-Temple University Prof. tells Land CoI

TEMPLE University–based Guyanese Professor, Dr. Kimani Nehusi, believes that a national body should be formed to research and pen lost African history and he believes the University of the Guyana (UG) would be the best place for such studies.
Dr. Nehusi was at the time giving testimony before the Land Commission of Inquiry (CoI) which convened for a second session of hearings, at the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) at D’Urban Backlands on Monday morning.
According to Dr. Nehusi, a body of experts should be specifically commissioned and enabled to research and write the lost national history, and this should be done in ways which are truthful and non-partisan. He said that the explanations on what happened in the past are important. ”Our different people, different races in Guyana have become very defensive in talking about matters of race and who owned what and what happened,” he told the commission.

He said such an intervention is necessary in order to encourage people to understand the “truth” and according to the expert, this is the only way in which the nation can become progressive. In addition, he suggested that there should be institutionalising of African social history in Guyana. Dr. Nehusi said that the setting up of the unit at UG will concern itself not only in the research of Africans in Guyana, but also in the wider world.
Dr. Nehusi further said that teaching the social history of Africans is of great importance and explained that all Guyanese would benefit from such a move since it would be seen as giving back to Guyana the loss of ancestral knowledge. He said that many persons are “still astonished “to learn some of the elementary facts of African history.
During his lengthy submissions, Dr. Nehusi, who has roots on the Essequibo Coast, made it clear that his ancestors were not slaves, but rather, enslaved Africans, a phrase he repeated throughout his presentation and under questioning from the commission. Among the questions he was asked was, how he proposes the country should address a social cohesion framework to help Guyana to understand that the issue of ancestral lands is not aimed at miniaturising the other segments of Guyana’s society.

Dr. Nehusi responded that it is important and urgent that all understand the issue and how to approach same, and noted that the oppressors had set up a system in which differences in race, colour, gender and culture were made into points of oppression and discord. It was along that line that persons became ostracised and oppressed, he added.
Dr Nehusi told the CoI that in Guyana there are two traditions of land ownership, one that is well entrenched in law and which is the European tradition, and the other being the African tradition which he said has not been placed into the law. He said the latter was left in the open.
Alluding to the Indigenous Guyanese population, Dr Nehusi said that there is significant and important precedence, in that. “Amerindian people have title to significant extents of land, I think that is a good thing,” while noting that it surrounds the issue of safeguarding of property.

Dr Nehusi who mused about the years of free labour and the consequences of enslavement meted out to Africans, remarked, “We have to intervene to treat these things.” he said. On this note, he told the commission that another issue would arise, and added that knowledge has to be provided to the African population, whom he noted, have been divorced from the land for a very long time. ”Many of us are not going to make progressive of it,” he said in factual tones.
During Monday’s hearing, the value of Dr Nehusi’s knowledge of African history was noted by the commission. And, in congratulating the body for questioning him, Dr Nehusi noted, that in so doing one is able to ventilate answers and add to the storage of “critical knowledge.” The hearing continues today.