Kwayana
appeals to gunmen of Buxton: ‘Return the guns’
Sunday, September 8, 2002
WPA member, Eusi Kwayana, has called on the gunmen of Buxton to
question those who have given them guns, to return the guns they
have been given, and to ask the donors to get out of their lives.
In an impassioned appeal to the gunmen of Buxton-Friendship, Kwayana
wrote [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] that the
Indians of Annandale, Non Pariel or any other part of the country
did not deserve the treatment being meted out to them. “It is
sheer madness,” he said.
“Indians were not responsible for the enslavement of Africans. Get
that straight.”
The plea came in the form of a letter to our Sunday edition, which
arrived too late for publication. The full text of the letter will
appear on Monday.
Headed ‘An open letter to the gunmen of Buxton-Friendship and to
those who gave them guns,’ the text goes on to read: “Let me
tell you that those who gave you guns know nothing about race
relations in Guyana and its rights and wrongs. They pick up one
thing here and another thing there. They are one-sided and
dangerous. I am well acquainted with their 5% truth standards.”
Kwayana said that he was speaking as the first person in the
twentieth century to tell the world that there were problems between
the two major races in Guyana, and to propose solutions to those
problems. “I understand the inter-racial conflict,” he wrote,
“better than those who are fanning your fire and spreading lies,
half truths and falsehoods.”
He went on to remind the gunmen that he was
the person who took charge of the defence of Buxton-Friendship in
1964 following Buxtonian casualties. Buxtonians were afraid of an
attack from Annandale, he said, but the residents of that village
never attacked, and neither did they attempt to attack. “Get that
in your pipe and smoke it,” he wrote.
Kwayana made reference to Mussolini’s aggression against Ethiopia.
“What you [the gunmen] are doing to the people of Annandale and
Non Pariel, Indian or African, is aggression,” said Kwayana.
“Christian, African, Hindu, Muslim, Rastafari faiths all have deep
attitudes against aggression.”
The Buxton elder called on the villagers not to strike first, as
many of them and their friends had done since May, 2002, with the
consent of the gunrunners.
“So far,” he continued, “the Indian Guyanese, whether they
have guns or not, have shown better behaviour, yes, better religion,
yes better civilisation than we have shown. And I am very jealous of
African civilisation and its values.”
Kwayana concluded his letter: “Yours with indignation at the
gunmen’s aggression, and with love for the divine essence in all
people which is crying out for expression.”