Afro-Guyanese need a vision – Aubrey Norton

Last Updated on Monday, 19 August 2024, 7:40 by Writer

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton on Sunday said Afro-Guyanese need a vision or they would be unable to fully take advantage of government assistance.

He told the 2024 Cuffy250 Annual Forum on the State of African Guyanese that the focus should not be on the government because that would give that already powerful State institution more power than it has. He argued that dealing with the African question demands more than the government but requires every African, community and family to have a “clear vision of where they want to be in the future.”

“If you do not have a vision of where you want the African community to be, then it is very difficult, even with government assistance, to achieve your objectives because you, yourself, are not clear as to where you’re going,” said Mr Norton who is the leader of the largely Afro-Guyanese backed People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).

Mr Norton recommended that the vision be the basis for formulating a plan for Africans. He said Guyana needs equitable development to close the “deficit” by giving more to deal with the gap at the ethnic level. He said a key ingredient was the development of organisational capability that would impact on the family, community and the society. “If we don’t have that organisation, we’re in trouble. The fact that the government can go into communities and bribe young Africans to do nonsense is indicative of the fact that we lack the organisational capabilities to influence our youth and, therefore, we have to rectify that,” he said. He also cited the need to raise the consciousness of Afro-Guyanese and Africans “wherever they are” of their interests and so detect anything that would divide them. He said the conditions must be created for them to acquire skills and education.

The PNCR Leader said the African youth must be treated as a resource to be developed, knowing that they need help to emerge from the problems that the society had created. “Whether we like it or not, if the African youth isn’t with us, we are not likely to succeed because a large section of our human resource will be disconnected, used , abused…,” he said. In that regard, he recommended proper leadership training programmes for Africans generally and young Africans be developed. He said there should be “talent spotting” of youth leaders who must be trained at the political, economic and socio-cultural levels so that they could give leadership to their cohort of youths.

African youths, he said, must be cultivated to get involved in business rather than merely sticking with the historical expectation of only becoming educated. African entrepreneurs are needed to create and give African youths jobs, he said, by training them in financial literacy and small business development. “We can return to government tomorrow and we can have the resources at our disposal but if you don’t train the people to utilise those resources, you will end up crying and crying and not achieving our objectives,” he added. He said a programme must be developed to acquire money to help Afro-Guyanese to transform their lands into “real wealth”.

At the community level, Mr Norton said the message to African villages must be to develop sustainable communities to ensure they could supply their own goods. The PNCR Leader appealed to African Guyanese fathers to take care of their children rather than being absentees or misspending their monies.

Also floated by Mr Norton was the need for close collaboration between Afro-Guyanese and wealthy Africans in Africa rather than relying on traditional sources as the United States. “We have Africans in Africa that if we network with and we establish our genuineness, our ability to be transparent and accountable, we can mobilise resources for the financing of African business in Guyana,” said Mr Norton who visited Nigeria in late July, 2024.

He said leadership in the African community requires problem-solving skills, understanding their psychology, inculcating self-discipline and instilling hope.