Dear Editor,
The sign reading `Exxon is Guyana’s New Slave Master’ published in the Guyanese media on August 3, 2023, is unimaginably offensive to the descendants of slavery, and to Exxon. Exxon (Hess and CNOOC) delivered Guyana from an insurmountable starvation of capital (in the form of FDI) and brought our oil and gas resources from the bowels of the ocean, to markets across the world. By so doing, it has given the people of this nation the opportunity to move from the oft stated “second poorest country in the Western hemisphere,” to the fastest growing economy in the world.
The idea that FDI by Exxon et al constitutes a new form of slavery is not only unfounded but betrays a base-level ignorance of what slavery was as a matter of daily life. The key to slavery was violence. It was the violent extraction of economic value defended by an ideology of racial supremacy. The other key aspect of slavery was that it denied the humanity of the humans it subjugated through what Achille Mbembe has called “founding violence.”
But slavery was not only about economic exploitation, nor was it only about racism. It was a physically brutal system of punishment and death.
Almost exactly two hundred years ago on August 18, 1823, slaves at Plantation Success began a revolt against their oppression. The revolt spread to 37 estates, including Bachelor’s Adventure Plantation, where 200 slaves were gunned down. After the revolt “[h]undreds of rebels were hunted down and killed, including two hundred who were beheaded as a warning to other enslaved people. Fourteen rebels were hastily tried and sentenced to be hanged” (https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/demerara-rebellion-1823/).
Guyanese also know of Damon of Plantation Richmond in Essequibo who was hanged in front of the Parliament Building in Georgetown for resisting continued forced labour after 1834 when slavery was abolished. A so-called Apprenticeship till 1838 was instituted to help planters recoup their investment in human bodies as labour machines. It was met with disdain because it was a continuation of slavery.
In the 1763 revolt in Berbice, 1800 slaves were killed, and twenty-four of them were burnt alive by the real slave Masters.
The fact is as pointed out by Joel Bhagwandin “ExxonMobil’s/EEPGL investment alone as of 2022 in the Stabroek block is a whopping G$1.8 trillion or US$8.61b”. When other oil majors lacked confidence to explore in Guyana, Exxon remained steadfast to the commitment and continued their exploration until it discovered commercial quantities in 2015.
For perspective, it should be noted that Exxon’s invested capital alone is equivalent to two times Guyana’s pre-oil GDP. Moreover, because of this investment and Exxon’s presence in Guyana, the country has earned more than G$425 billion cumulatively as of 2022 in profit oil and royalty, which is two-times the tax revenues of the government prior to oil production. Additionally, the local businesses and Guyanese workers benefit from another US$700 million annually in local content spent in-country. Keep in mind also other related revenue streams such as the US$750 million from the ART-TREES framework paid by Hess Corporation.
ExxonMobil took on a huge financial risk in their investments in Guyana and had to wait a long time for the first profit oil. It took them 15 years before oil was discovered in commercial quantities, and another 5 years for development before going into production. That is 20 years of injecting capital continuously to finance exploration and development activities, before generating a dollar in revenue. Further, Exxon was pumping investments into Guyana while it was carrying overall losses. In 2020 alone, it lost US$22.4 billion. Earlier this year, it announced a major failure in oil exploration in Brazil after investing US$ 4 billion. Another US$ 4 billion in the same country has not yet yielded a dime of profit.
The suggestion that Exxon is Guyana’s new slave master is not only baseless, nonsensical, sensationalist, and dangerous. It is also downright disrespectful to those who toiled in one of history’s most disgraceful institutions, that is, slavery. And without ExxonMobil, Guyana would still be a flyover country.
Sincerely,
Dr Randolph Persaud
