GUYANESE history is not inundated with racial conflict but ethnic alliances. This is what some politicians want us to believe. Rodney makes the point that the case advanced of highly prevalent racial conflict in the society is inaccurate. This is what he has to say: …my contention is that the case for the dominant role of racial division in the historical sphere has been overstated, and that scholarship on the subject has accepted without due scrutiny the proposition that Indians and Africans existed in mutually exclusive compartments. The problems of interpretation lie not only in the marshalling of the evidence, but, more fundamentally, in the historical methodology that is applied (Rodney1982:188).

Let us now look at just a few historical facts supporting this notion that Guyana’s history is not ridden with racial conflict.
* The first experiment of indentured labor in 1838 experienced abortion because the ex-slaves testified against the brutal treatment of the first arrivals; the ex-slaves expressed concerns at the treatment the first arrivals received at the hands of the White planters.
* The Commonwealth Commission commenting on the disturbances in 1962 noted: “We found little evidence of any racial segregation in the social life of the country…East Indians and Africans seemed to mix and associate with one another on terms of the greatest cordiality…
* There was the alliance between Indians and Africans under Critchlow’s leadership in the fight for better wages, and an 8-hour working day.
* The union of ethnic forces against colonial hegemony was another case in point, e.g., the frequent criticisms launched by the Indian Opinion, the organ of the British Guiana East Indian Association, against the colonial government;
* The case where Africans challenged the anti-education principles of the 1876 Education law, demanding that all children should receive a primary education; White planters did attempt to discourage education for Indo-indentured children and Africans faced up to this policy; Africans also supported Indians in their demand for the introduction of Indian languages in schools; and the Court of Policy eventually comprising members from different ethnic groups made crown lands available to both Indians and Africans.
* The emergence of institutional working-class unity in 1946 that became solidified in 1950 with the formation of the People’s Progressive Party and manifested by its victory at the 1953 polls.
* H.J.M. Hubbard, a trade unionist in addressing whether Guyana is ridden with racial conflict said:
“It is by any standards a remarkable fact that in a competitive semi-feudal society such as British Guiana with restricted social and economic opportunities and less jobs than potential workers, very few serious physical inter-racial conflicts arose between the ethnic groups constituting the population.”
(Hubbard 1969:27).

There are other alliances between the two major ethnic groups, even in the post-colonial period. But somehow we seem stuck on only the ‘negatives’; we can do better if we focus greater attention on the similarities among us, rather than the mere differences. Nonetheless, this modus operandi would involve appreciating and understanding others’ cultures and ideas. Let’s do this to advance the cause of Guyana’s development.