Heal, Not Hurt Our Dear Mother

You’d be hard pressed to meet a Guyanese who doesn’t know about the renewed threats by Venezuela, our neighbour to the west, to annex Essequibo. And you’ll also be hard pressed to find a Guyanese, including me, who when the news broke, wasn’t outraged.

I made a comment on an Instagram post by @knowyourcaribbean. It read: “we aint giving up no river, we aint giving up no trees … not one kurass, not ah blade ah grass,” lines taken from The Tradewinds rendition of “Not A Blade of Grass.” Now I’m of a certain age and ‘likes and followers’ are a foreign language to me, but my heart erupted with joy when a few days after my remark, someone pointed out that it had received over four hundred ‘likes’ and only one challenge. These ‘likes’ weren’t only coming from Guyanese, but from other nationals across The Caribbean Community and Common Market. (CARICOM) They told me that people were paying attention to this attempted land grab and demonstrated the coalescence of likeminded perspectives. In fact, Calypsonian Lord Nelson captured the sentiment best when he sang, “All ah we is one Family!” The spirit of CARICOM at work.

The likelihood that Venezuela will make a serious attempt at annexation of Essequibo is uncertain. But the ongoing occupation by Russia of Ukraine, and China’s threat to Taiwan may make Venezuela believe it can get away with bullying a smaller neighbour.

Hundreds of years ago, the concept of land ownership as we know it didn’t exist everywhere.  In fact Indigenous nations around the world had their land ‘annexed’ by settler nations, be they Dutch, Portuguese, French, English or Spanish. With the enactment of annexation – a byproduct of greed, the concept of land grabbing became normalized. The First Peoples of Guyana fell victim to this “new normal.”

Essequibo, makes up two-thirds of Guyana, and is special to me ⸺ it's where some members of my family rest eternally. So important is this place, that in my recent novel, Manor on the Viridian Sea, set on the fictitious Caribbean island of Sierra Majestic, Zeke, a favourite character, gave a nod to it when he reflected on his background.“I liked to listen to Pappa’s stories ‘bout his ancestors. He say dat his people originally come from Essequibo. And, when de trading of enslaved people was happening back in de 1820s, Colonel Browning buy his entire family of eight from an Essequibo plantation owner to work on his estate. So Pappa say he is first an Essequibian—and dat’s why I adopted de Guyanese nationality. I call miself a Majestic Guyanese!”

Like Zeke, some of my ancestors helped to develop Essequibo. My grandfather ran a bakery on the Essequibo island of Leguan, or Land of the Iguanas, as it was named by Dutch colonists for the multitude of iguanas they’d encountered. So, for my Pappa, and other Essequibians past, present, and future, I make a proposition. This should be a time of peace and goodwill to all peoples, so let’s choose peace. But let us also stand strong for Guyana and our people. Let’s work to preserve and strengthen our Dear Mother Earth, and not threaten to tear pieces of her apart out of greed or politics. We are all custodians of this precious resource in partnership with our Indigenous brothers and sisters who were here long before us. Let’s heal the wounds of history and not create fresh ones!

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Originally published in The Caribbean Camera, December 2023