submerge or compromise initiatives by any other representative groups?
Militarist/Scholar David Granger, in an address carried by the New Nation in September 1998 tells us that:
“These were the (African) folk who placed their full faith in a European system of values – Christian worship, rule of law, representative government; merit–based social mobility; and attainment of all the benefits of Western civilization.

When, repeatedly, these results did not materialize, estrangement from those mainstream values, which still existed in form but not in substance set in. What happened in history, ever so slowly, was the alienation of the African – Guyanese.”

Granger provided the socio-historical context of cultural origins and post-slavery within Africa that “alienation” developed. What a “beautiful” incisive mood for debate: “that all those European values and standards formerly rejected would serve all Guyana well today”.

Finally, Dr. Kenneth King also writing ten years ago: “African Guyanese, per capita, possess the lowest acreages of transported land in this country. Perhaps of the greatest significance is evidence which strongly indicates that the rate of functional illiteracy among African Guyanese is inordinately high.”

He went on to opine that if the “enormous and debilitating plight” of Afro-Guyanese was not overcome, “the development of the entire Guyanese nation would be much retarded”. I would suggest that one decade later (now), through no one group’s backwardness, through whatever causes, should be singled out, research might reveal that Afro-Guyanese are not suffering more than other deprived groups. Discuss!
Post-discovery and
achievement

So we discover the might of original achievement by the African – continent and its products which peopled the world. We discover the wonders the African World Diaspora bequeathed to others, who exploited and claimed proprietary ownership of those achievements, then what? Just how did others – Caucasian whites, Asian yellow and brown – appropriate everything African, from whence we all began? Should I applaud the wicked skills of these usurpers over the centuries!

Check this sampling from my favourite Source Book: Jesus Christ had to be of African roots. Buddha was Africoid in make-up, as were Fu-Hsi of China, Mohamed the prophet of Islam and Quetzlcoatl of Mexico. The father of medicine, Imhotep was Egyptian/African. Philosophy from Ancient Greece was stolen from Ancient Egypt; Western Civilisation itself is founded on Black African civilizations and the original Jews and Christians were Black People.
Squirm and be outraged all (or some of) you want! At the above. Try to debunk all or any of the above and a debate is on. My everlasting wonderment up to today is – What do African-descended folks do after learning of all that? A reflective Emancipation Day to all.

Ponder…..
Cocaine in Colombian Submarines off Mexico. Guyanese smuggling Towa-towas to the USA. The wonderful world of theft and crime.
Postponed: The real trade unions in Guyana.
Okay so I won’t take cocaine or bows and arrows to any Carifesta venue or event, but no alcoholic beverage?
Dear Prime Minister, Dear Minister Benn: I hereby volunteer to offer my layman’s expertise regarding the management of your buses, before and when they arrive.

So will (a chastened) CN Sharma TV6 be on in two weeks time?
Repair the schools now; accept that full–scale pavement vending is back then realise that Carifesta visitors will either like the criminal chaos of Stabroek and nearby Water Street – or be scared stiff!

‘Til Next Week!

Comments?
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