Dear Editor,
I’ve always thought ‘Arrival Day’ was in commemoration of the disparate peoples that ‘arrived’ here from far flung places. But, the reality is that many of our ancestors were ‘brought’ here as opposed to having volunteered to come half-way across the world. The conditions and circumstances of arrival varied greatly. Whatever karma it is that has caused us to be on this small, green, muddy tract of the continent, my ancestors were clearly adventurous enough (or maybe just crazy) to decide that their fortunes lay far away from the Indian subcontinent.
My upbringing dictated that rather than mourn this separation by distance and time, we should celebrate the country that we came to and have become, Guyana. A veritable cornucopia of races, ethnicities, religions, languages and ideologies. We have benefitted greatly from this mingling; one has only to take stock of how successful those of Guyanese descent are, both in foreign lands and in country. Our collective destiny lies not with the homeland of our ancestors, but with us… and the descendants of those brought here in shackles, with the peoples that were always here, and all others that came before and since. These are all our country men and women. Equally Guyanese as any of us.
My ancestors walked onto a ship and signed their lives away in order to develop the colonized land of an empire. We survived over a century of oppression on three continents (yes, if you are female, you have been considered less than a whole person for millennia, on many continents). We tried to preserve our religions, languages and cultures, as we blended generation after generation with the others we found here. So much so that we now have this spectacularly unique identity that is more a prism than the simple dimension of a mono-culture. We are whole… made so by the vibrancy of our multi-cultural society that finally values the strength in our diversity.
Now, all descendants are part of this nation that is blazing a path for others to follow. Hopefully one that continues to champion the oppressed and it remain a paradigm for how the developing world fights the battle for relevance, resources and that all-important seat at the table where decisions are made that affect how the world turns. Happy that my ancestors arrived here, grateful that they were bold, courageous people, especially the women.
Sincerely,
Scheherazade Ishoof Khan