REPRESENTING Guyana at the recently concluded Inter-Guianas Cultural Festival Symposium on Artistic Enterprise in the Guianas, local editorial consultant and author, Ruel Johnson posited that the time has come for Guyana to give serious thought to investing serious capital in the development of the culture industry. The conference, held at the Umana Yana, sought to explore the enterprise of artistic production: The literature, the creative energies, industry and cultures in French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname.

Johnson, the author of Ariadne & Other Stories, financed by furniture giants Courts and advertising icon Guyenterprise; and Fictions, Volume One, sponsored by GT&T, individual supporters, and his own agency — Janus Books – noted the need to expand into entrepreneurial pursuits. “What I’ve been learning is that if you are a writer and you intend to live here [in Guyana], you need to become a businessman or woman,” he said.

Citing the example of Shakespeare, he said: “We remember Shakespeare for his plays, but it should be noted that Shakespeare was arguably the model of the artist as cultural entrepreneur, evolving from a mere player to hired playwright, to co-owner of the Globe, where many of his plays were performed.”

Giving a background into the problems facing the development of a writing industry, Johnson noted that the Guianas – individually and collectively — represent anomalous linguistic areas within continental Latin America, both in terms of language spoken as represented by country, and in terms of individual speakers.

He explained that, out of the 13 countries in Latin America, the Guianas represent a collective minority of a little less than 25 percent. He stressed the minority status of the Guianas in numbers, citing population figures: Guyana – 750,000; Suriname – 400,000 and French Guiana – 250,000.   He compared this with Uruguay, which, as the smallest of the non-Guianese countries, has a population of 3.3 million, more than double the combined population of the Guianas.

He pointed out that although the Guianas’ neighbour,   Brazil, is technically a linguistic minority, because it has 200 million persons, it automatically means that most South Americans speak Portuguese.

Belem, one of Brazil’s smaller cities, is scheduled to hold a similar cultural festival next month, he said, and that city has over three million persons.

This, Johnson surmised, means that the Guianas individually lack the economies of scale necessary for creating from scratch an industry that has peaked, and is arguably declining in more sophisticated and sustainable markets.

He attributed this mainly to a lack of internal economies of scale, and the language barrier blocking access to a combined continental Spanish and Portuguese market of some 400 million; in addition, of course, to the respective English, Dutch and French markets.

He explained that there was a problem of poor developmental infrastructure and/or environment: No writing workshops; little or inadequate avenues for publishing; a decline in literacy and literary education; inadequate policy/legal environment; and in Guyana, political suppression of, or discrimination against, writers.

Johnson suggested that in order to create opportunities for industry green housing and growth, there needed to be merged markets (inter-Guianas), technical cooperation, extra-community market push, and technological innovations.

He also presented suggestions to some key challenges, including a skewed international electronic financial system, financing, and lack of political support.

Johnson stressed that the   basis for almost every facet of cultural industry is writing.

The symposium also featured distinguished guests such as Patron of the festival, Dr. E.R. Braithwaite, who declared the festival open; Professor Ian Robertson, who spoke on “Artistic Enterprise”; Mr. Barrington Braithwaite, who spoke on “Cultural Industries in the Guianas”; and Curator of the National Gallery, Ms. Elfrieda Bissember, who spoke on “The Challenges of Hard work, Imagination and Skill”.

Winner of a Guyana Prize for Literature special award, Roopnandan Singh, read extracts from his own work to illustrate “The work of a Guyanese writer”.

Representing their respective countries alongside Johnson were French Guianese writer Andre Paradis and Surinamese writer Ismene Krishnadath.