In Guyana, justice has never been given freely, it has always been taken, seized through the collective will of a people who refuse to be silenced. Our history is written in the blood of martyrs and the defiance of the oppressed, from the cane fields of Enmore to the streets of Georgetown. Yet today, when Guyanese gather to demand accountability for the murder of Adrianna Younge, the same foreign powers that watched in silence for the past 10 days have suddenly found their voices, not to stand with the grieving family, but to warn us about “violence” and “looting.” Their hypocrisy is as staggering as their timing is convenient.
Where were these cautious statements when we needed them most? The US Embassy, the UK High Commission, and Canada’s representatives waited nearly ten days after the latest crisis before issuing their sanctimonious calls for calm. Their sudden concern is not for justice, but for order, the kind of order that keeps their investors safe while Guyanese suffer. They did not speak when our people were brutalized, when our voices were ignored, when the system failed us yet again. They speak only when their profits might be at risk.
This is nothing new. The world has always viewed Guyana as a place to be mined, not a people to be heard. When the Enmore Martyrs; Lallabajee, Kissoon, Pooran, and Harry, were gunned down in 1948 for daring to demand fair wages from the sugar barons, no foreign powers intervened on their behalf. Their deaths were just another cost of doing business in a colony. But their sacrifice was not in vain. It lit a fire that could not be extinguished, a fire that burned through colonialism and into independence.
And yet, here we are again, fighting the same battles under different masters. The names and faces change, but the game remains the same: Guyana’s wealth flows outward while its people are told to wait, to be patient, to trust a system that has betrayed them for generations.
The West lectures us on peaceful protest while their own histories are stained with rebellion and riot. In the United States, just three years ago, a violent mob stormed the Capitol, beat police officers, and threatened lawmakers, and the president who incited them pardoned them. In the UK, the Poll Tax Riots of 1990 forced a government to back down. In Canada, Indigenous blockades have shut down railways and highways, met with repression but also, eventually, negotiation.
When they protest, they are “patriots” or “freedom fighters.” When we protest, we are “looters” or “agitators.” We must not allow ourselves to be lectured by the privileged. The protests for justice must go on. Will looters seek to take advantage? Probably, but this is behavior exhibited in every community and in every country. Looting is not unique to Guyanese protests. Cowardice and appeasement will never bring us the justice we deserve. If the government does not want looters to hijack protests, then they should come to the table now with a transparent and independent plan for justice which Adrianna’s family will approve.
The truth is simple; those in power do not give up anything without a fight. The plantocracy did not grant workers’ rights out of kindness, they were forced by strikes and uprisings. The British did not leave because it was just, they left because Guyanese made it impossible to stay.
Now, they tell us to be calm, to trust the process. But what process? The same one that has left police killings unpunished, oil contracts rigged against us, and the cost of living unbearable?
Guyanese have never waited for permission to demand justice. We are the descendants of rebels, enslaved Africans who revolted, indentured Indians who struck, Indigenous peoples who resisted. We do not need foreign embassies to remind us of “non-violence” after days of silence. We know our rights.
Protest is not the problem, injustice is. If the government and its foreign allies want peace, they must deliver justice. Until then, the streets will speak.
Because in Guyana, history has taught us one lesson above all; justice is not given. It is taken.
