On 15th March 2019, The Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Barney Crockett, signed a twinning agreement between the cities of Aberdeen in Scotland and Georgetown in Guyana. The forging of links between the two territories will no doubt help to deepen and expand the on-going work between Aberdeen University, Edinburgh Heriot-Watt University and the University of Guyana to establish an oil and gas faculty in the country. This twinning may appear on the surface to be an unique one, yet we need only reflect on Guyanese surnames like Fraser or MacPherson, buildings like St Andrew’s Kirk, or place names like Rosehall, Inverness or Fyrish to be reminded of Scotland’s historically inextricable relationship with Guyana. In reflecting on this Guyana SPEAKS have decided to host “A historical glance at the British in Guiana” and invite the following distinguished guests to speak on their specialist knowledge in the field: the historians, Dr Randy Browne and Dr David Alston, and the well known BG-born journalist, author and editor, Mr John Mair.
Guyana History: How Scotland Erased Guyana From Its Past – Yvonne Singh | Guardian UK
How Scotland Erased Guyana From Its Past
The portrayal of Scots as abolitionists and liberal champions has hidden a long history of profiting from slavery in the Caribbean.
Scotland’s role in empire does not belong in the margins or footnotes: Highland Scots had a huge role to play in the large-scale trafficking of human beings for profit. I believe that however unpalatable this history is, it is a shared one, and contributes to our understanding of race and how the movements of people from long ago fits with our story now. To obscure these facts is to rob individuals of their stories all over again, and to deny them any sense of belonging or place in the world.
The mangrove-fringed coast of Guyana, at the north-eastern tip of South America, does not immediately bring to mind the Highlands of Scotland, in the northernmost part of Great Britain. Guyana’s mudflats and silty brown coastal water have little in common with the lush green mountains and glens of the Highlands. If these landscapes share anything, it is their remoteness – one on the edge of a former empire burnished by the relentless equatorial sun and one on the edge of Europe whipped mercilessly by the Atlantic winds. Continue reading →
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