I HAVE always argued that David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye, Mark Benschop and Rickford Burke cannot attract the new generation of African people we have in Guyana. This country has a very young generation. When a generation is born, many of the mores, traditions, values, customs and practices of the previous generation are either diminished or lost.

We have a young African population that hardly knows about the Burnham and Jagan rivalry; the Black Power movement in Guyana when Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) came here; Eusi Kwayana and his organisation ASCRIA that he had formed. Even the role of Walter Rodney hardly features in the mind of the present population, because Rodney was active in the 1970s, almost 50 years ago. Seventy percent of the population is between 16 and 45. This is a different Guyana with a brand-new generation.

This important lesson, Burke, Benschop, Ogunseye and Hinds are yet to understand. When these four men address African Guyanese and speak to them, they use language that insults the cultural decency of the African race in Guyana.

I remember the words of Walter Rodney when he urged African Guyanese to resist President Burnham using them to go into court and lie in the witness box just to hang a PPP activist, Arnold Rampersaud. Rodney’s essential call to Africans was that Burnham was trampling on their dignity which they had preserved even under slavery.

The four names above insult the dignity of African Guyanese when they address African Guyanese about people who criticise opposition politics, including this columnist. All African Guyanese should read what Rickford Burke wrote about me in his response to an analytical article of mine in the Guyana Chronicle for last Wednesday that assesses the reason prominent African personalities have gone over to Azruddin Mohamed and not the PNC or WPA.

When you read what Burke wrote then you see what kind of minds these people have, and it explains why African Guyanese are disgusted with them. It explains why almost 40 per cent of the PPP Kitty campaign launch was African Guyanese. It explains why some of the most well-known African Guyanese citizens either are on the PPP’s nomination list or have endorsed the PPP. It explains why three PNC parliamentarians crossed over to Mohamed.

I will not sue Burke. That is not my style. I learnt decades ago that when you enter politics, there will be heat in the kitchen. In my 57 years of service to the Guyanese society, I have been assigned some nasty labels. So, I just shrug my shoulder over those long decades and carry on.
I have no time to sue Burke. If I do, he will lose the case in just minutes when the judge reads what he said about me. What Burke said about Frederick Kissoon is not the crux of the matter. It is the way he comes across to the constituencies that he wants to influence against Frederick Kissoon.
Is this the man that African Guyanese should listen to? David Hinds in a recent post said a few nasty things about me. But how effective is Hinds when he addresses African Guyanese by referring to the then PNC parliamentarian, and then legal adviser to President Granger’s Government, Geeta Chandan-Edmond as a slavecatcher, a description that could have landed him a libel suit. Chris Ram, someone who probably hates the PPP, said openly on the Freddie Kissoon Show that Hinds was sprouting racism. Imagine, even Chris Ram is appalled at Hinds’ views on race in Guyana.

Did African Guyanese read the scurrilous, libellous things Hinds said about one of the most decent academics the current African generation produced in this country – Leonard Craig? James Bond also came in for an ugly chastisement from Hinds. One suspects that as the election campaign heats up, the PPP is going to play some ugly remarks by Hinds on the race question in Guyana that will deter people from voting for the PNC, because Hinds’s party is a part of APNU.

Burke went on an insane (and that is a mild word), vulgar cussing down of Frederick Kissoon and one is curious to know how Aubrey Norton, Nigel Hughes, Terrence Campbell and Amanza Walton-Desir feel about Rickford Burke when they read what he wrote. Do they feel morally comfortable sharing this man’s politics?

People like David Hinds and Burke could have long been at least plausible if they used analysis to condemn people they don’t like. Hinds never offered an intellectual rejection of why Craig joined the PPP. Instead, Craig was cussed down. Burke offered not one analytical point in reply to my column. Instead, it was an insane cussing down. It explains why African Guyanese have drifted away from these people and are gone from them forever.

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.