The African post-slavery Village Movement grew out of the cooperative spirit. Freed Africans pooled their money, bought plantations, and converted them to villages. Some had the financial means to do single purchase though for ownership (transport) they had to join with others.
The earlier development of the African community in Guyana stands out in our post slavery society as it remains unsurpassed in scale and self-determination unto this day. Having been subjected to more than 400 hundred years of chattel slavery, the worst form of mistreatment known to fellow humankind, emancipation did not find a people broken but resolved to succeed.
That resilience not only saw the conversion of several plantations along the coast land into villages, but the development of an economy built on the cooperative spirit, which the name of this country pays homage to. Cooperative economics represents not only a unique sense of thrift and avenue to acquire but also trust. At the most basic is the box hand system.
This is how the box hand works-A group of persons would come together and agree to throw (put) a fixed amount of money, at a fixed time for a fixed period, and each takes turn in drawing (collecting) that hand (money) until everyone receives the total of what they invested. This is a form of banking when there existed none for blacks and from which they were able to have a quantity of money to invest in some desired project/commodity.
It is difficult to think of the Village Movement without Cooperatives for they share a symbiotic relation and are integral to the economic development of an ethnic group. Where today Africans continue to face challenges getting loans from commercial banks there is need to re-examine the value of cooperatives. Villagers need to establish them under the Cooperative Societies Act. Reach out to the officers for technical support at the Department of Cooperative, Cornhill St. Georgetown.
There are so many painful stories of rejection based on identity. Africans can tell of theirs. Couples of mixed races, where one is African, would recount how they devise a strategy to thrive by having to use one or the other spouse to engage in financial transactions depending on the situation. This is debasing though some have come to accept it as normal and their counter strategy worthwhile. There is also the issue of regularising ancestral lands since with the absence of title (transport, lease, will, etc) commercial banks are not favourably disposed to lending, a situation that is completely the reverse in other Caribbean countries such as Jamaica.
The Government of Guyana must examine the possibility of replicating the Jamaica’s model because home ownership must not only rely on government selling state lands or purchasing from another. Home ownership must also be facilitated building on lands inherited based on lineage.
The plantations bought and converted to villages comprise the backlands which in some cases include areas where there are cane farming and rice cultivation. There are so many ancestral lands being left unattended, rented or under utilised suggesting the approach to land ownership must be revisited. It is no secret what is not used will be lost or coveted. Land is empowerment. Ownership not only means ownership of a piece of Guyana, but allows for valuing those inherited.
Africans should return to their villages and occupy their lands. Chose whether it be for housing, farming, business, kitchen gardening, etc. If their ancestors had within them the resolve to succeed it is not outside the reach of their descendants. The feat in creating an economy for themselves, even when the plantoclass pursued exclusion and tried undermining efforts at self-development, can be repeated. The genetic makeup that persevere still resides within.
The situation from post slavery may have changed, to some extent, but the structures and negative perceptions of the African race continue to present challenges to being respected and opportunities to pursue empowerment. The Village Voice urges a rethink of the cooperative (self-help) approach to development. Having a Neighbourhood Democratic Council, which covers a cluster of villages, should not prevent formation of independent village council or cooperative society to address issues unique to the residents in respective village.
