Dear Editor,
In the old days there was a column titled ‘Things that bother me’ and written by R.B.O. Hart. For this weekend, two things bother me. First, the ill-treatment of our Amerindian communities by GGMC and the Government, ignoring their rights as enshrined in their Independence Constitution and second, the silence on a similar question of ancestral lands. The first issue is elegantly recorded in the Stabroek News Editorial of Friday, 11th April, 2025.
I support the contention that our Amerindian brothers and sisters must not be ignored. But Dear Editor, where are the voices to deal with the long going effort by successive pre and post Independence administrations to ignore and deal properly with African ancestral lands. Areas where African slaves were dehumanised, beaten as their free, forced labour civilised our entire coastal belt, digging canals, dams, and roadways before the advent of bulldozers, excavators and other equipment.
If we ignore our past experiences, if we ignore the moral rights for reparation, we will remain a nation with fractured bones, weakened and unable to produce Guyanese strong enough to avoid the reputation of a mindset that placed Manumitted Afro Guyanese at the bottom of the ladder.
Perhaps, the present mistreatment of our Amerindian brothers and sisters can be a wake-up call to avoid us repeating the mistakes and weaknesses, which placed the descendants of Manumitted Africans at the bottom of the proverbial ladder.
Unlike some of the events of 1763, we must join hands, so that the Amerindian descendants and African descendants would correct the wrongs of our colonial experience, and together with our Indo, Chinese and Portuguese brothers, boldly go forward to make sure that all benefit equally from the bounty of our Creator. It is never too late to wake up from our slumber.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Elder
