Why should someone who had no part in slavery make apologies and provide reparations to the descendants of the enslaved? This is a common question in the anti-reparations movement and one that reared its head again in a recent interview with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali. While as an individual one might have had no part to play, we cannot deny the transgenerational wealth that the period of enslavement provided to the descendants of slaveholders. We cannot deny the immense capital and physical labour that contributed towards the empires of today, while its current and former colonies are caught between several stages of development.
The interviewers were predictably hostile towards the topic of reparations, buying into the narrative that Black people want to take everything from people who had no personal role in slavery. Ali’s response was one that found favour with many. The president was celebrated for keeping his composure, but also for articulating the case for reparations in a manner that was frankly, kind of surprising. Ali is not one of the most articulate speakers, but his public messaging has significantly improved since his ascension to office. This demonstrates the importance of a good speech writer, and that is all well and good, but the vast difference between the messaging at home and abroad just made the interview an incredibly unsettling one. There is a growing practice in the government space to use the language of development to demonstrate their knowledge of issues from climate change, and gender equality, to racism. This language however is mostly for the cameras, as their actual policies and actions remain antithetical to what their words would have us believe.
On the point of reparations, Ali stated that reparative justice must be pursued and provided because it is one of the largest and longest crimes against humanity. This is absolutely true, the period of enslavement has shaped much of modern society on the backs and blood of millions of Africans whose descendants now span the globe. Ali called for a fair form of justice for the ancestors of those who were enslaved as the legacy of slavery continues to impact every sphere of their lives. As I watched the clip, my mind could not help going back to several of Ali’s public speeches where he stated in one vein or another that Guyana does not have an anti-Black problem. Those who brought attention to the levels of injustice and everyday discrimination Black persons faced in Guyana were branded as troublemakers or those simply oppositional to the government.
I always find the PPP/C’s claim that there is no anti-Blackness in Guyana to be absolutely fascinating, because it is a global phenomenon and no country is untouched. Worlds near and far are battling with the excesses of anti-Blackness against both Black people and other ethnic minorities. If Guyana does not indeed have the presence of anti-Blackness, then our leaders need to promptly begin sharing the strategies that they have employed locally to get rid of it, so that other countries can follow suit. It also begs the question, if one does not believe in anti-Blackness, how do they believe in reparations?
The call for reparations is based on the disenfranchisement of Black people, and the persistent effects of slavery that have earmarked Afro-descended persons as being less than. Reparations acknowledge that our systems are anti-Black due to our legacy of enslavement, and as such, descendants should benefit from right-making mechanisms and monies. So in order to believe in one, you really need to believe in the other, unless of course, you have mastered the phenomenal skill of cognitive dissonance. This cognitive dissonance and preaching to the West was also apparent in Ali’s response about the level of mobilization that the Western world was providing for countries such as Ukraine when that same level of support has never been available to countries such as Haiti. I have written several times about the government’s treatment and views of Haitians and how it is steeped in anti-Blackness. Guyana is no ally to Haiti.
The government we have on the international stage is the one I want at home. One who advocates for and actually believes in the fair and equal treatment and rights of Afro-Guyanese, rather than paying lip service to equality with one hand, while maintaining their marginalization with the other. The ruling government can promote its vision of One Guyana all it wants, and the wilfully blind or just simply daft will buy into the illusory dream. It does not change the fact, however, that the government has never operated from a place of unity or equity when it comes to its citizens.
