Posted October 12th. 2002. - Special Feature by David Hinds

Indians must speak out against Indian wrongs also

I have said a fair bit about the violence emanating from Buxton, because I see it as a significant development for the black community and for race relations in general. Because the violence has been coming from the African community, African voices have a greater responsibility to engage the current situation, but I believe that Indian voices also have a responsibility to be more objective. We are in the midst of a racial conflict that involves both races. It is playing itself out at the level of crime and violence against Indians, but that is not the beginning and end of the scenario. In other words, while the African violence against Indians is abominable, it is not occurring in a vacuum

While the perpetrators may be a relatively small band and the African Guyanese community has not openly encouraged them, they have also not condemned them. This is significant, for it points to something larger. There is something in the development of race relations between African and Indians that pushes Africans to abhor the violence but sympathize with what they see as a challenge to Indian domination. In racial and ethnic conflicts both sides look across the fence and act based on the perception and reality of what they see. In some cases they misunderstand what they see and overreact. It's then the responsibility of leaders to dissuade them from acting in an irresponsible manner.

I think that the reaction by the armed Africans is misplaced, even though their perception of the African condition is well placed. As is well known, I am unconditionally opposed to the violence, principally because I believe that violence should always be a last resort. I am not satisfied that we are near the point of last resort; there are many other peaceful means that have not been exploited. Even when violence is a last resort, its misdirection results in irreparable harm to all and I believe that the violence against the Indian masses is misdirected. The other reason I am opposed to the violence is that I am concerned about its negative impact on the psyche of African people. The resort to the type of violence we have witnessed could well lead to the development of a violent culture that could turn the African in Guyana into a slave a second time-- this time a slave to violence.

I have stated the above not to downplay the seriousness of the African cause, but rather to highlight it. I am pursuing this marginalization question because it is at the heart of the current national problem. Its mistreatment by some African leaders has resulted in our first racial-political "garrison" in the form of Buxton. I reject the view that discussion of African marginalization emboldens the perpetrators of violence against Indians. Rather, I think discussion itself is an alternative to violence.

There are three conversations that must simultaneously go on in relation to Black marginalization or the black condition:

(1) a discussion among blacks;

(2) a discussion among Indians; and

(3) a discussion between two communities. The absence of these conversations that has in part fueled the current season of rage

Our society sits on the shoulders of almost 400 years of gross inhumanity in the form of slavery. History did not begin with slavery but, for the Caribbean and Guyana, our historical evolution has been largely influenced by the slave experience. Because the African was located at the center of slavery, the African condition has played a major role in dictating the post-slavery era. It's, therefore, a mistake to believe that African Guyanese can be ignored, disempowered, and manipulated without serious consequences. This is in no way a downplay of the roles and places of the other races nor is it an expression of the African as primary citizen. Rather it's recognition that our history places certain burdens on our society that must be acknowledged if we are to understand our existence.

The African condition is global. There is a reason that Africans all over the world are marginalized. There is a reason that the police shoot down Africans all over the world. There is a reason that the African is the victim of economic terror all over the world, including Africa. There is a reason that Africans more than any other race has to constantly affirm his or her identity. There is a reason that Africans all over the world run away from their Africaness. I am submitting here that the African condition in Guyana is part of a larger phenomenon with peculiar characteristics.

It is against the background of both the local and global factors that Africans must discuss their condition and in the process address the following questions

(1) Is African marginalization simply political discrimination against African businesspeople seeking contracts or similar discrimination against the African elite or is it the historical discrimination against the African poor and the powerless?

(2) What are the economic and political causes of African marginalization?

(3) How have the post-colonial political and economic orders deterred or enhance African marginalization?

(4) How does the presence of other races, in particular East Indians, affect this process?

(5) How have the internal structural and cultural weaknesses of the African community affected the process?

(6) What is the real meaning of the last ten years for African Guyanese?

(7) What is the meaning of 28 years of PNC rule for African Guyanese?

(8) What needs to be done by Africans themselves and by African in concert with others to deal with their marginalization?

(9) What should be the role of the African Guyanese political elite and the African Guyanese intellegencia in the process?

(10) What should be the relationship between these two groups and the African masses?

(11) What should be the relationship between African Guyanese and Indian Guyanese?

(12) Is the African view of Indians in Guyana a correct one?

The East Indian Factor

The non-treatment of African marginalization by many Indians has been most unhelpful. For Indians in this day and age not to recognize that Africans have real historical, political and economic reasons to be alienated, frustrated, and furious is totally insensitive and counterproductive for Indians themselves. There are times when we have to try to understand our adversaries in order to begin to understand our own condition. African violence against East Indians and African political reaction in general cannot be seen in the simple terms in which some Indian voices have been casting it.

This failure to grasp the real condition of Africans drives Indians to explain the current situation in the following terms.

(1) The PNC is behind the violence;

(2) Africans have always being bullying Indians;

(3) The PNC are sore losers and don't adhere to democratic rules;

(4) The PPP is not protecting Indians;

(5) Africans want to take what Indians have labored to achieve; and

(6) Africans want to control Indians.

(7) African cry of marginalization is out of order.

There may be some truth in all of the above, but they do not get to the heart of the matter. The real truth lies in an examination of the conditions in which these tendencies have evolved. I now draw on Mr. Abu Bakr, whose recent writings have been misunderstood and so misrepresented. At the risk of being misunderstood, and bearing in mind the difficulty of asking Indians to engage in reflection when they have to daily bury their dead, I posit that Indians will better understand the Black condition and the current manifestations if they themselves were to engage in an examination of the Guyana in which they have lived and to which they have contributed. A major question that must be answered by Indians is whether the Indian attitude to Africans, both from a cultural and political standpoint, has always been positive. The question I am posing here is whether Indians, in the process of passively and actively responding to African disrespect and bullying and in their own perception of their place in the society, have not developed their own form of political degeneracy.

I repeat, violence against Indians and other defenseless people is abominable and must be stopped. But, it's a mistake for Indians to think that the violence is simply the work of the bully in the African. It's more complex than that. Those of us Africans who have spoken out against the violence do so at great risk to our own lives and those of our families and comrades as some in the Black community see us as traitors. But we are being consistent, for we spoke out, and later acted along with others, against the black PNC authoritarian regime. The point here is that we come from a tradition of confronting our own internal African weaknesses, without rejecting our Africaness. For us it is not just what is good for our race or party, but also what is good for the other races and for Guyana and the Caribbean as a whole. Solidarity with Indians and condemnation of African violence are not anti-African or pro-Indian; it's simply morally correct.

But most Africans think we are crazy or naive when they do not hear Indian voices speaking out against the other type of violence that has negatively affected mainly Africans-- naked Indian corruption in high places; Indian triumphanism; the Indian drug connection; Indian cultural disrespect of Africans; Indian male sexual advantage of economically dependent African women; and Indian monopoly of government and state in the form of the Indianization of the top echelons of government and Indian control of public means of communication. Freddy Kissoon is the lone exception in this regard.

Indianists must begin to look at the negative side of the Indian experience too. This is part of what I understand Mr. Bakr to be calling for. Indians cannot seek to absolve themselves of all social and political degeneracy in Guyana because they are currently under unjust attack and are heroically refusing to hit back in like kind. Criminal violence for all its extremeness is just one type of racial violence. There are other types of racial violence of which Indians are also guilty. The behavior of the Indian political and economic elite in and around the PPP cannot be ignored, for such behavior impact negatively on Africans. In racial conflict blame is not always equally proportioned, but responsibility for the security of all must be equally shared. Just as the African elite and the masses are wrong in not fighting African violence, the Indian elite and masses are wrong in not fighting Indian political and other excesses.

At the moment the conditions present no incentives for the two races to talk with each other as both sides have put up shutters; Africans hide behind Buxton and Indians hide behind the government. So internal conversation is imperative. When Indians and Africans begin these internal conversations, throwing dead cats and dogs across the racial fence will decrease.

Dr Hinds is a University Lecturer and Political Commentator and Activist. He currently teaches Political Science at Glendale College and Mt San Antonio College in California. Please send your comments on this article to dhinds6106@aol.com.