Dr. David Hinds’s letter, carried in your May 18, 2015 issue under the caption ‘African Guyanese have helped lift our collective political culture’, merits a response. Dr. Hinds wrote, inter alia, “African Guyanese were the majority ethnicity of the Unity Train…the African Guyanese community showed an unbelievably high level of respect for their non-African comrades in the Unity Train…Moses Nagamootoo was embraced not as a token, but as a brother-leader-in-arms…As they did in 2011, African Guyanese voted for National Unity, Equality and Mutual Respect”.
From my perspective, Dr. Hinds is saying that African Guyanese attitudes towards Indian Guyanese have changed: that African Guyanese have arrived at a point of collective enlightenment and maturity which enables them to recognise and accept Indian Guyanese as equals worthy of their respect and embrace as Guyanese brothers and sisters; that henceforth Indian Guyanese will not be viewed by African Guyanese as being inferior objects deserving to be hated and despised; that snide remarks and “coolie jokes” will no longer have a place in the amusing activities of African Guyanese; that Indian Guyanese will no longer be subject to systematic bullying and threats by African Guyanese; and that the tenor of African-Indian personal and day-to-day interactions will evince a noticeable increase in harmony.
If this transformation in our African Guyanese and Indian Guyanese relations fails to materialise, then I would have to conclude that Moses Nagamootoo and all the other Indian Guyanese who made themselves part of the ‘Unity Train’ were really not embraced as brothers-and-sisters-in-arms, but that they were merely accommodated and used as cosmetic tokens.

WILBERT M. STEPHENSON
Brooklyn, New York