Dear Editor,
Culture was again at the centre of the 2015 Guyana Cultural Association (GCA) New York annual Symposium held at Empire College in Brooklyn, New York.
This community of Guyanese scholars, educators and nationals alike assemble every year in a continuum which demonstrates clearly that culture survives away from its natural habitat.
According to most philosophers, culture represents values, norms and traditions that enriches our lives, affects how we think, interact, behave and make judgments. More importantly, it distinguishes us from others in the world. This allowed many Guyanese, myself included, to be distinguished from Americans of African descent via accents, pronunciations and so forth.
It is ironic that as Guyanese nationals in the diaspora strive to hold on to that which nourishes and gives us an identity in the world, some Guyanese at home are given to doing the opposite. This brings me to the central theme in Dr Juliet Emmanuel’s presentation: ‘Who are we: Are we losing a sense of Self?’
It is no secret that some sections of the Guyanese community are given to celebrating American holidays and celebrations. According to the Heritage Cycle from Simon Thurley, values form the core of our culture. Our values are the social principles, goals or standards accepted by society. This established behaviour is practised by one generation and passed on to future generations. This was the norm in Guyanese society. However, in recent years, with the advent of television, and I daresay, American television in particular, many Guyanese seem to have clearly lost a sense of self and national pride.
This manifests itself in the desire to embrace alien celebrations like Halloween and Thanksgiving, observances and holidays celebrated in America. Pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses and trick-or-treating are all alien to Guyanese cultural practices. Thanksgiving, celebrated on every fourth Thursday in November is a day when Americans give thanks for all their blessings while they pay homage to the Pilgrims.
The question is, what are Guyanese observing when they choose to adopt these two celebrations? It must also be noted that Canada does celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday on the third Monday in October, albeit with less pomp.
It is worth mentioning that some values held by people in the United States are not shared by people in other cultures. Americans revere their individualism which distinguishes them in the world. This is deliberate. Some of those inescapable differences are driving and walking on the right side of the road. Others are prevalent in their spelling and pronunciation and their holidays. For instance, Easter is a regular Sunday. In Europe and the English-speaking colonies, Guyana included, Easter is a four-day weekend starting with Good Friday and ending with Easter Monday and kite-flying.
Another thing that struck me is the use of the term ‘first lady’ as it relates to the wife of the Guyanese president. This expression is used exclusively by Americans when they refer to the wife of their president. This was the reality until Guyanese got exposed to American television and adopted the phrase. One could ask the question, who exactly is your president, Barack Obama or David Granger? To whom do you have a cultural allegiance, Guyana or America?
My colleague and fellow political analyst and journalist Lloyd Braithwaite says this confusion can be traced back to remittances. One argument suggests that Guyanese see their allegiance to America through remittances as the key to their livelihood. Hence, we find the misplaced loyalty.
At the cultural forum, philosophy scholar Lin-Jay Harry Vogelzon in his presentation posited a challenge to cultural leadership in Guyana. He said they need to examine what ideas are now taking over in society and create a philosophy on how to recapture the cultural landscape based on its indigenous practices: food, rituals, beliefs, traditions, behaviours ‒ anything by which you can be identified. This giant amalgamation of various realms of human existence called culture extends to the inner self of a person identifying them as a member of society with these distinct features. This is important because it says who we are in the world; identified by practising a set of values and behaviours indigenous to our culture. In so doing, our communities and nation gain their character and personality.
When a nation starts celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving, replete with turkey and cranberry sauce, followed by talk of “black Friday” in relation to the American free market commerce, that nation has lost its way. When folks are invoking phrases like “summer holidays” to replace the traditional “August” holidays and “first lady” when the wife of a president was simply “Mrs Granger” or “Jagdeo” the cultural confusion smacks of the simulation of a gigantic fantasy; living in Guyana with an American mindset as though it is the latest trend. This is nothing more than a descent into cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is nothing more than adopting or stealing behaviour and customs from another culture. Social scientists say this is often done without any real understanding of why. Converting culturally significant practices and beliefs into meaningless pop-culture is harmful because it is a by-product of imperialism; a lesser culture subordinating itself to an imperial presence. Groups of people and territories extract everything from a dominant culture, good or bad, because it appears to be superior to theirs.
Apart from this, cultural appropriation is not an acceptable way to honour, respect or appreciate one’s own culture. When people are left to their own devices they will fill a void with anything that dominates their environment. European territories have gone out of their way to limit the amount of American programming that is shown on their television. This they claim is to preserve their own culture from one that can be so overwhelming.
For Guyana, the leadership must find innovative ways to reclaim their population from a dominant media; how they can absorb from outside without having to surrender what is their own; learning to cherish and revere what is their own.
America will celebrate Thanksgiving here next week. Will Guyana be doing the same? Is it true that St Patrick’s Day is not too far behind? While I am about it, invoking the term ‘summer’ in a country that has an endless summer is more than redundant. Besides, these idle gestures do not advance or enhance a culture, they merely leave you subordinate to a dominant culture and relegated to a systematic inferior status.
Guyanese culture is far too superior for that!
Yours faithfully,
M Angela Massiah
Print/broadcast journalist
