Since the 1970s Guyana’s population has been rapidly plummeting, both elites and the working class have been leaving in droves. The impact of this mass exodus has left the country shattered. We all know that Guyana is abundant in resources but we no longer have the skills to manage these resources; the sugar industry is the perfect example.
Economically speaking, Guyana is still playing catch up as far as sugar is concerned. Demerara Sugar is a light brown, partially refined, large-grained, somewhat crunchy, raw sugar. It got its name from the fields of this very county, Demerara in Guyana.
Independent Guyana missed the opportunity of trade-marking the name. So ‘Demerara’ sugar is now produced in Australia, Mexico, India and other countries.
Not to stray too far from the topic, but the above paragraph is a vital point. Apart from losing our image as a top sugar-producing country, we are losing our identities.
Again I say it: we are losing our identities and this should be a wakeup call. It seems as though our culture left with our Diaspora, starting in the seventies. Think about it! At the end of this month is Halloween and some Guyanese—living right here—are already saving to buy costumes to celebrate this ‘northern’ holiday. Something that should be taboo to most of us will soon be the norm.
Halloween, according to History.com “is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honour all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween.”
It is also the midpoint of the Autumn (Fall) season, when the leaves die and fall off the trees in preparation for Winter.
While Guyana is a land of eternal Summer, we have no Winter and certainly no Fall.
But what really grinds my gears is the fact that we are losing and mocking our language. Our language: Guyanese-based Creolese and even our standard writing language. Our official language of business and education is Standard English. We write in the Queen’s English and we talk business in her tongue. But I see Guyanese spelling words thus: “organization”, “color” and “center”! I feel like pelting an Oxford dictionary at them, My Lord!
Webster’s should be off the Guyanese market, it is not Standard English and computers aren’t an excuse, I set my language preference to English (Caribbean).
Another sad thing in our language is the covering up of our dialects. That is how we speak. No one in the world is saying our dialect is awful except Guyanese. Trinidadians and Jamaicans are automatically recognised by their dialects and they wouldn’t dare change a thing but as soon as we step on to the platform of Cheddi Jagan International, “What’s up bai” turns into “’Ello Sir, ‘Ow are you” It sounds awful when you mix the two.
It is our way of talking and we recognise our vocabulary, it is unique to us and no one should discourage us from speaking the way our culture demands us to.
Guyanese: Who am I? Who are you? What are we? And where do we stand as a people? (Jairo Rodrigues)
