Dear Editor,
I notice that Mr Vincent Alexander (SN 9-22-20 `Let the Beacon be of the Truth’) has cited me in a disagreement he has with an “Eyewitness” column in the Guyana Times. He asked that since I am associated with that newspaper (as a consultant) I should acknowledge that he has long “argued that Guyana is a plural society in conflict and needs attention.” And I so acknowledge now – as I did when I initiated and participated in a series of discussions on the subject on GTimes’ affiliate TVG that included himself, David Hinds, Eric Phillips, Lincoln Lewis, Nigel Hughes with Mr Neaz Subhan as host.
I also agree with Vincent that “much which is purported as dialogue is but senseless screaming at each other” but sadly I find him “screaming” very loudly lately. He has now become a “memory warrior”, zealously seeking to impose a single, foundational, historical African “TRUTH” (in caps) while delegitimizing the views of all other ethnic views, especially Indian’s and Indigenous People’s’. Along with his teleological, “fit for purpose”, focus, this is certain to aggravate political instability since it is so exclusionary.
I quote from my column in GT of last Sunday to signal to Vincent my continuing commitment to serious dialogue: “Last week, David Hinds informed me he had formed a new organization, “Society for African-Guyanese Empowerment” (SAGE), and invited me to a panel discussion on “Race, Power and Peaceful Co-existence in Guyana” with himself and Vincent Alexander. I told him that, unfortunately, I couldn’t make it, since I had a prior commitment on another Webinar (on the same theme, not so coincidentally) but I was committed to a “national conversation” on race.
“I later viewed the Webinar and saw that David and Vincent had been joined by Eric Phillips of ACDA. There was much that I agreed with in the ensuing discussion, but, unfortunately, just as much that I disagreed with. It was as good an illustration of the “African- Guyanese Narrative” that diverges so significantly from the Indian-Guyanese and Indigenous Peoples’ narratives. It only re-emphasised the need for that “National Conversation”, which Nigel Hughes had broached to me more than a year ago, but which ironically never came off because of the quickened political crisis it was supposed to help head off. We have to weave a “Guyanese Narrative” that equitably includes our famed “six peoples”.
“In 1993, I noted, “Race and racism, as we know them today, are very modern constructs arising out of a European discourse that ran parallel with the European conquest of the rest of the world, and especially with their justification of African slavery. Other “races”, like Indians and Chinese, were fitted by Europeans within this White-Black dipole along the Christian “Great Chain of Being” ranging from God to rocks. Race and racism are part and parcel of the “Western Enlightenment,” exported as one weapon in the European arsenal of imperialistic conquest, but which undergirds the “education” that the entire modern world consumes.
“In the discussion between Hinds, Alexander and Phillips, I was surprised, as they beat up on Indian-Guyanese being “racists” against African-Guyanese. They did not note that if the world – Chinese, Russians, Japanese, Arabs etc – are also racist against Africans, then there are deeper structural factors at work, than the Indian “caste system” mentioned. A variable – Indian culture – cannot explain a constant – anti-African racism.”
It is my hope that we can have an honest national conversation on race/ethnicity.
Yours faithfully.
Ravi Dev
