Sabanto Tokoroho was a small girl scared out of her wits when she moved from Kabakaburi in Pomeroon to attend school in Georgetown, and the constant teasing and sometimes cruel taunts from her schoolmates about her Amerindian heritage did not help. Looking back, however, she is not sorry she had to endure those lonely and sometimes painful days.
It is not that she would wish the experience on anyone else but Tokoroho said that it was those years in a community high school coupled with a very traumatic experience when she was slapped repeatedly and verbally abused by a former employer that strengthened her resolve to be proud and appreciate who she is.
It was also those experiences that caused her to learn more about her Arawak background and to focus her attention on working with indigenous people in the interior helping them to improve their lives, and teaching the younger ones to be proud of their heritage.
Long before she was in her early twenties when she was physically and verbally assaulted by her employer, Tokoroho remembered she was driven to visit the Amerindian Hostel and the Georgetown Public Hospital where she would always find an Amerindian who was in need of assistance. She helped to the best of her ability, even it was just to lend a listening ear.
“I used to visit the hospital, the hostel because I always felt there was a need; my own people were just there and I know they needed that motivation because of the way people taunt them on the streets. They taunt me going to school and I just wanted to support them,” she said in a recent sit-down with the Sunday Stabroek.
It was because of this work and other things that she was motivated to read for a degree in Social Work, even though as she pointed out she had never written CXC as she attended a community high school. She remembers that she had come last in primary school when she sat the Common Entrance examination – she was put into the grade level late and she was late on the exam days – but a teacher still insisted that her mother send her to Georgetown to school.
Today she may not have the ideal job as she does not work directly with Amer-indians, but holding a Masters in Arts and Culture from New-castle University in the United Kingdom Tokoroho still sees herself as making a difference as the coordinator of the Volun-tarism Support Plat-form at the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture. This portfolio allows her to work with young people through the schools and with persons who volunteer their services in improving the lives of others.
Her work began at the then Rodney House on Croal Street where an Amerindian desk was set up, and where she dealt with most of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Amerindian parliamentarians and with Amerindian related issues. It was a project that involved indigenous people.
“That was very helpful for me because going to school in Georgetown there was something I had lost, and I wanted to find that back, and being on that kind of job made me want to learn more about my Arawarak background,” she told the Sunday Stabroek in the interview.
Living close to Rodney House also had a part in the direction her life took, since as she puts it, she was exposed to “a lot of inspirational women” such as Bonita Harris, Karen De Souza, Vanda and Dunita Radzik and Andaiye, all of whom frequented the building in those days.
She always wanted to know what the women were doing at the House and before long she visited and was told by Bonita Harris that she would soon learn.
Sabanto Tokoroho is her Arawak name and it means beautiful and lovely flower, but she was born Grace Roberts, a name she refers to as her ‘colonial name,’ and one she only uses for official purposes as she has not gone through the deed-poll process. Eusi Kwayana, whom she met at Rodney House, also played a part in her changing her name as she was impressed that he had done this in his younger days.
She has been known as Sabanto since she was 18 years old, when she started working in the Amerindian communities.
“In my work environment very few people know me as Grace Roberts… At the age of eighteen I was trying to find myself, I knew who I was and where I came from, but because of going school in Georgetown…and being the small tiny little girl in the class and being the only Amerindian I was terrified,” she recalled.
Traumatising
After leaving Rodney House Sabanto gained employment at a well-known city business and it was at this establishment that she had a horrific and life-changing experience.
“It [the employment] did not last, it went very sour and it was then I felt like we [Amerindians] were like nobody in people’s eyesight,” Sabanto said sadly as she reflected on that day long ago.
She remembered at that time many Amerindian women were being taken advantage of by their employers. Part of her duty was to conduct bank transactions for the company and at one time she was accused of misappropriating money. “He [the manager] just called me up in his office and without saying anything he just like ‘whacks,’ ‘whacks’ [slapped her repeatedly]…I don’t know anything what is going on and he start calling me names, all kinds of names, things that I had never heard before,” Sabanto said.
In tears she rushed out of the office but in her haste collided with the door and broke her glasses. “I picked up my bag to leave but I told him ‘If you think you are going to hit me and call me names I would not tolerate it because I was not brought up like this.”
From that date onwards she started a campaign for justice and reported the matter to the police. She was sent to the hospital for a medical but she didn’t see the doctor until hours later who told her nothing was wrong with her. The matter went to court but the case was dismissed.
Even as the matter was being thrashed out in court she received a call from the man’s relatives who instructed her not to speak publicly about the matter and that they would “pay me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to shut up, and I told her that is further eyepass to me.”
“I was terrified and after that I did not even know what to do, because I was like, where am I going to work, where am I going to go? But after that, [I was] feeling afraid and not wanting to walk on the road because this man [might] knock me down or something.”
Sabanto held a press conference and publicly spoke of the incident, but for years she was terrified to walk past the business. Now she even shops at the business and the man is still employed at the company.
“I did not get any justice, but the experience strengthened my resolve to be a stronger person and never to be ashamed of who I am. I am a stronger person today and I just had to satisfy myself that life goes on,” Sabanto said.
She pointed out that while Amerindian people are similar to one another in so many ways they are still different according to what nation (ie tribe) they come from, and this she learnt over a period of time.
Following that experience she became involved in another project which took her to the North Pakaraimas among the Patamona people in Region 8, where they worked on income-generating projects such as farms and a fish farm among others. It was helping them to find ways to sustain themselves during the rainy period.
“During those years I learnt to more appreciate my people and the way they live and to just learn more about my country…”
It was during those years she also attended the University of Guyana, and following her graduation she became employed with Iwokrama as a research assistant which once again took her back to the interior, this time Region 9. At that time Janet Bulkan – then Janet Forte – was her supervisor. She also had a stint at Conservation International (CI) with the Wai Wai tribe. It was in 2012 she got an EU funded scholarship after she was recommended by Iwokrama.
Struggle
She returned to Guyana after graduating, but has been struggling until recently to find a job. As she describes it, she came back “with so much passion and just wanted to get working.” Her thesis was on the Wai Wai language and Sabanto said she had hoped to work with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs focusing on preserving the various Amerindian languages, but that did not materialize.
“I also want to work with various communities helping to preserve our traditional culture for the future generation.”
As an Amerindian woman Sabanto said that she has to work harder to achieve, “and we still have not reached that stage where even our Amerindian men see an ‘achieved’ person as equal.”
“It becomes more difficult for you when you are educated because traditional Amerindian women like my mom would have so many children, get married and do certain traditional things, and if you are not doing any of those then you are not respected by some…” Sabanto said, adding that the question she is asked consistently when she visits the villages is if she is married.
While she wants to see more Amerindian women becoming educated Sabanto also wants to see young people becoming educated and being more aware of and learning to appreciate their traditional culture. She said she is still shocked that her nephew who is attending school in Georgetown is having the same experience she had as a child.
“It is because of this so many of the young people don’t want to embrace their traditional culture,” she noted.
She remembered her mother teaching her to make cassava bread, which entailed her reaping the cassava, and fetching, washing, scraping, and grating it. She had accused her mother of “torturing me, but now I am happy that she had given me that experience.” For her mother it was important that she had this experience and many more as she moved from her childhood days to becoming an adult.
She advises young Amerindians to be strong and proud of their heritage and have respect for it, because that is what makes them individuals.
