Dear Editor,
Globalisation has crept into Indigenous peoples’ traditional communities with a philosophy of wealth and class division that has ruptured the barter system and collective approach of our people. In their place have come individualism and competition, causing us to be valued according to ‘status’ over others. This has penetrated all spheres of our lives so we are becoming a materialistically obsessed population. This ideology has become part of our world view, and has caused us to crave things from ‘outside,’ whereby our rich and unique culture and our indigenous knowledge of ecology and sustainability that has contributed significantly to making Guyana rich in forest and natural resources has been devalued.
This new paradigm is making us ‘modern Amerindians’ and is forcing us to become consumers and to see each other as competitors, where the successful progress and the less fortunate ones, ie, the majority poor, lag behind.
The education system has contributed to this reality making us vulnerable to exploitation by the powerful for land and natural resources. Since colonial times we learnt to neglect our culture and adopt the Western one by becoming Christian and speaking the national language so we could integrate in order to succeed in life. Now we are faced again with people telling us that we need to have a sound knowledge of computing and do well in the main subjects of Maths and English. The message of this top down approach which is filling our heads is very one sided, because it dictates the lifestyle by which we should live. I wish to ask, therefore, if there isn’t a chance for us to dictate to those who have designed their model so that we can learn from each other?
While conventional wisdom says that what comes from outside is better, what shows its face in traditional communites is most times negative. For example, certain churches which should be spreading peace spread division in Indigenous communities with their approach of criticising others and with a theology of prosperity. They turn a blind eye to addressing social concerns affecting the people. Then there are the political parties which are reaping a harvest from sowing division and brainwashing our naive Indigenous peoples. The tools they use are ‘handouts’ which make our people dependent on their patronage, and hence they kill our local talent for creativity. The plan of the modern state in Guyana is also to homogenize the nine different Indigenous groups into one.
Then there is the school with an education system which is designed to fail most of our people. There are also the NGOs which are supposed to be neutral but which some of us suspect have hidden agendas.
Lastly there is the heavy alcohol consumption, and the ever available ‘junk food’ which is one of the contributing factors to new illnesses affecting indigenous peoples, who prefer it over the healthy, organic, locally produced food from the farms.
Editor, in this context of a globalized world, the Indigenous population is also faced with the recolonization of their territories by the powerful for mining and forestry purposes. The first dwellers are basically being told that the land is not theirs, because they don’t occupy it for great profit. The next issue is the environmental impacts that are caused by these new colonisers who destroy indigenous societies.
Given this new social reality, one question that I wrestle with is, how can we become fully integrated into the modern world, and at the same time not lose our traditional culture. In other words how can the churches, the schools, governments, politicians and all those that ‘corrupted’ us contribute meaningfully so we can have one foot in our traditional world and at the same time be a proud Indigenous people enjoying the equal opportunities that modern society offers in our globalized world?
Yours faithfully,
Medino Abraham
