Guyana’s Attorney General Mr. Basil Williams has reminded the Guyana Assembly of International Decade for People of African Descent that it is the duty of the Assembly to help improve the lot of the African Guyanese community as he urged them to focus on economic empowerment and education among other areas.
Mr. Williams, also the Country’s Legal Affairs Minister, addressed the Assembly’s annual general meeting on Sunday. The conference was attended by a large number of affiliate African organizations, representatives, alternates and observers from around the country.
The AG contended that the work of the Assembly is to accelerate local awareness of the International Decade and to take action in ensuring programs that could uplift the Assembly’s constituents are advanced and implemented. The UN Decade was declared by the UN’s General Assembly in 2015 and is scheduled to run until 2024.
He said that programs should not be achieved at the expense “of de-recognizing others. Justice for African Guyanese should not be at the price of injustice. Development of African-Guyanese should not result in the underdevelopment of others. The Assembly’s programme is one aimed at ensuring African-Guyanese recognition, justice and development. It is a struggle ‘for’ rather than a struggle ‘against’ any other group.”
He argued that every community in Guyana has its problems so the community “must not therefore succumb to the trap of hopelessness. The African community is not without resources to overcome its present difficulties. The African Guyanese community can find answers to its problems from within its bosom.
The community has cultural resources, traditions and values passed on through the generations
If the challenges facing this community are to be overcome, if the problems that afflict persons of African descent are to be addressed, this has to be done through the efforts of the African-Guyanese community. African-Guyanese should therefore organize for action.
He stressed that the community must rekindle “the kinship with land” as ancestors had a strong tradition in agriculture. “Africans need to return to the land. African Guyanese have a strong tradition in agriculture. We should reignite that tradition as a means of fostering African-Guyanese economic empowerment,” he said.