CRITICALLY acclaimed Nigerian novelist and short story writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, said “Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But Stories can also be used to empower, and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

That is what it is all about. To dispossess and malign or to empower and to humanise! To break the dignity of a people or to repair broken dignity! The good news is that all political aspirants speak about empowerment and dignity.

The bad news is that on their imaginary road to power and fame, they dispossess and malign; they instigate and they falsify! They spin webs of fanciful tales. Shakespeare had it right when he said the world is a stage and we are all mere players. Roles differ however. Some of us play the role of stars; some scamps and the majority, people like me and you, are just part of the background. Roles are a good thing that gives us structure and purpose. But when we become fixated with the roles we play, we become more and more willing to sacrifice others and ultimately ourselves to them.
Those of us in the background have a powerful role to play. But it depends on the choices we make! We can use them to either empower or disempower ourselves. When choice empowers, we are in control. When it disempowers, we are being controlled. The problem here is that many of us do not know whether we are empowered or disempowered!
Whether we call ourselves East Indians, or we are called ‘Coolies,’ whether we call ourselves Africans, or we are called ‘Blackman’, we stick to our stories, even though they do not differ that much as we were and are made to believe.
In most cases they do not differ at all. Yet they were used and are being used to successfully achieve their objectives: Divide and Conquer: Divide and Rule. For whatever purpose best suits contending Black and Brown Titans (so-called leaders, aspiring leaders and ‘wannabe’ societal mainstream actors and mouthpieces ranging from professionals and professionals who are crooked charlatans to nincompoops) in their deadly game of power, supremacy and self-enrichment, all are baptised and made holy in the name of the PEOPLE – You and I.
While we were freed physically from the chains of slavery and the bonds of indenture ship, our mental enslavement remained ever powerful. Until this day we are powerless to extricate ourselves from the caves of this mental slavery. We become bound on our own accord and by our own mental chains. From colonialism to Independence what has really changed? The narrators of the stories perhaps! But the stories remain the same.
What does this tell us? Across the dimension of time the more things appear to change, the more they remain the same! Politicians will be politicians irrespective of their rhetoric and political antics. Like chameleons they change colour consistent not only with the geographical and political landscape, but also with their political fortunes which translate to money and power. It is what they do best! In most instances it would appear that the poorer the country and the more backward it is, greater is the arrogance and the ignorance displayed by political wannabes, a lot of certified nincompoops and certified ‘intellectual’ Lilliputians with ‘status’ who delude themselves into thinking they are giants. Societal Giants empower; they humanise. They compromise and reach consensus in the interest of the people! They put people first! Roles and stories are used as means of uplifting the human spirit.
But what prevails in this beautiful land? The same stories have been used throughout history albeit by different Masters, different Rulers, different politicians for different purposes, under changed and changing circumstances to achieve their objectives.
And throughout history, we have been falling victims to the same stories that are maligning and dispossessing us because we believe without knowing. When we know, we stop believing, because believing is not knowing! Sadly, for some of us, even when we know, we pretend not to know, because our perceptions created by the stories told to us confine us to our ‘kit and kin’ preserve – them and us! That is when we begin to malign and dispossess ourselves. Frankly speaking, that is when we lose touch with our humanity.
Maybe this is the irrationality of choice – to be or not to be, to do or not to do – when confronted with the ‘trauma’ of self-empowerment after decades of dis-empowerment and debasement. And this does not have to be an imperial notion. As we can see even after decades of Independence, we are even more dependent than we would like to think.
‘Liberation’ produced a slew of reactions from acceptance to rejection and quite often from one extreme to another. We mimic the methodologies of governance and the methodologies of opposing, both of which were utilised by our former Masters in subduing us. The same methodologies that were used in subduing us are the same methodologies we are attempting to use in ‘liberating’ us!
Being true copy cats and mimic men with no claim to originality, we fail to see this simple truth. We are too busy bashing each other while riding our dark horses of bitterness and vengeance for perceived wrongs – all in the name of the people! That is why Guyana needs visionaries! Not the broken, washed up and wasted ‘ballahoo’ types who proliferate on the political scene at two for three cents!
We cannot “….persevere in archaic fables of dominance and interests, separations and divides, them and us, a legacy which we actively hand down to the future shapers and builders of our country!….. It allows us to still preserve in perceptual analysis framed by the inelegant garland of unbridled hypocrisy, colour, societal status, ‘intellectual’ prowess and arrogance…..These fables are not only distasteful and wrong. They build false expectations and instigate a false sense of self-importance or self-hurt based on victors and vanquished, which in turn is usually the catalyst for violence and aggression.”(Preface. Shadows of Deception: Untying the Gordian Knot).
Questions naturally arise as one ponders the meaning of these sightless social, political and economic ‘meanderings’ to put it lightly. Have we really unhitched ourselves from the parameters, mentality and methodologies of ‘governance’ of our former masters? Were, or are we really prepared to embrace both the ‘trauma’ that has morphed into the ‘specter’ of self-empowerment and development as a Nation in rational and enlightened way?
Or do we revert to the primitive reptilian brain as we seek recourse to usage of the divisive tools of our former masters in debasing and defiling our moral fortitude as a people. We – you and I – must begin to ask ourselves, who stands to gain and who really stands to lose?