By Svetlana Marshall

The Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Guyana (IDPADA-G), Vincent Alexander, has told a United Nations forum that Afro-Guyanese continue to be systematically marginalized.

Mr. Alexander addressed the 4th Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent at the United Nations on Monday afternoon, and said the current Guyana Government has taken no equitable action to address the state of people of African descent in the country.

“The African Guyanese community, descendants of the enslaved, have been systematically marginalized and remain disproportionately at the bottom of the economic and social order. Education, land rights, entrepreneurship and political representation all reflect this exclusion. Our school curriculum continues to omit the history and the contributions of the Guyanese of African Descent,” Alexander told the Forum.

Alexander addressed the Forum hours after Guyana’s Labour Minister, Joseph Hamilton told the same Forum that amid rapid economic growth, the Guyana Government has been taking decisive action to advance development, and reduce poverty, geographic disparity, ethnic insecurities and inequality in the country.

But Alexander described Minister Hamilton’s presentation to the Forum as “hypocritical”, telling world leaders that the same Minister has publicly blamed people of African Descent for their present state, even though they have been robbed of their resources.

“Ancestral lands, acquired through the historic village movement are being seized without compensation through institutional and legal manipulations,” the Chairman of IDPADA-G said

He added that after more than 20 years, the Human Rights Commission in Guyana is still to be constituted.

Mr. Alexander said on the international stage, the Guyana Government has been at the forefront of calling for reparatory justice, but in Guyana, it has done little to repair the internal legacies of enslavement.

“The Government of Guyana while vocally supporting reparations abroad, as was done here today, has not implemented a single dedicated national policy to repair the internal legacies of enslavement. Instead, African Guyanese are blamed for their circumstances, demeaned by public officials as lazy or unworthy. The current governance structure entrenches this conclusion,” he said.

Singling out the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), Alexander pointed out that the Commission is being represented at the Forum by someone who is not Afro-Guyanese.

IDPADA-G and a number of other Afro-Guyanese organizations have fiercely objected to the presence of the Chairman of the ERC, Shaikh Moeenul Hack at the African Forum, arguing that Afro-Guyanese are more than capable of representing themselves at the forum.

To loud applause, Alexander told the Forum that “the time for polite silence is over,” as he called on the Forum to stand with Afro-Guyanese in Guyana “for justice, equality and repair.”

The 4th Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent has coincided with the Second International Decade for People of African Descent, which is being observed under the theme “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development.”

The UN Forum will conclude on April 17.

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