I AM genetically East Indian in ethnic makeup. I mix among Indians. I have Indian friends. But I have done no research among Guyanese Indians since 2003. I did extensive field work among Indians in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six for my sabbatical research paper for UG titled, “The Great Paradox in Guyanese Politics: Indian attitudes to the PPP and PNC.”

That book-length manuscript was essentially a political project. I have not researched Indian people and their world of culture and economics. It would be ugly arrogance on my part to tell an interviewer how Indian people feel and think. For example, if an interviewer asks me if Hindu marriage rituals are too lengthy, I can only answer for myself. I have not even the remotest idea how Indian people in Guyana feel about Hindu/Muslim marriage and Hindu marriage rituals.

When you want to know how an ethnic community feel about social life in their country two methodologies are the only avenues available to you. One is basic scientific research. You have to research the subject-matter by scientific field work. The other methodology is Rodneyite groundings.

I have lots of Indian friends and relatives, but in older life I have become introverted so I no longer do grounding with Indians and among Africans. My interfacing with Indians involves ephemeral conversations on the seawall, the Bourda market, the National Park, and the supermarkets. But it would be silly to think you can accurately gauge what the Indian population wants from those random encounters. The best adjective to describe people who make pronouncements without research and groundings is stupid. But stupidity may be less relevant a word than arrogance.

It is pomposity and arrogance to live in far distant lands away from Guyana and decide that you know what African Guyanese want. That is unadulterated arrogance. Two such persons are Eusi Kwayana and David Hinds. I live among Black Guyanese. I have close African friends that I trust explicitly and implicitly. Why Kwayana and Hinds feel that a Portuguese Guyanese like Malcolm DeFreitas, who comes from the same Georgetown of Wortmanville like me, has an African wife and has a job where he interfaces with African Guyanese cannot tell Guyana what he thinks African Guyanese want?

Why do only Kwayana and Hinds know how African Guyanese feel and what they want? Kwayana is 99 years old, and Hinds is nearing his 70s. Kwayana belongs to a long-gone African generation. Last week, I interviewed 94-year-old sugar expert Earl John for the Freddie Kissoon Show. Off camera, while we were talking, it came as no surprise to me that almost all of Mr. John’s contemporaries are dead.

It is the same with Kwayana. The African emotion, the African psyche, the African sociology that Kwayana knew from the 1930s are gone. Hinds is younger than Kwayana, but he lives outside of Guyana, where the African population is between the ages of 16 and 40. What do Kwayana and Hinds know about the post 1990 African generation in Guyana?

Before I come to what David Hinds said a few days ago, let me get Kwayana out of the way first. Please read my column of Thursday, February 27 (2025), titled, “Thomas, Kwayana and Hinds: Any Difference” where I dealt with the hubris and hauteur of Kwayana. This man informs us that there is an African village up the East Coast that has an accusation hanging over their heads since 2020 made by the President and the villagers should be treated fairly by having the weight moved from over their heads.

The point is not the asininity of Kwayana’s exclamation but how he knows about this. No one in Guyana knows about a village that is bearing a burden that has been put on their heads by the President. But let us say, one, two, three persons told Kwayana this, does this feeling permeate the village?

So, a few days ago, Hinds asked Chronicle columnist, Leonard Craig, to appear on his social media programme. When Hinds speaks, you would believe he is the appointed and anointed spokesperson for African Guyanese. He went on a rampage about how Africans felt since emancipation and how they view Guyana and its people yesterday and today.

But how does Hinds know this? Where are the groundings of Hinds among African people? Hinds lives in Guyana for only two months in any calendar year. When he comes to Guyana, he does not live in Buxton but in a middle-class suburban area named Atlanticville in a middle-class apartment. You drive through Atlanticville and you can more see a snow leopard than an African working class youth. None of the members of the lunatic fringe speak for African Guyanese.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.