Women driving a minibus and Walter Rodney looking forard

Panel (L to R - Dr Alissa Trotz, Dr David Hinds, Dr Janette Bulkan at WPA memorial to Walter Rodney, National Library, Guyana 21 June, 2016

Early Saturday morning. Empty bus stops. Driver alone. Going East Coast. I jump in and realise the driver is a woman. Hair pulled back. Slight furrowing of the forehead as she looks ahead. Body postured comfortably, leaning back in the seat, one elbow on the window. Dressed in jeans and shirt. Colourful shirt and colourful shoes.

'I used to teach.. but after one time is another' "Is nice to wuk by yuh self, but the road hard. Last night I came in after 12' She started work at 6am.

"I have light bill and water bill to pay.. so I coming out everyday. I aint know how I making it every month."

We approach Sparendam and she puts on her seat belt, in a kind of second hand reflex action. . She doesn't smile, but there are slight raises of the sides of her mouth. While talking to me , she does not look at me.. eyes looking forward.


"Guyana at 50: Looking back to look forward " was the name given to a Symposium organised by the Working Peoples' Alliance in observance of the 36th Death Anniversary of Walter Rodney.

I wasn't too keen on attending after last year's  Symposium which left me a bit sad that Walter Rodney was becoming more and more irrelevant.

The panellists this year were Dr Janette Bulkan , Dr David Hinds and Dr Alissa Trotz.  Dr Bulkan talked about the forestry and mining sectors and land allocation. Dr Hinds talked about how the Independence expectations and hopes still exist, but that time now to reconsider things like "One Guyanese identity' . Dr Trotz used Walter Rodney's work to talk about connection with other the region and internationally.

There are other things which stuck in my head, from the presentations and the discussions afterwards.

  • Take Rodney off the pedestal, organise to bring closure to his death and let the legacy of  questioning and speaking truth to power continue.
  • This 'Symposium' was in the tradition of Groundings .. I wanted to seh, but ow man, call de ting Groundings nah.. if it is meant to be interactive and so?

  • The forestry and mining sectors are the new plantations, where the workers continue to be unrepresented, underpaid and work at great risk. This is happening in other sectors of the economy (deaths and accidents in the construction sector?)
  • Working people in Guyana continue to fund the state at much higher rates than those who exploit the non-renewable land resources.  Guyana's Illicit Financial Flows  are an indication of how much is lost. I am not an economist so I would not try to play with figures.
  • Rodney's work was connected with other struggles for racial equality. Dr Trotz talked about the George Williams' Occupation in Montreal after the Black Writer's conference.
  • There were moments when  black people and coolie people worked together and talked about sharing space Those have been forgotten.
  • Human hands moved 100 million tons of soil to work the Guyana coast land. We have unlimited capacity and potential to develop.
  • There is need for collective therapy to overcome the violence and abuse..  
  • We have to respect humanity and restore dignity in labour.  The Georgetown vendors vs the City Council is an example of how we building a country in which only the rich will survive.
  • Education is in need of reform. There must be investment in education, illiteracy cannot be a feature of jubilee Guyana.
  • Guyana continuing the Jagdeo path of capitalism - the Marriot will be expanded (to be sold) instead of closing down and being used as a space for accommodation of those who are struggling to find accommodation.


At the end of the bus ride, I paid the teacher turned driver $120 as I normally did.  She gave me back the $20, "Nah man, is only a hundred," in a way that said , that bills notwithstanding, and hard times, she not taking more money from me than she should.


No easy solutions or plans from the symposium to say how to stop people who  taking more than they should from the citizens.







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