I once received a letter from a fifth-form student in England. She explained that she was a black girl, born in England, of West Indian parentage. One of the books set for study in her school was my novel The Humming Bird Tree. Being in a minority herself she wanted to know what my experience was in the West Indies so that she could compare our respective situations. She wondered to what extent I as a white person had ever suffered from prejudice in my community. I found it a most interesting letter.
As I considered my reply an amazing fact quickly begun to dawn on me. Thoroughly though I searched my memory all the way from childhood and youth in Trinidad and Antigua throughout my life in Guyana and much traveling in all the West Indies I could think of absolutely no occasion when I had experienced discrimination or even ill will because of the colour of my skin. I call this fact amazing not from my estimation since I have simply come to take it for granted in my own case, but because I quickly realized that in the perspective of my young correspondent from England such non-discrimination might truly seem astonishing.
I have never in the slightest been made to feel conscious of the colour of my skin in my life and career in the West Indies and Guyana. At school never, in sport never, in my career in the Guyana and Caribbean Sugar Industry never, in my literary contributions never, in my social life never. Never have I felt any strain or opposition to me in my job because I was white and the people I was dealing with were not. I have been called on to represent Guyana at conferences and in many negotiations, and to play for Guyana and the West Indies in sport, with absolutely no consideration given to whether I was white or black or blue.
Even at times when there must have been especially bitter feelings about the way white people were treating black people in the world – particularly during countless terrible tragedies in Southern Africa – when one could have thought such bitterness might be reflected locally, I have never received anything but consideration as just another human being. Racial prejudice has never blighted my hopes and ambitions.
Getting that letter from England made me realize what a blessing all this is. It is a blessing that I have come to take for granted. But I wonder how many black persons living in predominantly white communities can take such a blessing for granted. I do not think very many. And that remains one of the saddest facts in the world.
Do you remember, as the struggle for South African freedom unfolded, a startling feature was the continuing magnanimity of black leaders like Nelson Mandela, Allan Boesak, and Desmond Tutu towards the whites. Mandela in particular had been cruelly imprisoned for 27 years yet his policy always envisaged the full participation of whites in a future democratic South Africa.
I believe the achievement of South African freedom was the most heroic, and at the same time most magnanimous, episode in human history. The white rulers in that country, well aware of what agonies had been inflicted by their own race on black “under-citizens” through crude and cruel prejudice must have thought for sure that if the tables were turned their opponents would naturally act as they had done. Somehow Mandela convinced them that it would not be like that and it was not. An incomparable lesson was taught to the world if only it would pay attention.
Looking around the world, I know I have reason to be grateful. I can appreciate without surprise that I have never suffered any impact from domineering majority or revenge-discrimination.
I communicated as sincerely as I could to my young student friend in England my own experience. I only hope that she in her life as a black English woman has been half so lucky.
