This article focusses on the English speaking Caribbean Diaspora’s experience within the context of diversity, equity and inclusion in the aftermath of recent societal unrest and institutional realignment in the United States. Informed by a concern for social justice and cross-cultural dynamics, this writer unpacks how this population has been affected by the burden of racism and xenophobia. It highlights a continuation of courageous conversations on the topic (See Guyanese Online: February 20-21, 2021). Continue reading →
Am I Guyanese, British-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, South American, Canadian, Guyanese-Canadian, or some blend of these different cultures? Is my background East-Indian, West-Indian or Indo-Caribbean? What about the fact that my geographical place of birth was South America? Am I just an eclectic person— one of mixed cultural heritages?
The simple answer is that I have been influenced by a diversity of cultures from the day I was born. Whether I’m definitely one thing or the other is worth questioning but the answer that I have will be different to that of another person from the same background. Guyanese are not all the same just as Canadians are not all the same. There are variables.
Slices of daily life in a sunny home by the sea. For good measure, the goings-on of the locals around the home are thrown in. The book is liberally sprinkled with madcap…at times, philosophical…conversations between mother and daughter, visitors, tradesmen. Food is plentiful. Tall tales add to the sauce. A ghost seeks help. Stones grow. A snake dances.
Around the home, the wind and the birds whistle. Sunbeams, filtered by trees, limbo across the lacquered wooden floor.
Some nights, danger lurks. Bandits. Gunshots in the wee hours of the morning. A thief sneaks into a neighbour’s home.
— Sadly men of the cloth are not behaving as they ought.
Has the church lost its influence? Has it become weaker? Are the pastors hiding?
A shroud of darkness has enveloped the land, and I am yet to see the pastors make a historical stand. In 2015, I wrote an article denouncing the rising rate of femicide in Guyana, and called on, not only the government, but also the church, to make efforts to ensure that we stamped out the seeming Guyanese curse — that of our men being responsible for putting our women in hearses. www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/12/05/guyanese-women-find-themselves-in-a-catch-22-situation-2/. Continue reading →
We need to talk about race. Why are people angry? Why so upset? Didn’t we elect a black president? Pass civil rights laws? Isn’t racism illegal now? Three years ago my brother Rob and I co-taught a class that discussed issues of racial injustice. That class turned into a popular podcast episode, which we’ve now turned into this video. Why are people still angry? Let’s take a look at race in America…
HANSIB: Celebrating Fifty Years of Publishing 1970 – 2020
At its inception in 1970, Hansib Publications was the dream of Arif Ali, a Guyanese immigrant, who had no formal experience in publishing. He had settled in England and recognised among his fellow travellers and contemporaries a grandiloquence and epic sensibility which the mainstream media either deliberately ignored or simply failed to recognise at the time.
The titles are mainly by Guyanese and West Indian writers. They include titles under the following headings: Continue reading →
Facelift: The St. George’s Cathedral – The building was completed in 1899.
Oct 19, 2020 – Kaieteur News– One of the country’s most renowned of national monuments has undergone four years of major renovations, opening to mass yesterday, October 18, 2020.
However, the work is not complete yet on the St. George’s Cathedral, which has been described as the tallest wooden building in the world.
There is still work to fix the main roof and the need to build a protective fence. Continue reading →
About the Book: This book, Essence of Sanatana Dharma, is a work of much religious research and soul searching in the heartland of “Sanatana Dharma”. In my effort to make it as accurate as possible, I took an imaging journey into the past to discover more of what I already knew, or thought I knew, and the essence of what I would discover. It is prudent to admit this journey is a long way to go.
(A review of David Granger’s Congregationalism and communitarianism. The Congregational Church in post-Emancipation Guyana.)
David Granger’s Congregationalism and communitarianism. The Congregational Church in post-Emancipation Guyana recalls the historic role which Congregationalism played in the struggle of enslaved Africans for their emancipation. It is an aspect of local history which remains underreported and underappreciated.
Granger defines ‘communitarianism’ as the fusion of the evangelical constitution of Congregationalism with the Church’s communal character. It refers to the social ministry of the Church which “…emphasizes the interactions among a community of people who share a common history or purpose and who live in a shared geographic space.” Continue reading →
In my early teens, in Guyana, I was growing up in a village with Indian and Black people and few Chinese as well.
I saw myself as an Indian. I was Hindu. We lived like Indians did, eating Indian food and liking Indian music and dance. We saw mostly Indian films. This is how we lived as a community of Indians.
In the larger community I and my family lived well with everybody. My parents had non-Indian friends from their school days. Their contemporaries – nurses in our local hospital, the school Head and teachers, employees at the Sugar factory, were Black people. I grew up respecting them as part of my larger family. My best friends at school were Indian Black and Chinese. They are to this day. Continue reading →
Written by: Jean Janki Samaroo
OPINION: Reimagining the Caribbean Diaspora: diversity, equity and inclusion – by Lear Matthews
This article focusses on the English speaking Caribbean Diaspora’s experience within the context of diversity, equity and inclusion in the aftermath of recent societal unrest and institutional realignment in the United States. Informed by a concern for social justice and cross-cultural dynamics, this writer unpacks how this population has been affected by the burden of racism and xenophobia. It highlights a continuation of courageous conversations on the topic (See Guyanese Online: February 20-21, 2021). Continue reading →
Share this: