Guyana recently celebrated Arrival Day which has now been declared a national holiday by this current PPP/C administration.

Among the arrivals to the country were East Indians who came to this country 171 years ago and now constituted the largest segment of the Guyanese population.

Their arrival to the country coincided with the granting of emancipation of African slaves in 1838 which created a labour vacuum in the sugar plantation since a significant number of freed Africans opted to pursue livelihoods outside of the sugar plantations.

Other groups to arrive in smaller numbers in the country were Chinese and Portuguese who found it difficult to adapt to the rigours of plantation life and began to drift into business and commerce.

To a large extent, the Guyanese society could be described as a transplanted society in which peoples from diverse ethnicities and cultures were brought to the shores of this country to provide labour to the sugar plantation. Africans were brought here against their will and under the most inhuman and brutal conditions imaginable to provide free labour to the plantation owners.

The sufferings and indignity suffered at the hands of European planters are well documented by our historians. The same is true of the indentured laborers who were bounded not by chains as in the case of the African slaves but by ‘paper chains’ which practically bounded them to a life of servitude for a period after which they were in theory free to return to their homeland.

In reality, the majority did not return to their homeland but opted instead to remain at the end of their indenture mainly out of economic considerations.

Indians and Africans today constitute the vast majority of the Guyanese population, roughly eighty percent of the population. The Amerindians were the first to arrive in the country even though there is still much debate among historians as to exactly how and from where they came.

One thing however is not in dispute, and that is the enormous contributions made by all of the ethnic groups to the growth and development of this country.

This is why our arrival day focus must be on the contributions made by all of the ethnic groups who landed on the shores of Guyana by whatever means and under whatever circumstances.

All ethnic groups have contributed in their own distinctive ways to the socio-economic and political formations of this country.

It is therefore puerile and counterproductive to even attempt to project one group over the other in terms of the contributions they have made to the development of this country.

As I mentioned earlier, from the very early days of our colonization, there were some indications of division of labour.

The Africans upon the granting of emancipation pooled their resources and bought villages and begun to eke out livelihoods outside of the plantation, even though a significant number remained to work in order to supplement family incomes.

East Indians by and large continued to work in the plantations upon completion of their indenture but supplemented incomes by way of farming. Later on, many took to farming and cattle rearing on a full time basis. The Chinese and Portuguese took to commerce and business. Amerindians, by and large remain in the hinterland where they continued with their traditional lifestyle of farming, hunting, fishing and working in the mining sector.

The good thing in all of this is the fact that we have over the years been molded into a common destiny which transcended our individual identities.

Out of our diversity we have forged a nation state in which we are all considered equals regardless of our cultural identities or political affiliation.

What is even more remarkable is the fact that we have spurned attempts to divide us as a people.

This attempt to manipulate our diversity had its genesis since the early days of slavery when there were attempts to use Amerindians to capture run-away slaves who fled into the interior to escape the brutality of plantation life.

Later on, attempts were made by the colonial powers to divide us politically in order to prevent us from realizing our full potential as a free and independent nation.

Thankfully, we have overcome these obstacles in our search for a better life and for a peaceful and cohesive society. We have grown in maturity and are less prone to manipulations by those who may wish to prey on our diversity. Let us all as we reflect on our past resolve to make this country a place in which we are all proud of, one in which there is opportunity for all to develop their potential to the fullest.

Managing our diversity in order to advance our common cause must be regarded as a duty and responsibility.