The Cultural and Political History of Guyana

The thoughts and ideas that guided me to compile this book was the documentation of my history. My history is neither from the beginning of my life nor from the life of my parents or my grandparents; it is the history of my ancestors and the events that shaped me to who I am. My history was influenced by colonialism, enslavement, indentureship, and imperialism.
In 1596 Sir Walter Ralegh described Guyana as “... a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor wrought; the face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the virtue and salt of the soil spent by manurance, the graves have not been opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledge, nor their images pulled down out of their temples.” At that time, Guyana was inhabited by the Indigenous people who have been there for approximately 22,000 years. Shortly after Ralegh’s arrival, other Europeans arrived in pursuit of wealth and fortune, and attempted to enslave the indigenous people. They resisted and fled from the coastal region to the forested hinterland. Enslaved people were then brought from Africa. After two centuries, they were emancipated and indentured laborers from Madeira, China, and India took their place on the plantations.
As a Guyanese living in the United States of America, oftentimes, I have been confronted with: Where are you from? Why are you living in the USA? And how privileged it must feel to live in the USA. My response has always been, it’s a long story. The story began in 1961 when the people of the colony of British Guiana elected, through a free and fair election, the first Premier, Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Immediately after taking office, Dr. Jagan initiated discussion on the decolonization of his country. President John F. Kennedy opposed the American-educated dentist and his American-born wife, Janet Rosenberg, who were labeled communists. It must be President Kennedy’s paranoia of his unsuccessful attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro of Cuba at the time, and nightmarish thoughts of having another communist country in the region to humiliate him. Therefore, President Kennedy authorized and funded covert operations to interfere with the country’s democratic electoral process so that a candidate of his choice could be installed to lead the soon to be independent Guyana. President Kennedy’s interference set the format for subsequent electoral process of using the divisive concepts of racial and ethnic segregation which shaped the social, personal, and cultural behavior of the Guyanese population. The consequences are mass migration of Guyanese, corrupted political behavior, and turmoil that dominates the country to this day, sixty years later.
If we forget our past, we are lost in the present with no vision of the future. Our history is important in understanding who we are, so that we can develop a sense of self; a large part of which is learning where we fit into the story of our country and the global community. Cultural identity defines our evolutionary identity; it helps us to understand our ancestral values that give us the very meaning of life. Every culture has its share of knowledge and beliefs which makes us the human family; it makes us responsible people who can coexist with each other in a harmonious society. The history of the Indigenous people, enslaved Africans, indentured Portuguese, Chinese, and Indian laborers provide an in-depth view of the evolution of the people of Guyana. It provides evidence of the strong cultural identity of the Guyanese people. The history reveals their personal ambitions, sense of direction, and the perseverance of striving for well-being and happiness in the best possible life.
Some have asked why I don’t leave my negative history behind. It has also been suggested that my people are too focused on our past and it’s preventing us from keeping up with successful societies. Cultural historians have made efforts to learn the thinking of people of different races so as to understand how cultures and societies evolve and how to guide that process, but the physiological and psychological effects of centuries of oppression on generations of enslaved people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have been ignored.
For generations, we’ve been unwilling to teach the history of colonialism, enslavement, and indentureship. School teachers are worried about disturbing the children. So, they tell them about the good people, like the abolitionists, freedom fighters, and those who escaped to freedom, but leave out the details of why they were protesting or what they were fleeing. That meant the children became adults with a poor understanding of how colonialism, the ancestral slaves, and the indentured laborers influenced their lives and their country, and the powerful and lasting effects they have.
Unlike reading, writing, and arithmetic, the people of Guyana were not taught their history. They were taught an elitist history; the history of the colonizers, the British people with power, of Kings and Queens, but the ordinary people and the presence of Asians and Africans in Great Britain, for centuries, were not mentioned in the history. The more recent cultural and political history of Guyana cannot be discussed; even among friends, for fear that they would be offended by the conflicting views of what were taught, not through formal education, but by self-serving politicians who were accepted with the credibility of religious leaders.
Humans share over 99 percent of their genetic material with one another, and there are more variations among individuals than ethnic groups. The legacies of racial and ethnic constructs can be recognized in every aspect of life. The idea of the melting pot in which racially and ethnically diverse individuals assimilate into a monolithic Guyanese culture, while losing roots to the culture of origin, has not been successful. Rather than encouraging integration, politicians have taken advantage of the divisive concepts of racial and ethnic segregation to shape the social, personal, and cultural behavior of the population. Racial and ethnic prejudices have been affecting the distribution of wealth, power, and opportunity, and creating enduring social stratifications.