Dear Editor,
In light of the Black Lives Matter protests happening across the world, and the reevaluation, revision, and removal, of statues and other monuments that celebrate and pay homage to political figures who were notorious for advocating for, advancing, and establishing colonialism and all of its offshoots, which include enslavement and racism, I think that it is vital that the people of Guyana are also allowed to be a part of this rising global conversation and this movement that seeks to reshape and refocus elements of national pride, heroes, and the personalities from history that we pay homage to, through the removal of contentious statues and monuments.
Specifically, the statue of Victoria that currently stands in the compound of the High Court of Guyana, is a monument that is representative of Guyana’s colonialist past. Colonialism has shaped much of Guyana’s bloody history (through the suppression of the indigenous peoples, the enslavement of Africans, the indentureship of East Indians, and other forms of oppression). Additionally, the legacy of colonialism is one that remains stamped on the psyche of the Guyanese people, and continuously manifests itself in harmful ways, as a single, cursory, glance of our post-Independence history will no doubt reveal, particularly if focus is placed on the racial tensions that continue to be the bane of the Guyanese experience.
To continue to award symbols of colonialism places of honour within our society is to continue to give value to the ideals that were espoused by colonialism. It is imperative that Guyana is on the right side of the current political movements in the world, and one way of achieving this is to have the relevant authorities begin by committing to the immediate removal of the Victoria statue, which is a symbol of colonialist ideologies, which include oppression, enslavement, and genocide. The act of stripping the names and demolishing the idols of colonizers should extend to all other domains that continue to, intentionally or unintentionally, celebrate the proponents of colonization.
There are a number of Guyanese politicians, artists, writers, activists, public servants, martyrs, actors, musicians, rebels, farmers, athletes, and people from other occupations, all throughout our history, who have contributed to this country in meaningful and extremely positive ways; people whom many Guyanese remain unaware of because most of us are denied knowledge of them due to the emphasis being placed on individuals like Victoria every time her statue is seen or mentioned. It is time to refocus the attention of our people and shift the emphasis and conversation to those in our history who represent the very best of humanity.
This is something that is long overdue, and many others have already spoken about this in the past, but now is the time to take precise, decisive, action.
In closing, I reiterate that the statue of Victoria, along with other elements of colonialism that are allotted positions of prominence and power within Guyanese society, should be immediately removed/demolished, in the same way that statues of Christopher Columbus, Cecil Rhodes, Edward Colston, Leopold II, and others have been reevaluated and found to be unworthy of such positions within societies across the world.
Yours faithfully,
Subraj Singh
