Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990: Socio-Economic Impact of Co-Operative Socialism

By Ramesh Gampat

Much of Guyana’s 20th century history was defined by the PNC dictatorship and the political and economic wreckage it left behind. In “Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990”, Dr Ramesh Gampat presents a comprehensive study of these specific years when the national economy contracted by 2.7 percent annually.

He explores the multiple facets of the country’s political tribalism which “does not value freedom, liberty and the flourishing of all people; it values only freedom, liberty and flourishing of tribes.”
The study reinforces the widely held belief that until and unless these adversarial groups subsume their respective selfish interests and commit to the common cause of national peace and development, the great downswing might not rest as a historical event but could well re-emerge with further economic devastation if the lessons go unheeded.

Dr Gampat makes a strong case for federalism as a solution to Guyana’s ethnic politics. Federalism, he posits, would ensure that all Guyanese have equal access to opportunities and resources since a system of provincial governance would be better placed to address discriminatory policies and practices at a localised level.

With the country sitting on the cusp of transformative development to be propelled by new-found oil wealth, there is an urgency to settle the divisive politics if every Guyanese is to benefit fairly and equitably from the economic boom.

“Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990” offers up a studied and comprehensive analysis that should be part of that bipartisan discourse going forward.


--- Ryhaan Shah, Novelist, Social Activist

A few piecemeal academic articles analyzing Guyana’s economic evolution over the period 1977 to 1990 were written, but they are scattered and lost away in various journals. What was missing is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of the era of Cooperative Socialism. Dr. Ramesh Gampat’s book fills this gap. It is a superb synthesis of historical, theoretical and econometric exploration of the Great Downswing. The book not only provides estimates of important macroeconomic concepts such as Guyana’s total factor productivity and long-term growth, but also produces the useful statistics and reviews of poverty, inequality, life expectancy, education outcomes as well as a detailed analysis of the rice sector.
As if these are not enough, Gampat sets the tone by situating the exploration in the country’s long standing and debilitating ethno-political dynamics. This self-contained book will be of tremendous use to policy makers, journalists and students interested in the historical context of present-day outcomes. I highly recommend this book to public libraries and home reference libraries.

---Tarron Khemraj, William and Marie Selby Professor of Economics and International Studies, New College of Florida

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664132849

Ramesh Gampat

Ramesh Gampat is an economist, who worked for about three decades with the United Nations Development Programme. He is the author of several books. The two most recent ones are Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990. Socio-Economic Impact of Co-operative Socialism (2020); and Essays. Guyana: Economics, Politics and Demography (2022). Dr. Gampat has also published academic papers on inflation, poverty, international trade, human development, gender and corruption. He lives with his wife just outside Atlanta, Georgia.

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Copyright © 2020 by Ramesh Gampat.

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Rev. date: 10/19/2020

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1. A Small and Vulnerable Economy

Contextualizing the Economic Calamity

In the Beginning …

Rising Material Prosperity

The Great Interruption of Progress

Snail-Growth Economy

Small, Vulnerable Economy

The 2020 Election Fiasco

Rest of the Book

Chapter 2. Guyana’s Messy Politics: Zero-Sum Thinking

How to Win: Rig Elections

Two Security Dilemmas

Zero-Sum Tribal Politics

Consequences of the Zero-Sum Game

Chapter 3. Guyana’s Messy Politics: Political Tribalism

Political Tribalism: What It Is

Political Tribalism: Scientific Grounding

Tribalization of State Institutions

A Silver Lining, Perhaps?

Chapter 4. Co-operative Socialist Republic of Guyana

From Colony to a Strange Anomaly

Co-operative Socialism

Burnham’s Little Red Book

Miracle That Did Not Happen

Alice-in-Wonderland

Chapter 5. Economic Devastation: Productive Infrastructure Fell Apart

Owning and Controlling the National Economy

Emergence of the Currency Black Market

The Shrinking Economy

Deteriorating Infrastructure

Productive Apparatus Crumbled

Chapter 6. Economic Devastation: Macroeconomic Damage

Ballooning Central Government Deficit

Soaring Inflation

Public Debt

Balance of Payments

Chapter 7. The Growth Puzzle: Methodology

Background

Total Factor Productivity

Data

Method

Chapter 8. The Growth Puzzle: Results of Estimates

Growth Accounting Estimate of TFP

The Econometric Estimate of TFP

Putting the Pieces Together

Tribal Political Ecosystem

Major Messages

Chapter 9. Pillage of the Rice Industry

Some Background

Impact of Government Intervention

Economic Effects of Paddy Pricing Policies

Rest of the Great Downswing

Chapter 10. Education: Falling from One of the Best

Decentralization

From Best to One of the Weakest

Spending on Education

Efficiency of the Education System

Beyond the Great Downswing

Problems and Issues

Chapter 11. Poverty and Inequality Pre-1990

Early Efforts to Measure Countrywide Poverty

Rural-Urban Income Gap

Shrinking Income in Rural Areas

Skewed Land Distribution

Extent of Rural Impoverishment

Main Messages

Chapter 12. Poverty and Inequality Post-1990

The Three Latest Surveys

FGT Poverty Measures

Moderate and Critical Poverty

Growth is not Pro-Poor

Ethnic Dimension of Poverty

Geography of Poverty

Poverty: Depth and Severity

Welfare Distribution

Consumption Inequality

Who are the Poor?

Poverty: A Comparative Perspective

Chapter 13. Marginal Gain in Life Expectancy

A Comparative Perspective

Political Regime and LEB

Gender Differences in Life Expectancy

Another View of Life Expectancy Data

Determinants of Life Expectancy at Birth

Chapter 14. Issues, Questions, Thought Experiment

The Context

Making of the Dilemma

A Bigger Dilemma

Is There Hope?

The Great Downswing

A Failed State?

A Federal Regime: Clarification and Arguments

A Federal Regime and the Question of Distribution

Endnotes

References

Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990

Praise for the GREAT DOWNSWING

This research by economist Dr. Ramesh Gampat is a timely and much needed study on a specific period in Guyana’s history. The study covers an important transition period in Guyana’s political and economic development, from 1977 to 1990. This 14-year period saw two major transformative developments in Guyana, namely the institutionalization of a dictatorship through party paramountcy under Forbes Burnham and his ruling People’s National Congress, and a bold move to nationalize and control the economy under the guise of cooperative socialism.

Both plans were designed to exercise political control over Guyanese society and to allow the government to play a greater role in the economy. The effect was that both of these transformations, occurring almost simultaneously, led to the strengthening of a political dictatorship and economic disaster for Guyana. It is this dark period in Guyana’s development that has led to what Dr. Gampat appropriately terms "The Great Downswing". Written with great clarity, and supporting evidence, this book is a must read for anyone seeking a better understanding of an understudied period in Guyana’s history.

— Dr. Baytoram Ramharack, Adjunct Associate Professor of Politics, Nassau Community College

This is not just a labour of love. It combines the author’s lived experience with an economist’s lens, to examine evidence on the fourteen years he calls Guyana’s great economic downswing. The years have cast a long shadow that extends even into the present. The book is a reminder to the Guyanese, and to the world, how internal divisions, including ones from political tribalism, and short-termism in decision making, can so easily damage physical infrastructure, institutions, the social fabric, and human lives. Damage that can be hard to reverse. It underscores the value of tools like decentralization and democracy, provided they are used with authenticity.

It is possible for Guyana to navigate its own way forward to address persistent social, political and economic disaffection. Is it probable? Readers can draw their own conclusions from this rare study of an under-researched period of Guyana’s history.

— Dr. Anuradha Khati Rajivan, Economist and former head of the Human Development Report Unit, Asia Pacific Regional Centre, Colombo/Bangkok, United Nations Development Programme

In his new book, Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990, Dr. Ramesh Gampat weaves together historical, political, and economic data to demonstrate how the PNC government devastated the socio-economic fabric of post-independent Guyana. Dr. Gampat leaps boldly into the heartbeat of the regime revealing how tribal tendencies based on brute force, domination, and manipulation cascaded Guyana into political polarization, ethnic divisiveness, and economic bankruptcy.

The nation-state became a playfield and plantation yard of demagogic rule. The Great Economic Downswing is a kaleidoscope and poignant narrative crammed with dense data and deep truths. Written with clarity and compassion, Dr. Gampat provides a roadmap to understanding Guyana’s turbulent past, and in so doing, reveals a riveting analysis, made more convincing because of the true story of Burnham’s dictatorship and destruction at its core.

— Dr. Lomarsh Roopnarine, Professor of Caribbean and Global Studies at Jackson State University

Dr. Ramesh Gampat, a former senior economist with the UN, does justice in this book on what he calls Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, which lasted from 1977 to 1990, when output fell by 2.7 percent annually. Important and long overdue, this authoritative book is written by an economist who lived in Guyana during the Great Downswing.

It is the best book on Guyana’s economy I ever read. The author examines issues such as governance, nationalization, state capacity, corruption, distributive politics, electoral behavior, domestic and external debt stock, among others. He even touched on the coming oil economy of Guyana that will probably increase political and economic instability.

This book will be treasured and quoted. Parts of the book make for easy reading while other parts require an understanding of statistics, algebra and differential calculus. But any investment of time reading the book amply rewards.

— Dr. Vishnu Bisram, Veteran Journalist, Educator, Political Economist and Analyst

Dr. Ramesh Gampat has produced a stimulating work of scholarship on Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1997-1990. During these fourteen years the economy contracted 2.7 percent annually. An important finding is the centrality of labor to economic growth which contributed more than either capital or total factor productivity to overall growth. Of note, is the persistence of poverty despite a reduction from 60-80 percent during the Great Downswing to 43.2 percent in 1993 to 36.1 percent in 2006. Data for recent years are not available.

The Great Downswing was the result of Forbes Burnham’s hunger for power and domination. He succeeded in inflaming political tribalism, which is now tearing the country apart. Arguing that the current majoritarian system cannot solve the country’s problem, Dr Gampat makes a strong case for a federal-style of governance to replace the unitary system of winner-takes-all. This system he argues, continues to breed hate, discrimination, tribalism, inequality and marginalization and is the source of Guyana’s human development problems. I commend this excellent book to all students, politicians, researchers, teachers, and others.

— Dr. Tara Singh, Former Senior Lecturer, University of Guyana

Dr. Ramesh Gampat’s book is a scholarly work focused on the devastating impact of undemocratic political rule on social and economic conditions in Guyana. Although the book’s main focus is on the period 1977-1990, a period of massive economic and social devastation, corruption, crime, and racism, the book traces the sad political history of the country, the impact of mainly dictator Forbes Burnham, and also the blatant attempts to rig the 2020 national election.

Dr. Gampat’s training in economics shines in this book, as demonstrated by his copious amount of data-driven evidence to support his arguments. By no measure, has this book cover all the major consequences of the economic devastation of 1977-1990, but it is comprehensive in the themes covered.

— Dr. Somdat Mahabir, Scientist and Adjunct Professor

Also by Ramesh Gampat

Perspectives on Corruption and Human Development,

Volume 1 (co-edited with Anuradha Rajivan)

Perspectives on Corruption and Human Development,

Volume 2 (co-edited with Anuradha Rajivan)

Guyana: From Slavery to the Present. Volume 1: Health System

Guyana: From Slavery to the present: Volume 2: Major Diseases

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism (First edition)

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism, Volume 1 (Second Edition)

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism, Volume 2 (Second Edition)

For Shivani and Chris

And

For my parents, in memoriam

To know the future, we must understand the past

– Mondschein 2016: xv.

In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible

– Abraham Joshua Heschel,

quoted in Susannah Heschel 1998: xxiv

"No one can say that the country today is not more

prosperous," said Maria Astudillio, a twenty-four-year-

old student at the school [University of Chile’s law school].

"But the way that growth was generated means that a lot of

people don’t have access to education, to health, to food"

– quoted in Appelbaum 2019: 275.

We can’t trust our intuition. We need data

– Dr. Robert Harrington, Time, 27 January 2020.

PREFACE

I enjoyed writing this book partly because I had gathered most of the necessary data prior to drafting and partly because a large portion of the analysis squarely falls within my primary domain of training and expertise. I have been thinking about the subject for a very long time now, but never managed to address it satisfactorily: the deep and prolonged contraction of Guyana’s economy from 1977 to 1990, the direct consequence of Co-operative Socialism and Forbes Burnham’s hunger for unlimited power. President Forbes Burnham cannot be compared to Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini both of whom were sick with a vindictive sense of inferiority (Morante 1974: 47). To a much lesser extent, that sick and vindictive personality trait showed up in Burnham as well, which warped and distorted his sense of decency and the economic and human cost of his madness.

This wanton, despotic man, Forbes Burnham, sought fanfare and obedience, political obeisance as one local newspaper puts it. No one could tell Burnham anything once he made up his mind, according to former Prime Minister of Guyana, Hamilton Green, himself a malevolent man and undying supporter of Burnham’s political party, the People’s National Congress (Kaieteur News 2020). Even today the mere mention of the supreme leader’s name sends shivers down the Indian spine, thirty-five years after the dictator died of heart failure at age 62. Whatever seeds of mayhem he might have sown, Guyana’s post-independence political landscape has been dominated by sad, narcissistic, kleptocratic and morally bankrupt men who have imposed a terrible cost, financial and human, on society. The misdeeds of our presidents and their cohorts have now infected the entire nation and we collectively seem to have lost all sense of moral purpose, twisting and bending truth in every which way to serve narrow, aggrandizing and divisive ends. Today people, things, events, processes: all fall victims to corrupted morals. Greed has marginalized our moral compass.

These destructive fourteen years, nine of which were presided over by the maximum leader, I have labelled the Great Downswing in the book. A time of hopelessness, despair, fear and panic, these were years of a steady economic tsunami that destroyed the economy, its infrastructure and the moral fabric of society. It devastated peoples’ lives, impoverished most of the country, shredded the moral and ethical foundation of society and entrenched political tribalism along with its uncontrollable and disobedient psychology. The country’s infrastructure crumbled, and the quality of education and health deteriorated from a high standing to one of the lowest in the Americas. Poverty rose from 38 percent of the population in 1971 to 86 percent in 1989. For the 14 years preceding, during and after the Great Downswing, the gain in life expectancy at birth was 1.4 years, 1 year and 3 years, respectively. Of 26 selected countries in the Americas, life expectancy rose by the smallest increment in Guyana during these years. Life in Guyana during these troubled years was a grim struggle. The outcome was evident in the withered bodies and blank, remote eyes of people, particularly children. The spectacle of the distant eyes of children stays me and fills me to this day with grief, despair and moral outrage. The physical evidence of a desperate life was more abundant in the rural and interior areas.

About a quarter of Guyanese living in the country today were born when the Great Downswing began in 1977. Very few, perhaps less than 5 percent, remember the socio-economic chaos and an even smaller percent of those younger than 45 years know of the catastrophic event. In general, Guyanese have a tendency to forget unpleasant historical episodes particularly those that disadvantaged and suffered Indians, the country’s largest ethnic group. It is not a matter of willful forgetfulness but rather of selective amnesia imposed upon the population via schools and other institutions of learning as well as the media and the government itself. If memory is lost, remembering is not possible; memory matters.

Having lived through the Great Downswing, I vividly remember it and the Preface is perhaps the most appropriate place in the book for me to reminisce and share some of my experiences and views. These vignettes are, of course, subjective and infused with my own biases, unconscious or otherwise, and, therefore, may or may not be reflective of the experience of the general population. Memory, it seems, is a dangerous but necessary thing when it is both alive and dead. This caveat has to be borne in mind by you, the reader, as you peruse the rest of the Preface.

The destruction and suffering wrought by the Great Downswing is still fresh in my mind. I remember the privations, as my father would say, if they happened only yesterday. Partly because my daughter was born in 1982 and we had first-hand experience of the frustrations and difficulties getting baby food, which was not available in stores, as did most food items whether produced in the country or not. Even sugar and rice, produced in the country, were hard to find in stores. Good times or bad, people had to live, however meagerly, precariously or unethically. Empty shelves, caused by the dire shortage of foreign exchange, created an opportunity for individual traders, who traveled to Trinidad, Suriname, Brazil, the United States and Canada to purchase foodstuff and other items necessary for some semblance of life back home.

The organized or formal private sector of the economy broke down; parts of it died and other parts went underground, an informal sector Guyanese called black maket. That was a relatively new term to most people. It soon became very familiar; familiarity should not evoke fear, but it did in this case. Not merely because prices reached for the stratosphere, but also because people had to go to the maket and the maket was associated with robbery, violence and harassment by the police who focused more on the buyers for purchasing illegal stuff. There was a reason for the lop-sided focus: most buyers were Indians while most sellers were Africans. Both ethnic groups had to pay bribe to sell or acquire goods, but the differential focus was racist in intent and practice.

To magnify the suffering and deprivation, Burnham’s wrath and vindictiveness led to the victimization and marginalization of Indians from the public sector. To be employed by the Government, an Indian had to be a party-card carrying member of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Forbes Burnham’s ruling political party. Many opportunistic Indians, particularly the upper-class ones and some prominent Hindu priests (purohitas or pandits) as well, sacrificed their fellow Indians and their own dignity and joined the PNC. As with converts, these opportunistic Indians had to prove their loyalty to the PNC. How did they do that? By outdoing Africans: by becoming meaner, more vicious and more vindictive towards Indians, and demanding a larger bride. Their relations with the rest of the Indian population became so degraded and fearsome that Indians wanting to transact business with the government, such as getting a birth certificate, paying a utility bill, getting a telephone connection or prosecute a matter in the courts (a land case, for example) preferred to deal with an African employee of the Government.

Another avenue of discrimination was the distribution of basic but scarce food items through the Knowledge Sharing Institutes, (KSI) which presumably equated scare food items to knowledge and shared it with mostly Africans, who, therefore, were both fed and knowledgeable and perhaps contented. If there is a need for an example of the authoritarian dysfunction of Burnham’s Co-operative Socialism, I would offer the KSI. It is an emblem of propaganda, racial discrimination and tribalism, exploitation (bribe), patronage, fake news that produces epistemological vertigo, hostility to markets, and an explicit acknowledgement that the economy broke down.

Traders, mostly African, mainly hawk their wares on both sides of Water Street from Stabroek Market to around Fogarty’s Department Store, which is a distance of about 350 yards. Buyers reflected the ethnic mix of the country, but Indians dominated the throng of rowdy and impatient shoppers. Tempers often flare over very scarce items and shopping under the blazing sun. Quarrels sometimes erupted into fights. The prices of commodities sold on the black market were astronomical, as much as 5 to 7 times their price in normal times. These goods included food items, such as dhal, chowmein, soap, potato, rice, curry powder, onion, garlic, powdered (dry) milk, lactogen (dried infant formula), tomato ketchup, salt, and a range of other imported commodities, most of which were either banned or severely restricted. Shoppers were desperate, weighing each purchasing decision carefully, while remaining alert to thieves (choke-and-rob, as they were called) who were skilled at snatching peoples’ money, purse, bag and goods. Shopping on Water Street was a terrifying experience, but there was hardly any other option for those who lived in Regions 3 and 4. These two regions accounted for 56.1 percent of the country’s population in 2012.

Perpendicular to Water Street runs America Street, which was where businessmen, traders and an assortment of others regularly purchased U.S. dollars. The noisy, disorderedly and dangerous avenue of money changers was dubbed Wall Street. At that time, the largest Guyanese bill was $20, and shoppers carried thick wads to make everyday purchases. Currency trading was dominated by Africans and Indians, probably in equal measure, and many of them became millionaires trading foreign exchange in a market where demand vastly exceeded supply. Money changers were targeted for robbery, but Indian money changers were targeted more frequently. They figured disproportionately among the dead, either shot on Wall Street or at home during a robbery. The underground currency market was a lucrative but extremely dangerous business, which explains why it was male-dominated – tough, rough, loud and foul-mouthed, braggadocious, and bad, bad.

When I got off work on Saturdays (public servants worked half-a-day on Saturday), I headed for Water Street to purchase Lactogen for my infant daughter. I could only have afforded a small tin, probably about 16 ounces. I did not have sufficient money to buy other baby items, such as baby oil and talcum powder. I was even robbed once, which, in retrospect, was due to my own stupidity. Having made my weekly purchase greens, including bora (a kind of beans), bhajie (spinach), okro (okra), pumpkin and provisions (eddoes, yams, dasheen, plantains, cassava) from Stabroek Market, I made my way onto Water Street with my goods in a bag. I told a friend who was also making his Saturday purchases that I do not have my money in my pocket but at the bottom of my shopping bag. Before long, in the push and pull of the crowd, someone shoved me while another grabbed my bag simultaneously. My daughter was deprived of Lactogen for the following week. My wife was both sympathetic and mad. She advised I should keep my big mouth shut and keep my eyes open and get out of there as quickly as possible. That was the best piece of advice to shop safely on Water Street.

Some traders, mostly Indian, travelled to the countryside to sell their wares; others sold them directly to stores in special arrangements and deals. Craftily, illegal items – those banned by the government and included almost all food items imported during colonialism - were not displayed on the shelves of stores but hidden somewhere in the building (owner’s house). Just as importantly, the shopkeeper sold banned – illegal - items only to customers he knew for fear of being reported to the police, which could lead to raids, confiscation of the banned items, heavy fines, and even jail terms. These stores were not the typical grocery stores of today but mom-and-pop operations, bottom-house operations, typically from around 100 square feet to 400 square feet or so. Sometimes they were referred to as dry goods stores but more often they were distinguished by simply appending their owner’s name – Nick store, Buju store, and the like. Despite the term dry goods, these operations sold kerosene oil and cooking oil – also called fry oil for there were no brands – but not alcohol, which was in fact sold at some homes but under the table. An interesting thing is that most of the mom-and-pop stores in the country were owned by Indians. That is still the case today.

Daily life was a desperate struggle, and a quiet desperation permeated the lives of Guyanese, especially Indians. There was nothing to lift one’s spirit, no silver lining as far as the eyes could see and mind imagine. The toil and toll were written on people’s face. It was engraved on their emaciated bodies set against the background of a highly disordered, degraded and filthy physical environment that was an attractor to swarms of flies and rodents, day and night. Sometimes and in some places, but not all, the stench that rudely assaulted the nostrils turned the stomach and quickened one’s pace. Robbery was widespread and Indians were targeted on the street, in their shops and homes.

The Great Downswing imparted an extra fillip to the choke-and-rob, kick-down-the-door banditry, which became as widespread as the fear it instilled. The robbery phenomenon also marked the beginning of home imprisonment. Here I refer to the rising tendency to install iron grids around windows and on the outside of the front and back doors of the house. As soon as it gets dark, windows and doors were firmly shuttered and residents were barricaded, imprisoned as it were, in their homes, a huge fire hazard to say the least. Even today, most Indian houses are not complete without iron grids around entry points, a lasting legacy of the Great Downswing and the lurking presence of Burnham in the background, hidden among the bushes as the saying goes.

Free speech, which the Constitution guarantees, was a dangerous thing. People engaged in self-censorship. They spoke in hushed voices and whispered when chatting on or off the streets; nothing bad could be uttered about the Maximum Leader, Forbes Burnham, and his governing PNC. The press died, killed by the government. Then there emerged from the underworld the Catholic Standard – the little paper as Freddie Kissoon memorably called it (Kaieteur News 2017), edited for most of its life by Father Andrew Morrison, a fearless Roman Catholic priest. For more than 18 years, he played a pivotal role in exposing countless human rights violations and provided a platform for resistance to the dictatorship.

The suffering of ordinary folks during the Great Downswing made me realize that helpless people in a totalitarian regime speak through silence. Their blank, silent stares are voices from the heart. Those voices need no language, no reasoning faculty, no particular skin pigmentation, to understand. They touch the soul of one’s being. But it was the children who suffered the most. Distended bellies, missing teeth and vacant stares bespeak of hunger and malnutrition and perhaps compromised neurons. The ever-present runny nose of children, that epidemic companion of poverty and squalor, was ubiquitous. Sadly, many children did not even seem to be aware that the thick mucus settled and dried on their upper lips. How can one forget the poverty-stricken face of such a child as she stares at you: with fear, expectation, confusion, acceptance, pleadingly yet not pleading? I am not sure what, if anything, goes through the mind of such a child; only what I think goes through. What I know is this: the sight is heart-rending and indelibly imprints itself on the observer’s mind, there to haunt him for all eternity.

Young children, languid, bedraggled, scarcely and shabbily clothed, bare-footed, roamed the streets as if they were homeless; some probably were. These sights were common, even in the rural areas. Malnutrition reduced the life expectancy and life chances of a whole generation of Guyanese children: poverty eats brain cells and leads to higher rates of child morbidity and mortality. It is well-known that reduced cognitive development, higher rates of school dropout and increased grade retention lead to irreversible, long-term reductions in human capital, including adult height, intelligence, school achievement and economic productivity. These ills compromised earning ability later in life. In turn, lower earning is associated with poverty, deprivation and stress, which bring a host of ailments later in life.

The Great Downswing taught me that desperation opened the door to all manner of vices, from prostitution to theft to disrespect, to corruption to mental health issues to the foulest language and to every degeneracy in between. Morality falls victim to grinding poverty. Desperate poverty, helplessness, hopelessness and stress undermine morality so that people are more open to thinking and doing things they normally would not think or do. Poverty, I learnt, was more than hunger and lack of money. It was all kinds of depravations that instill fear, undermine honesty, render dignity passé and spell tougher times especially for females. Poverty is terrifying and dehumanizing and can be passed from one generation to the other unless stopped.

More than any other ethnic group in Guyana, Indians were a closely knitted family back then, usually with two or three generations living together under the same roof. It was the duty of males to provide and care for the family and defend them in times of trouble. While difficult, it was manageable job prior to the Great Downswing, but things fell apart during the unparallel economic catastrophe. Unable to care for their families, males, Indian in particular, began to drink (regularly consume alcohol) to drown their stress and sorrows, perchance to dream of better times. Many drank themselves to death. Many became mad and suicide rates shot up. So did violence, inside and outside of the home.

The data is not available, but it is likely that, while life expectancy of the population as a whole rose marginally during the fourteen years, the increase was even smaller for the Indian segment of the population. The acute economic turmoil and distress, the invisible emotional strains and scars, and the social and health dimensions of the Great Downswings are unknowns and have not been investigated. Behavioral health at the level of the individual and society is a crucial aspect of wellbeing and life expectancy – that much is known; its impact on families and the population as a whole during those 14 years of wreckage is not.

The Great Downswing accelerated the size of Guyana’s mixed population. Mixed people are the off-springs produced by the union of two of the six races via marriage or otherwise (including tek up translated as cohabitation or living together, live home, shack-up; casual relationships; sex in exchange for a job or some favor)¹. While the hard evidence does not exist, anecdotal evidence and observations suggest that the stock of mixed children produced by African and Indian couples during the Great Downswing was larger than that of other mixed children. These fourteen years were a time when young Indian women began to turn increasingly to African men both for the financial stability and improved life prospects. It was said that an African man was extremely happy to partner with an Indian girl for her beauty, industriousness, the financial discipline instilled into her by her parents (save, save, save!) and his own prospects of rising upward in life. The African man granted her greater freedom, did not physically abuse her as much as Indian men, respected her and was not a habitual or heavy drinker. In turn, she cooked, washed and cleaned the house and cared for the children. (Note: A reliable source told me that the Jagdeo regime – 11 August 1999 to 3 December 2011 – encouraged mixed unions between Africans and Indians, which is the PPP’s approach to the ethnic problems).

Mixed unions added another dimension to the persistent assault on Indian way of life, from culture to cuisine to mode of dressing to manner of speaking to behavior to music to marriage to religion. The economic devastation, political cataclysms and cultural destruction of the Great Downswing should scare all Guyanese about the calamitous potential of political tribalism, toxic racism in its most abhorrent form, which can turn every aspect of settled life upside-down.

As I look back now, it seems that only darkness bereft of hope and voice existed during the fourteen years of pillage and destruction that seemed like an eternity. The only escape valve available was migration, which slashed the Indian population share from 51.9 percent in 1980 to 48.6 percent in 1991. The supreme irony is that external powers got us into darkness (1964), and it was external powers that got us out of darkness (1992). The undisguised, unrepentant, prolonged efforts to rig the 2 March 2020 elections were, from the Indian standpoint, five months of despondency and fear. The chaos was a grim reminder of the Great Downswing and the human cost of a totalitarian regime. Once again, pressure and threats from foreign governments and entities prevailed and the votes were counted accurately. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won the elections. Yet even a PPP government does not attend to the interests of ordinary Indians when in power: would it be any different this time around? If the PPP governs in the interest of all Guyanese, reject plutocracy and kleptocracy, and, more generally, worked diligently to control corruption – that would be a great improvement.

We are, it seems to me, unable to function responsibly without the lash, the direction and authority, of the white massa. With delayed effect, the lash has herded us into political tribes, hardened our hearts, darkened our minds and stripped us of moral and ethical moorings. To move on, more lash is necessary for Guyanese seem to have lost their senses. Political tribalism has deformed the ideas Guyanese choose to help them form moral judgment, and to guide personal and social behavior. Political tribalism has stripped us of empathy for the other. We are always right and the other is always wrong. Parochial, sectional boundaries have been imposed upon right and wrong. Political tribalism is ripping Guyana apart and Guyanese seem to be unaware of it or too deluded to grasp its dire consequences – for them, their children and grandchildren.

As one ponders the Great Downswing, it is difficult not to ask the what if question: what if the British and Americans did not install Burnham and the PNC in power in 1964? That question sits heavily on my mind as I write the preface to the book, but I have little time or inclination to engage in historical counterfactuals.

Finally, I am aware that this book will be criticized, condemned and even deemed subversive by some Guyanese, particularly those on the opposite side of the racial divide, which is ipso facto a political divide as well. I have no problem with that but would prefer the book to be judged on its analytical merit, copiously supported by data, rather than on tribal emotions. While the preface might have veered off into superficial glances of the ethical and psychological effects of the Great Downswing, I have endeavored in the rest of the book to dwell upon the political and socio-economic dimensions. I trust I have done so dispassionately and that my mind was not highjacked by heuristics or cognitive shortcuts and by what anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973: 261) called primordial sentiments.

Ramesh Gampat

Grayson, GA

September 12, 2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There is a beautiful Sanskrit line in the Mahābhārata that I would like to invoke at the beginning of my acknowledgement: ṛṇavantaḥ sadā martyaḥ, which means we are all indebted to society in one way or the other. I am indebted to numerous persons in uncounted and unknown ways throughout my life for I have been a fortunate man. Several persons have helped me directly and indirectly with this book – with research, reviews, suggestions, advice, moral support, inspiration. Many others, some of whom have left us, have nurtured, counseled, consoled, guided me, shaped my mind and provided material support, comfort and succor, love and perspective. To all of these generous and selfless individuals I acknowledge my deep indebtedness and profound gratitude. Without them, especially the Badri clan, I could not have written this book.

Anyone doing serious research on Guyana will be confronted by an equally serious problem: the quality of data. While the availability of data per se is not a very serious issue, its timeliness, accuracy, and level of disaggregation are. It is not unusual for different sources to have different values for the same data point for the same year. Sometimes the gap is fairly large and at other times data from different sources are inconsistent. Most health data, including data on life expectancy at birth, causes of mortality and morbidity, are more than five to ten years outdated. Most of the available data produced by the country is not disaggregated by ethnicity, region, rural and urban areas. This is rather curious since Guyana is a land of six races and ten administrative regions. Most of the available data is national in reach and character. These data lacunae make it nigh impossible to calculate metrics such as life expectancy, GDP and the human development index (HDI) by region and ethnicity. The point is clear and needs no further illumination: to aggregate is to obfuscate and the reason is wrapped in political tribalism.

These data gaps, inconsistencies and confusion led me on a long journey punctuated by both frustration and discovery. I have realized that some of the best sources of data and analyses of economic conditions in Guyana are the World Bank, the IMF and the Inter-American Development Bank. The best sources of data and analyses of health and nutrition are the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bank of Guyana, and the Bureau of Statistics are sources of a wide range of data and analyses. Aside from the Bank of Guyana, other official sources do not generally analyze or comment on the data they make public, which is a lost opportunity to inform and connect with Guyanese.

I have drawn upon many reports from these various entities, sometimes liberally, sometimes not, and wish to acknowledge my debt to them. The extent of my gratitude is evident from the endnotes and list of references in the book. The poor state of data in Guyana and the work of these various entities bring home to me the virtue of epistemic humility or the realization that my knowledge of the issues addressed in this book is provisional and incomplete.

A former United Nations colleague and good friend of mine, Dr. Anuradha Kathi Rajivan, an economist, read the entire draft manuscript of this book. Her observations and comments led me to revise portions of certain chapters, break up huge chapters, clarified terms and sharpened the language. The title of the book owes much to her suggestion and I am indeed most grateful to her. She has been an inspiration to me. I am grateful to Professor Tarron Khemraj, an economist, who provided substantive comments that caused me to revisit and revised some chapters. His feedback on Chapters 2 and 7 in particular is much appreciated. I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Vishnu Bisram, who read an early version of the draft in detail and supplied insightful feedback. Subsequently, I imposed upon his time with requests to edit bits and pieces of certain chapters and he complied with Ok, no problem. His eye for detail amazed me, as was his constant encouragement and advise. Political scientist, Dr. Baytoram Ramharack, an old friend who has a keen political eye, read several chapters of the draft, cautioned me about sensitive issues and suggested ways of improving the book, especially chapters 2, 3 and 14.

I am most grateful to Dr. Tara Singh, who invested a fair amount of his busy time to read the draft, identified editorial lapses and offered substantive comments that made me ponder more deeply on what I have written in various places of the book. I kindly thank Professor Lomarsh Roopnarine, a historian, and Rhyaan Shaw, novelist and social activist, both of whom read the manuscript and offered their insights. Dr. Somdat Mahabir and Swami Aksharnandaji have been a guiding light to my various research projects. Their feedback on the structure of the book and what is omitted, encouragement, advice and suggested research materials are duly appreciated. Others who have helped me, directly or indirectly, include Rajendra Basit, Ravi Dev, Malcolm Harripaul, Lalita Mahabir, Minakshi Mahabir, Shanti Mahabir, Nanda Sahadeo, Taj Rao, Ranita Tarchand, the late Pandit Radharaman Upadhyaya and the late and wonderful Bhupattie Sharma. I extend my gratitude to all these selfless souls.

Surveying the poverty-stricken locality in which I was born and raised in Guyana, my mother, a woman of substance, held up to me my Mamoos K. V. Jairam and Seenath Jairam, SC, both attorneys, as models and inspiration since I was a child. Follow them, she counseled me innumerable times! The success of these two close cousins must have influenced me positively. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my aunts, Edna and Shakun (who left this world all too soon), who helped my mother cared for us, my many siblings and I, when we were little kids. I do have fond memories of them, and they have helped to shape my taste in music. In numerous ways am I indebted to my brothers, Ram, Narine, Amar, Krishna, Prem, Vishnu, Murti, my only sister Kamal, their spouses, and all my nieces and nephews. I always have a home in their homes when I visit them, which makes it easy for me to focus and concentrate on my work.

First and last comes my immediate family. My wife, Gitamrit, by expanding her daily chores, ensured I had the time, peace and quiet to research and write. There were times when my attention was completely monopolized by the writing. As with my previous books, her critical feedback, willingness to deconstruct tentative ideas and editorial assistance are greatly appreciated. I dedicate this book to my parents, Seelochanie and Sewlall, both of whom have left us; they were the most important people in my life. I see my parents and hear their voices even as I write these words, words that are incapable of conveying my gratitude to them. The book is also dedicated to my two children, Shivani and Chris, in the hope that it contributes to a better understanding of the country where their parents were born and raised.

Chapter 1

A Small and Vulnerable Economy

T he Co-operative Republic of Guyana’s economy is small and benefits from resource wealth, but is also heavily exposed to export concentration risks … The economy depends on the export of six commodities—gold, rice, sugar, bauxite, shrimp and timber—which represent 90 percent of total exports. Therefore, price and output dynamics in these sectors drive volatility in the Guyanese GDP and balance of payment … - World Bank 2018a:5

Contextualizing the Economic Calamity

A ny serious study of Guyana from 1964 to 1992 is , ipso facto , a study of decay. These were years of totalitarianism, fourteen straight years of unprecedented economic contraction, and rising political tribalism. These were the worst of times; years of neglect, pervasive corruption, moral degradation, steep deterioration of the quality of education and health, and isolationism. The government used race and political affiliation to discriminate against and marginalize large swaths of the population. Massive government propaganda blurred the distinction between fact and fiction and even sowed epistemological anarchy. The prolonged and acute crisis disadvantaged Indian Guyanese more than any other ethnic group and accelerated the rising stream of migration, dominated by Indians, to foreign climes. Today, the tribal battle for political domination is the single most pressing existential problem confronting an independent Guyana. Unless that problem is solved, a grim future awaits but that does not have to come to pass.

Most of these twenty-eight years were presided over by a single, towering personality, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. He was the leader of the political party known as the People’s National Congress (PNC) and the President of Guyana. His thirst for power, prestige and total domination of the country and its people led him to Co-operative Socialism, which was, in effect, the foundation of the Guyanese brand of totalitarianism. The desperate shenanigans of the APNU+AFC regime to steal the 2 March 2020 elections are an apt reminder that political tribalism in Guyana is on the rise. ¹ Thanks to enormous pressure by foreign governments and foreign entitles, caretaker President, David Granger, a protégé of dictator Burnham, had no option but to bow to the accurate recount of votes. He lost the elections.

This book is a study of the Great Downswing, a prolonged period of crippling economic contraction that lasted from 1977 to 1990. I dwelled briefly upon the post-independent economic tragedy in my 1994 PhD dissertation where I called it the long downswing … a particularly dismal period in terms of economic performance. ² In a short, unpublished paper done in December 1997, I returned to the issue and wrote:

This dark period of Guyanese history since independence until October 1992 witnessed the loss of output totaling billions of dollars, the destruction of a considerable portion of the country’s infrastructure, a massive exodus of Guyanese to foreign climes which deprived the country of its skilled manpower, the erosion of cultural and moral values, educational standards and work ethic and the infliction of deep psychological wounds. Without the PNC shock, it is conceivable that the standard of living of the Guyanese masses would have been much higher than it actually is … ³

The fourteen years of unparallel economic calamity, of unexamined decadence and dysfunction, have always interested me but I was unable to devote the attention they rightly and richly deserve. As I ponder the hardly remembered episode, I came to realize that the wreckage wrought by the Great Downswing goes beyond economics and must be contextualized for it to be understood satisfactorily. This explains why the book dwells on the fifty-nine years from 1960 to 2018 even though the main focus is on 1977-1990. These fifty-nine long years could be sub-periodized into the years prior to, during and after the Great Downswing.

The extent of contextualization and periodization depends upon the availability of data relating to the specific issue addressed. For example, published data on real output growth are available for all 59 years, while the data on poverty prior to 1992 is patchy and unreliable and none exists for 2007 to 2018. No official data on inflation prior to 1990 is available. Guyana’s economy expanded each year by an average of 3.1 percent from 1960 to 1976, contracted annually by 2.7 percent during the fourteen years of the Great Downswing, and then expanded by 3.9 percent for the next fourteen years (1991 to 2004). Mean growth for the entire 59-years was 2.1 percent.

Surrounded on either side by periods of growth, the Great Downswing is an anomaly. It is akin to a sustained cardiac arrest so that the economy was effectively on life-support equipment during these fourteen years. Income per person was almost 30 percent smaller at the end of the great economic catastrophe than when the tragedy began. It is very likely that the pain from the sharp, deep and prolonged negative shock, though pervasive, was not equally districted across race and space. The economic destruction was crippling, widespread, impoverishing and exacted a devastating toll on people’s health. Quite simply, the fourteen years of economic devastation and associated socio-economic consequences are breathtaking when compared to either the fourteen years before or after the Great Downswing. It is almost unbelievable. To facilitate the comparisons, I have used the limited data, measuring and juxtaposing, to say whether the elephant is larger than the mouse, the stone heavier than feather.

The Great Downswing, the great catastrophe that scarred the economy, bodies and minds, was the consequence of Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham’s hunger for power and domination, respect and status. He thought like an autocrat and behaved like a British colonialist and an African tribal chief combined. Some believed he was a puppet of the United States, who danced to the politico-strategic interests of that country. The United States was desperate to prevent Dr. Cheddi Jagan, leader of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), from becoming the leader of an independent Guyana. It feared that Jagan, an avowed communist, would establish another communist regime in the Western hemisphere at the height of the Cold War. Others believed Burnham was biding his time, waiting for the opportunity to execute his plan. The evidence shows that Burnham was definitely not a puppet of the United States.

Burnham demonstrated that he was a ruthless pragmatist, opportunistic, strategic, scheming and clever; Jagan was simply and plainly naïve, without a vision, and an unfit player of a geo-strategic game with the US and UK. Propelled by his foggy thinking and unpalatable communist ideology, Jagan apparently believed that little Guyana was capable of taking on the combined might of the United States and Great Britain. The savvy and cunning Burnham used the American and British to install him in power, via a coalition with the United Force, led by Peter D’Aguiar, a businessman and a conservative. Once ensconced onto the seat of power, Burnham rigged the 1968 elections to remain in power without another coalition. All subsequent general elections prior to 1992 were massively rigged against Jagan, who remained engulfed in a dense fog of his own making for twenty-eight years. The point is a simple one: Burnham and the PNC outmaneuvered and outsmarted Jagan and the PPP.

Once he got rid of the coalition, Prime Minister Burnham began preparations to perpetuate his power as the Executive President of Guyana for life. An important step first move was to strengthen the security forces and populate them with mostly Africans. Another was to declare Guyana a Co-operative Socialist Republic in which Co-operative Socialism and the co-operative sector would play key roles: the former would ensure peace, security and equity for all, and the latter would transform the little man into the real man. Two other important steps were taking control of the judiciary system, and operationalizing the principle of Party Paramountcy, which meant that the PNC, and thus Burnham as its leader, was the highest institution in the country, above the state and all other institutions.

Other fortifying moves include embarking on a massive program to nationalize foreign enterprises so that the government owned and controlled over 80 percent of the economy by the early 1980s; pursuing a hostile foreign policy that was anti-west, pro-African but at the same time Non-Aligned against almost every position the United States supports; ⁴ and nationalization of the Guyanese mind via indoctrination made possible by the nationalization of the formal education system. In effect, Burnham did become king but at a prohibitive cost. He wrecked the economy, frayed the moral fabric of society, stoked racial tension and incited violence against Indians and destruction of their property. Indians were marginalized and victimized and excluded from public employment, and King Burnham levied punitive policies upon agriculture and industry, which were dominated by Indians. The only safety valve available to Indians was out-migration and they did migrate in droves.

At the risk of over-simplification, one may say that the typical African Guyanese is a political man, and the typical Indian Guyanese is an economic man. The labels attached to man are soundly grounded in the history of the country. Specifically, those historical aspects that illuminate how and why the Indian acquire wealth and made himself into the economic man, and how and why the African was unable to do so but manage to seize political power as a control valve and affix a transfer/distribution setting. The winner-takes-all election framework installed by the departing British lends itself to the biddings of both the economic and political man by allowing whichever of the two ethnic political parties that wins the election, fairly or crookedly, to take it all.

An African government employs political power to enlarge the African share of the economic pie via redistribution even though this ethnic group makes a smaller contribution to the overall size of the pie. On the other hand, an Indian Government uses political power to grow the pie and cultivate a small class of plutocrats, which Africans are now imitating. The political-economic-distributional game, and the associated spin-off effects, good and bad, are enabled and embedded in institutions that favor Africans more than Indians. Indeed, the entire state machinery is rigged against Indians and an Indian Government is unable to change it in any meaningful way. To do so would mean civil war and Indians stand to lose the most in terms of lives lost and value of property destroyed. Institutions are the rules of the game that govern societal interactions. As stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior, the chief function of institutions is to facilitate collection action. ⁵

The overall message of the book is not new or unknown. It is that ethnic politics, or its more sinister version which I have called tribal politics in this book, a towering personality with authoritarian predisposition make for a dangerous brew that is very economically destructive and destabilizing and socially corrosive. A towering political personality does not haunt the country anymore and Guyanese have largely forgotten the misadventure of cooperative socialism and its ill begotten offspring (the Great Downswing). Former President David Granger (May 2015 to August 2020) was a disciple of Burnham. The latter has apparently transmitted his authoritarian predilection to his student, while ethnic politics has metamorphosed into tribal politics.

The obsession to capture and control the coming oil wealth has added a new dimension to domestic politics. Combined with tribal politics, the duo would stoke authoritarian predispositions more powerfully than either could by itself. Ethnic politics first reared its ugly head openly in 1956, which led to the 1957 political divorce – which Guyanese refer to as the split - of Jagan and Burnham. That legacy bequeathed the country a dictator, a shattered economy, massive migration and tribal politics. ⁶ All of Guyana’s problems revolve around tribal politics, which has been the bane of Guyana’s underdevelopment despite the country’s rich natural resources and agricultural potential. ⁷ Since the split, the economy and society have been viewed and explained through an ethnic prism firmly rooted in aspirations of political dominance.

Bad tribal politics drives bad economics, which leads to worse politics and worse economics. This feedback loop of a house divided has been the defining features of Guyana’s political economy since the mid-1950s. Decisions based on reason and sound economics are cast aside by tribal emotions and instincts. Economics did not matter to Forbes Burnham and the PNC, then and now, which sheds further light on the idea that economics can only be understood within a political economy framework that incorporates institutions. This is particularly true of Guyana for neither economics nor politics by itself can offer a satisfactory explanation of the country’s existential dilemma.

While economists are notoriously ahistorical in their analytical work (meaning they embrace pure theory over historical descriptions), politicians make politics and institutions supreme and relegate economics to a secondary issue. In the bitterly divisive multi-ethnic society that is Guyana, institutions are central to politics and takes precedence over economics. Unlike the leaders of the PPP, those of the PNC have grasped this fundamental insight long ago. In fact, the leaders of the PNC have been institutionalists (and Afro-nationalists) and remain so today, elevating politics over economics while capturing the country’s institutions; they were the first to employ state capture to further their interests.

Aside from political tribalism, Guyana has several other great enemies: corruption, dishonest, kleptocratic and plutocratic politicians, selective amnesia, functional illiteracy, close-mindedness and a huge data problem. This book does not endeavor to battle these enemies. Nor does it pretend to discourse on ethnic politics, economic and human development, militarization, the crime epidemic or migration. These are important issues, but they fall outside the purview of the book. Instead, the book endeavors to study the Great Downswing that began in 1977 and ended in 1990. My approach rests upon economic analysis supplemented by ethnic politics (tribal politics) to help explain happenings and events as necessary. In this sense, I have not engaged in positive economic analysis but have chosen to locate the discussion at the intersection of politics and economics and the context that generates the contentious intersection.

The next several sections of this Chapter dwell on background information, material progress despite the hurdles to economic development, the derailment of progress by a callous dictator, the variability of economic growth. Economic fragility underscores the dependency of the domestic economy upon the international economy. The penultimate section dwells briefly on the 2 March 2020 election, and this is followed by an introduction to the rest of the book.

In the Beginning …

Guyana, located in the northeastern corner of South America, is a relatively small country (83, 000 square miles or 214,970 square kilometers) with a population of less than 750,000 and a population density of 3.5 persons per square kilometer for the entire country. ⁸ An extensive and relatively unspoiled tropical forests covers 84 percent of the country, although it is being plundered by private, both domestic and international, gold mining and forestry enterprises.

Often overlooked and sparsely populated, Guyana is a land of contradictions. It is a country of six races, cultural diversity, a wealth of natural resources and a large and generous Diaspora and still vastly underdeveloped. It is a country where market forces, democracy and totalitarianism found a place. Rich potential and pockets of concentrated wealth coexist with widespread poverty, glaring inequality, racial acrimony, regions that are at vastly different stages of development, and an allegedly high rate of literacy while most of the working age population is functionally illiterate. The country suffers from a data blockhole even though a wealth of data is hidden in guts of the Bureau of Statistics; ethnic politics has weaponized data. Some 90 percent of the country’s population live along a narrow coastal strip while most of the interior remains in pristine conditions. Atypical of multiethnic countries, the Guyana’s second largest ethnic group, Africans, manipulates and abuses the largest ethnic group, Indians, with ease.

The country’s first inhabitants, the indigenous peoples whom we call Amerindians, probably entered the highlands during the 1st millennium BCE. ⁹ Sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1498, it was the Dutch who began European settlement in Guyana, establishing trading posts upriver around 1580. By the middle of the 17th century, they were importing slaves from West Africa to cultivate sugarcane. When soil exhaustion became a problem in the 18th century, the Dutch, joined by other Europeans by that time, moved their estates downriver towards the estuaries and coastal mudflats where the soil was considerably more fertile. These early development efforts, coordinated by the Governor, Laurens Storm van’s Gravesande who was the Governor of Essequibo from 1742 to 1772, transformed Guyana, including the location of its productive and administrative infrastructure and where most of its population resides. It can be rightly said that Gravesande was Guyana’s first practicing developmental professional.

Guyana changed hands with bewildering frequency during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, mostly between the British and the French, from 1792 to 1815. During a brief French occupation, Longchamps, later called Georgetown, was established at the mouth of the Demerara River. The Dutch later renamed Longchamps Stabroek and continued to develop it. The British took over in 1796 and remained in possession, except for short intervals, until 1814, when they purchased Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo. The three colonies were united in 1831 to form the colony of British Guiana, which, by that time, was a well-established sugar producer in the British Empire.

When the slave trade was abolished in 1807, an estimated 100,000 slaves lived and worked in British Guiana. After slaves were fully emancipated in 1838, many of them moved to establish their own settlements along the coastal plain and purchased, via pooling of resources, several abandoned estates, which helped to make them less dependent upon the plantations for a livelihood. Emancipation created a labor shortage even though former slaves were paid to work on the plantations. Further, the new wage-laborers worked when they wished and not according to a rigid schedule. It is correct to say that Africans were the first paid laborers in Guyana.

The labor vacuum, irregular schedule, and the mere thought of paying freedmen for their labor services led planters to seek an alternative and cheaper supply of labor. Portuguese were imported in 1835 as did Africans from other West Indian Territories, followed by Indians in 1838, and Africans from Africa and Chinese both in 1853. The labor experiment convinced the plantocracy (plantation owners and managers) that Indians were most suitable to the rigors and strictures of plantation life in terms of the necessary physical stamina and pliability. The planters knew that Indians were a peaceful, relatively timid and docile set of people.

Africans, too, knew that Indians were faint-hearted. Verene A. Shepherd has unearthed from the archives a most interesting example of how African viewed Indians. In 1885, Robert Ipson was an African sailor on board the ship Allanshaw that transported Indian immigrants from Calcutta, India, to Guyana. When the ship docked in Georgetown on 6 November, the Immigration Agent, A. H. Alexander, was informed of the death of a female immigrant named Maharani. It was suspected that Robert Ipson raped Maharani who subsequently died on board the ship.

The court case against Ipson began on 6 November 1885 and lasted for a week. It was tried in Georgetown and presided over by Henry Kirke, an experienced magistrate. A witness named Ramyadd testified that Ispon said to him: "Before we reach Demerara, I must f— one of these girls," to