A Dream Deferred Guyana, Identities Under the Colonial Shadow

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A Dream Deferred Guyana, Identities under the Colonial Shadow Stephen Spencer 4 4 A Dream Deferred CONTENTS List of Illustrations 5 Acknowledgements 7 Map 8 Introduction 9 Guyana's ethnic mix 9 US and British Intervention 11 Guyana's Bipolar Ethnic Division 11 CHAPTER 1: Explanations for Ethnic Conflict 13 Marxist theorists and their critics 13 Neuman and the origins of ethnic supremacy 15 Critique of Marxism 15 The pluralist argument 16 Instrumentalist and primordialist views 17 Despres: multi-dimensional ethnic identity 18 Instrumentalist: rational choice 18 Primordialist views 19 Hindu identity 19 Bourdieu's'Theory of Practice' 20 Critique of Bourdieu's Habitus 22 Struggle for Symbolic Dominance 22 CHAPTER 2: Persistence of Ethnic Stereotypes 25 Racial discourse in Nineteenth Century 25 Racial Categorisation in Guyana 26 Colonial Segregation -'divide & rule' 27 Colonialism: African and Indian Stereotypes 27 Creolisation 28 British colonial values 29 Historical Basis for Stereotypes of Indian-Guyanese 30 Historical Basis for Stereotypes of African-Guyanese 32 Caste 32 The persistence of African-Guyanese Stereotypes 36 The other's theft of legitimate pleasures 38 A Dream Deferred 5 CHAPTER 3: Political parameters of ethnicity 41 Political divisions 41 Stages in development of ethnic relations 42 1953 -1962 ' 42 1962 -1964 " 45 PNC in power 47 1964-1992 49 Constitutional change 50 Resistance to the PNC 51 Tacit support for violence against Indians 52 Racism and election campaigns 53 Guyana after Burnham 54 1992-2003 55 Current crime patterns 58 CHAPTER 4: The arenas of cultural struggle 62 The charade of ethnic harmony 62 Cricket and the struggle for symbolic dominance 63 Popular visions of ethnic conflict 67 PNC loss of ideological dominance 69 Formation of distinct yet overlapping habitus 70 CHAPTER 5: The outlook for the future 72 Crossing boundaries 72 The future 78 Bibliography 81 Websites for further research 84 List of Interviews 85 Appendix 1 86 Appendix 2 87 Appendix 3 88 Index 89 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES Map of Guyana 8 Beware! - Anti Communist Poster 48 Forbes Burnham 49 Walter Rodney 52 6 A Dream Deferred Cheddi Jagan 56 (Photo taken by the author in 1991 at Freedom House, PPP HQ in Georgetown, Guyana) Interpol International Crime statistics (2001) 59 Martin Carter, Guyanese poet (b. 1927 - d. 1997) 69 Despres' Multidimensional Model of Ethnic Identity 86 Hierarchy of 'Givers and Takers' 87 People's Coalition for Democracy handbill 88.

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