I must exalt the position and courage taken by the sisters Karen Abrams co-founder of STEM Guyana, Dawn Adriane Holder-Cush Director of Consumer Affairs and my colleague Dr. Melissa Ifill in defence of ‘Sister’ Justice Claudette Singh against the patriarchal oppressive complex of the anti-female practice or misogynistic peculiar to that cultural creed. The manifestation of this conduct must not be allowed to drift off and forgotten into the dusty realm of posterity without firmly understanding this opposing and invasive dogma into the sanctity of our matriarchal consciousness. It will not go away unless we define, understand and regulate it within an aggressive defence system that controls its outbursts and subtle innuendoes.

There are differing cultures amongst us, predominately matriarchal and patriarchal. On February 23, 2020, I wrote an article in my column in the Chronicle ‘Talking Culture’ with the appeal – “Time to measure our Laws against our cultural differences” this article also reflected the views of a letter writer ‘Sushil Persaud’ who lamented the “Failure to address the ethnic impetus in domestic abuse will see the scourge continues” Stabroek News December 2019. The article defined the letter in the context of a cultural creed, rather than purely a racial condition. There is a female member of the Judiciary, who is said to be in the pocket of an opposition politician because she is perceived to always give the government side negative outcomes in cases. This perception has never manifested into public displays of verbal and or physical abuse, through the print media, social media or against her being or possessions or with disparaging remarks. Though I have seen her photograph aligned with other persons in a poster display identifying the group as opposition stooges. There is in Guyana the inherited opposing cultures and creeds of Matriarchal and Patriarchal dogmas. To create a comfort zone of pretence, that we all see the world and interpret it the same way, is counterproductive and dangerous.

Because we are dealing with human beings, we must conclude that they do not conform to inherited cultural straits indefinitely. They at times adopt and concur to the popular cultural norms that they are more exposed to, however, there are at times surprising relapses like the instance with a school friend who did not grow up with any reference to patriarchal culture. His mother taught me in nursery school, he became a priest (I think Catholic). He became involved in some church funds matter, that’s how the story I was told went. With the prospects of prosecution, he committed suicide, which is prohibited in Christian dogma. I have known and witnessed acquaintances in similar predicaments, and suicide is out of the question, they blame it on the Old Devil. Should we reflect on old mythologies for reference, we find African Goddesses not in ceremonial but in profound positions, unhindered by male consorts. They are unique among the pantheons of human belief systems. References like she would earn a box, as a sign of disrespect in matriarchal culture.

To seek to persecute a woman because she takes a position opposing to yours reflects on a personal predicament of ‘internal gender conflict’ which is very evident in a patriarchal culture. Whereas in Asia, especially in certain impoverished states, young boys are dressed up as girls and taught to become musicians and entertainers ‘Launda Dancers’ and to be prostitutes for grown men. This is an accepted norm in that world that requires a far-out fusion of psychology and the logic of mysticism to determine if this is nature’s rebound for cultural contempt of the ‘Mother’. Eusi Kwayanna is justified to be enraged as all matriarchal men are, at the onslaught directed at the Honourable Claudette Singh, by an assortment of male characters whose manhood has been questioned in public, in the media and at every corner across this country. There cannot be an ambivalent accommodation in the national consciousness of this duality, we must dissect and allot cultural creeds towards the forefront of our awareness, where they belong, to identify infuriating tendencies, because tendencies also emit levels of bitterness and spite, where sobriety can express the very concerns, we must come to grips that a tormented species share space with us, that they mask their hidden nature by exacerbations at the very ‘being’ that they secretly long to ‘be’.

Toussaint L’Overture is a Caribbean-CARICOM hero, and a world personality, who waged the only successful slave revolution in history, resulting in the freedom of the much-tortured island nation of Haiti, not by their hands, but by the combined slave-owning countries. When he marched into Port-Au-Prince, he commanded his soldiers not to indulge in the common practices of war of his age, and still practised today, where the women of the enemy are the trophies of their defeat. Toussaint forbade his troops from raping and plundering, urging them to remember their mothers and sisters, and the very former British subjects poured tributes on him. This is the legacy of the matriarchal consciousness. Dr. Mellissa Ifill, you are in a placed position to initiate such an enlightening and necessary public study towards an exposed understanding.