The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 begins today in South Africa and all Guyanese will want our T20 team, the underdogs of the tournament, to do us proud. Most West Indian cricket fans, except for a few ungracious Trinidadians who have intimated that our boys won the inaugural Caribbean T20 Championship more by luck than by ability, will also be backing Guyana to show that the region can still compete with the best in the world.
A few weeks ago, we endorsed the suggestion that the Guyana T20 team should have a name. In this respect, we had thought that an on-line poll to choose an appropriate name might be a good idea. Nothing more was heard about the matter until the name, ‘Amazon Conquerors,’ was announced last Monday. We should not have been surprised that this was preceded by a complete absence of public consultation. Little did we suspect, however, that the powers that be would choose a name that bears scant relevance to our national identity.
At Monday’s farewell ceremony for our national cricket team, graced by the presence of the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr Frank Anthony and the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr Manniram Prashad, Dr Anthony explained, “We wanted a name that meant something and came up with Amazon Conquerors, which signified where we are from and what we are going to achieve. We are most times linked with the West Indies especially through cricket, and this is an opportunity for us to market Guyana to the world as a great eco-tourism destination with the Amazon jungle and the majestic Kaieteur Falls being major attractions. We are also going out there to conqueror the world in this tournament.”
One sincerely hopes that the players were inspired by the Sports Minister’s words of exhortation and that they will emerge victorious. But one has to wonder what they thought of the moniker bestowed on them, as they departed these shores to do battle with the likes of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Highveld Lions of South Africa, the Mumbai Indians and the South Australia Redbacks.
Let us make it clear that we have absolutely no problem with efforts to promote Guyana as an eco-tourism destination. Indeed, the exposure our team and country will get via television will be priceless. We would like to think therefore that some thought has been given to exploiting this opportunity for reaching millions of households around the world, in addition to the provision by the Guyana Tourism Authority of a number of small and large Guyana flags and several tourism packages to the team to promote ‘Destination Guyana.’ Perhaps negotiations are already ongoing for airing, during Guyana’s games, clips from the promotional DVDs with which the team has been entrusted. But we really have to ask whether the label ‘Amazon Conquerors’ does justice to our country and our national identity.
For one thing, opinion seems to be divided as to whether Guyana is, strictly speaking, an Amazon country. True, we are members of the geo-political Amazonian Cooperation Treaty Organization, whose main objective is the promotion of the sustainable development of the Amazon Basin. On the other hand, some experts would argue that Guyana is not geographically part of the Amazon Basin, which is the area drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. And while it is accepted that our rainforest shares key characteristics with the massive Amazonian rainforest, they would also argue that it is more accurately, Amazon-type rainforest that is part of the ancient and richly bio-diverse Guiana Shield.
Let us put aside, however, such arcane distinctions and consider what the average foreigner thinks when the word ‘Amazon’ is uttered: the mighty river undoubtedly; the magical Amazon rainforest too; perhaps fantasies related to formidable female warriors; maybe even Brazil. But Guyana, Guyanese, Kaieteur Falls and, er, cricket? Hmm, very doubtful.
We can well understand the reasoning behind trying to differentiate our tourism product from the sun, sea and sand of our sister Caribbean states. After all, what we offer is far removed from and perhaps potentially more uplifting than what our West Indian neighbours have. Also, we are something of an anomaly on the South American continent and even though we are linked by history, culture and cricket to the English-speaking Caribbean, we should of course do all that we can to emphasise our unique attributes, attractions and identity.
But in defining ourselves as ‘Amazon Conquerors,’ we run the risk of piggybacking on another name, another culture, to the extent that we deny who we really are. We cannot simply adopt a new, artificial identity at the risk of having others think of us as intrepid explorers of an exotic part of Brazil, or even as members of an extended Brazilian family, with due respect to Brazil and those who admire things Brazilian. Why, we already seem unsure as to whether the Georgetown-Lethem road and the Takutu Bridge are the route to or from Brazil. Let us not add to our geo-cultural confusion through muddled thinking and misplaced marketing strategies. As an exercise in branding, we could surely have done better, with more thought and imagination.
Nevertheless, we wish our Guyana team all success and glory. May they fight like Jaguars and soar like Harpy Eagles. And may the Golden Arrowhead fly high in South Africa.
