by Francis Quamina Farrier

LAST WEEK I focused on World Poetry Day. Three weeks ago I focused on Guyana breaking the Glass Ceiling 50 years ago, and the fact that Guyana has had many women in very influential positions, in both the Private and Public Sectors, including the presidency. During the past three weeks, I have received some very interesting feed-back to those two feature articles, and that has made me decide to juxtapose some aspects of the two; Women of great influence, and the sub-culture of so many Guyanese, who seem to embrace “self-scorn”, as expressed by Martin Carter in one of his more popular poems, “I come from the Niggeryard.”

Let me first reveal one of my principal national pet peeves; Guyanese who just love to say that “Guyana is below sea level.” That statement really bothers and angers me. While still a pre-teen, my all-time favourite teacher, Ms. Edwards, taught us at the St. Ann’s Anglican School at Agricola that, “The coast land of Guyana is below sea level at high tide.” So when people omit saying, “The Coast Land” and “At High Tide”, I usually want to scream. Instead, however, I remember my dear teacher Ms. Edwards and feel blessed to have had her instill such important knowledge to me, when I was still a young native of our Dear Land of Guyana.

So why have I related this fact of my early education? It connects with poetry; the poetry of Guyana’s National poet, Martin Carter. In his poem “I Come from the Niggeryard,” Martin Carter included “…and the scorn of myself.” So I wonder whether there is some measure of self-scorn by those Guyanese who state that “Guyana is below sea level.” Here is a country with two magnificent mountain ranges – the Pakaraimas in the north Rupununi, Region Number Eight, and the Kanaku in Region Number Nine, which separates the north and south Rupununi savannahs. Two lofty mountain ranges. There is also Mount Ayanganna and of course, the breath-taking Mount Roraima, which Guyana shares with neighbouring Brazil and Venezuela.

So while I detest that “self scorn” statement by some Guyanese that “Guyana is below sea level”, I have to point out that there is a positive side to my disgust. High profile businessman Capt. Gerry Gouveia, who is “Guyanese to de bone”, has named one of his companies “Roraima Airways”.
Obviously, the veteran airplane pilot and graduate of the Guyana National Service is extremely proud of the mountainous areas of his native land. He has flown over those mountains countless times, sometimes at night bringing gravely ill or seriously injured fellow Guyanese from the hinterland, who need urgent medical attention in the city.
Many lives have been saved because of his bravery and dedication. So how could people who were born in Guyana not think of all those mountains and state that “Guyana is below sea level”? Is it the sort of “self scorn” which poet Martin Carter wrote about?

In his epic poem, “The Legend of Kaieteur”, A.J. Seymour wrote, regards the water of the Mighty Kaieteur, “…pause on the lip, commit themselves to space, and dive the half mile to the rocks below.” Now let us reason, how would that water plunge 741 feet, if the Kaieteur Falls was below sea level? Also, where would the water in our many canals go, when the kokers are opened, if they were all below sea level, all the time? In fact, would there be kokers in the first place.

Beyond Guyana’s border is the country of Haiti, a sister Caricom country generally classified as being the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and very despised by many. Even Mother Nature, it seems, has been giving Haiti more than its fair share of catastrophes.
That country has over the decades, suffered from so many Natural Disasters, such as deadly earthquakes at times and deadly hurricanes at other times, which result in the deaths of hundreds of people and millions of dollars worth of damages. Haiti is also referred to as “the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”.

It is a country which so many Guyanese seem to disrespect. We who are fortunate to live in a country which does not experience such catastrophes as earthquakes and hurricanes, hardly ever pause to count our blessings and thank Mother Nature for being so kind to us. So many of us seem to wallow in “self-scorn,” continually berating our Mother Guyana. They could find nothing good to say about “Our Native Land.”

One of the most influential women in Haiti is award-winning poet, playwright and University Professor, Evelyne Trouillot. Most Guyanese never pause to think how Haitians exist and in many cases prosper, in a country so poor and so bedeviled with so many catastrophes.
Many Haitians are high achievers, especially in education. Out of Haiti have come so many great international personalities, including a Governor-General in the person of the Rt. Hon. Michaelle Jean who served as the Governor-General of Canada from 2005 to 2010. Here is a woman of African descent who hails from the poorest country in the hemisphere, becoming Governor-General of one of the richest and largest countries in the hemisphere.

On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made the announcement that African-Canadian Viola Desmond of Nova Scotia, would be the first woman in the history of Canada, whose image would be placed on a Canadian banknote – a $10 bill. Over 26,000 submissions were received, but that African-Canadian was finally selected by the panel of judges.

Viola Desmond is regarded as the Rosa Parks of Canada; the only difference is that she fought racial segregation not from an incident on a bus but in a cinema. She was a successful business woman and someone of means. Her rise to prominence in Canada came about when she had dared to buy a ticket for the whites-only section of a cinema and when arrested and thrown into jail, she fought that injustice in a court of law, and won the case, becoming a Canadian heroine, much like Rosa Parks in neighbouring America. The $10 bill bearing her image will be out next year, 2018.

During the run-up to the 2015 General Elections in Guyana, there was the cry, “It is time”. Well, it is certainly time for Guyanese to stop being so full of self-scorn, and hail our heroes and heroines, in Guyana and beyond, especially our Mother Guyana, a country which is not below sea level – but a country with many lofty mountains where sharp-eyed Harpy eagles soar to the blue heavens and the Mighty Kaieteur Falls plunge 741 feet to the gorge below.