rootsandculture

  In the summer of 1989, the then President of Guyana, Hon. Desmond Hoyte, attended the opening of an art exhibition hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. The exhibit featured two Guyanese, Dudley Charles and Gary Thomas, who were selected from submissions from across the Americas. President Hoyte had little knowledge of how this exhibition happened or that of his own government's role in withholding support to the artists’ proposal. President Hoyte was in Washington, D.C., meeting with President Bush and various bank presidents in an attempt to reposition Guyana within the US neoliberal sphere and away from the failed socialist experiments of former President, Forbes Burnham. From all accounts it was a pleasant and timely surprise to be invited to the opening of an exhibition of high quality art by Guyanese and in the capital city of his hosts. It was a welcome surprise for Roots and Culture Gallery too and some validation of its collection as well as t

This second in a series of essays continues the excavation of race, ethnicity, class, and the inequities that flow. I have chosen Freddie Kissoon’s daily columns in Kaieteur News as a source of entry points and to remind us of the work still to do. Kissoon’s good-fortune comes partly from bell hooks' direction that we must critique popular culture, partly from Freddie’s own celebrity, and partly his own willingness to critique popular culture. Freddie recently wrote Judas and the Black Messiah: Who is the Guyanese, William O’Neal . In that column he reviewed the film, Judas and the Black Messiah and raised comparisons between the betrayals and assassinations of Walter Rodney, co-founder of the Working Peoples’ Alliance (WPA), in Guyana and that of Fred Hampton in Chicago. Hampton founded the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. My issue with both, column and film, is that they prioritize individual actions over those of the state. In the process, they ignored the things the

  Freddie Kissoon writes a daily column for Kaieteur News and on March 21, 2021, wrote one titled, “ The President asked. I declined. I’ve since changed my mind ”. In it he said, the President of Guyana, Irfan Ali offered him an opportunity to serve Guyana and that he initially declined but was now ready and could best serve as head of a, yet to be founded, human rights commission. I liked the idea at first, but I’ve since changed my mind. This change came as a result of grappling with the importance of Kissoon’s position and positions as the most popular columnist in the most popular newspaper in Guyana and its Diaspora. Only the very popular are known by one name. Hopefully, this is the first of a series of essays, using Freddie's ideas and preferences as a way to explore important issues of race, class, ethnicity and inequities in our societies as well as the requirements for a human rights commissioner.  In a recent column, Kissoon listed his favorite singers as Johnny Mathis,