Guyana Chronicle Pepperpot E-Paper 13-09-2026 by Guyana Chronicle

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Members of the cultural youth group

Language and tradition How one woman is sharing her knowledge to promote the Macushi language among youths to keep the traditions of the First Peoples alive

A passion for her career

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

An educator’s commitment to moulding minds

By Michel Outridge WHEN you love doing something, it shows, and that can be said of schoolteacher Zephra Alphonso, who is very passionate about imparting knowledge and moulding minds. Zephra Alphonso, 25, grew up in Wauna, Mabaruma District, Region One, in Guyana’s scenic hinterland. Growing up in the hinterland has significantly shaped who she is today. She is of mixed race, but she embraces Amerindian culture more because it is the culture she grew up around and feels most connected to. Alphonso grew up appreciating the simple things in life: being around family, enjoying their food and learning to be content with what they had. When it comes to food, she loves the variety that comes with being Guyanese. She enjoys pepperpot and cassava bread just as much as she enjoys dhal, cook-up rice or

fried rice. Growing up, these things were just a normal part of life for her, but as she got older, she began to appreciate how much Guyanese food and culture are a part of who we are. She currently lives with her father, stepmother and two brothers. She has other siblings as well, but they live elsewhere because of their jobs and families. Family has always been very important to her, and when she thinks about her childhood, one person who immediately comes to mind is her father. “My dad is a pastor and was a farmer, and he has honestly been one of the biggest influences in my life. He has always supported me and pushed me to do better. We did not grow up rich, but I never felt like I was missing anything important because we had each other,” she said. Alphonso added that she has a peaceful home. They have food on the table; they have one another

Zephra Alphonso poses for a photo in her scenic village of Wauna

and, most importantly, they have God. She reported that one of the things she remembers most about growing up was her father helping her and her siblings with their schoolwork. He would sit down with them and make sure they finished their homework. When they reached Grade Six, he took their education even more seriously. Every afternoon, he would sit with her and work through past papers. He did this with all of his children, each in turn, because he wanted them to be prepared for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). All five of them passed with good marks and were able to attend North West Secondary School,

Hosororo Secondary School teacher Zephra Alphonso

where she began her formal secondary education. Looking back, Alphonso said she realised her father was doing more than helping them pass an examination. He was, in fact, teaching them discipline and showing them the importance of hard work. “He always wanted us to get a good education because he wanted us to have opportunities that he did not have. He would always tell us

that he wanted us to do more than he did in life. At the same time, he always reminded us that, above everything else, our relationship with Jesus was what mattered most. We grew up in a praying home,” she said. Alphonso related that every Sunday morning, her father made sure they went to Sunday school. When they were small, he would TURN TO PAGE VII

Zephra Alphonso and some of her fellow teachers

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

Language and tradition How one woman is sharing her knowledge to promote the Macushi language among youths to keep the traditions of the First Peoples alive

By Michel Outridge GLORIA Duarte is recognised for her talent and her desire to share her knowledge with youths. She is also known for her outstanding behind-the-scenes work as Coordinator of the Macushi Research Unit, as well as for her work as a songwriter, composer, and singer of traditional songs, her craft, and her amazing storytelling abilities. She will be celebrating her 56th birth anniversary in October this year, and she is a native of Rupertee Village, Region Nine. Duarte is a descendant of the Macushi and Akawaio peoples, and she works as a part-time tutor in language and culture at the Bina Hill Institute Youth Learning Centre, North Annai.

She is also the Assistant Coordinator of the Macushi Research Unit and is a translator and interpreter. Duarte composes traditional Macushi songs and lyrics, which she also sings, and enjoys working with young people to pass on knowledge and traditions. She is also skilled in crafts, especially making earrings, rings, netting, and bags from cotton. She also teaches youths to spin cotton and make craft. Amerindian Heritage Month, observed in September, is a busy time for Duarte as she prepares for cultural performances at both the national and local levels. “I try to give my support to those who need my help in terms of interpretation, for example, in my language and translation. I composed most

of my songs. Every year, I would show up in support of our cultural group to participate in the heritage celebration at Sophia Whirlwind Village,” she said. Duarte told Pepperpot Magazine that many young people, including children, no longer speak Macushi, so she took the opportunity to teach it at the Learning Centre. She reported that she tells stories and shares Indigenous traditions. However, she found it challenging to read and write in Macushi, even though she could speak it fluently. Working with the Macushi Research Unit has strengthened her ability to pass on the knowledge to young people. Duarte explained that, as a part-time tutor in language and culture, she teaches her students in both Macushi

Gloria Duarte

Members of the cultural youth group

and English, telling stories and reading them in both languages. She is passionate about passing on her traditional knowledge, especially to young people. She taught them how to sing the national anthem, recite the national pledge, and sing Guyanese folk songs and hymns in Macushi, and they love it. The Rupertee resident explained that some of her students are from other tribes. The stories told to them in both English and Macushi were told to her by her foreparents or gathered by researchers. “The students love to listen to the stories, which are based on those told to me and on the environment. It gives me great joy to see how interested they are in learning and the positivity that comes

from it,” she said. Duarte told Pepperpot Magazine that she is very proud of her roots and of being able to speak her language. Her family came from Brazil, where she lived for some time before relocating to Rupertee Village. She said her father is from Brazil and has mixed Arecuna and Macushi heritage, while her mother has mixed Akawaio and Macushi heritage. She added that her parents could not speak the dialects, but they were fluent in the Macushi language and taught it to their children. Duarte said she is willing to teach anyone willing to learn. The youths have since shown their desire to do so, and she encourages them to speak their own languages TURN TO PAGE XIV

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

To Be Comfortable with Being Misunderstood

MAN seeks to understand as much as he seeks to be understood. The very foundations of culture, language and religion stem from this basic need. The more we try to contain the universe within the boundaries of an answer, the more it expands, like a tree sprouting branches and bearing the fruit of new questions. So, to keep from growing weary in this never-ending pursuit of answers, we reach out and form connections with others. Unfortunately, what we know of one another are transient pieces of their identities that float through time. Some of these pieces take new forms in the future, while others disappear entirely. Our memories of these

pieces, however, remain intact. More often than not, what we know and believe about an individual boils down to the most impactful image we have of them. We may know someone as being kind, loving and gentle. Yet, no matter how much we try to reason with ourselves, we cannot forget the image of a violent outburst that they may have had in the past, one that shocked us to our very core. So, even as we see this person grow and change before our eyes, we remember them as someone who is capable of the most malicious form of violence, and nothing they might do could change this image of them within our minds. Even if the person

were to become different, the idea of them would remain the same to us. Even the gentlest people can hold the strongest convictions, and these convictions often bloom around their understanding of the people in their lives. As fickle as human beings are, we do not give up our judgements of people quite easily. Some things we cannot forget about people. Some things we can never stop seeing. Some lenses we cannot put down. If we understand the intensity of such convictions and feel justified in holding them, then it must not come as a great surprise that, just as we hold certain permanent images of others, those around us also hold

such images of us. Comfortingly, a permanent image is not always negative. For instance, to a mother, her daughter is a child in need of care, protection and love. Although her daughter may eventually grow into an adult and become a completely independent person, she will always be remembered as a small baby writhing in her mother’s arms. Her mother could only possibly remember her daughter as her baby, even if this baby were to grow capable enough to rule the world. Such is the nature of our connection with our people. We are condemned always to be slightly misunderstood and misremembered as

different versions of who we are. Only we ourselves have even the slightest chance of knowing ourselves entirely. Even then, frightening, inconceivable pieces of our identities remain that we do not understand or even begin to recognise. We might spend the rest of our lives trying to unravel or hide these pieces, or we can come to terms with them and learn to love ourselves wholly. We spend a rather large amount of our time trying to explain our identities to others, if not in words, then in actions. We choose mannerisms and clothes that help us express ourselves. We put extraordinary effort into curating the images other people have of us, so much

so that we begin to forget who we are. Our images are not our identities. An important part of growing up is learning to accept the fact that not everyone who knows us will understand us. We must learn to become comfortable with being misunderstood. This does not mean we should be oppositional to the point of misanthropy, but rather that we must learn to be comfortable with who we are and our individual journeys, even if it means others see us in an incomplete or seemingly incorrect way. We must love ourselves unapologetically, simply because we are the only ones truly capable of doing so.

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

A passion for her career

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

tell them Bible stories before bed. She stated that, honestly, she thinks her father told them almost every Bible story that could be told, and those memories are still very special to her. The young teacher disclosed that her childhood was not filled with expensive or fancy things, but she was happy and contented with what she had. “I remember playing marbles with my male friends in primary school, and at the time, I never thought anything of it. It was just fun, and I enjoyed being around my friends. Those simple moments are some of the memories I appreciate most now because childhood really was about enjoying the little things,” she said. After she completed secondary school, becoming a teacher was not something she had planned; it just happened naturally. The educator stated that she had no big dream of becoming a teacher at the time. In fact, she remembered being at home one day, probably doing absolutely nothing, when her father came to her with his phone and said, “Here, apply for CPCE.” And she did. She thought nothing of it and applied, but that decision changed the direction of her life. She attended Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and graduated in 2023. Looking back, she realised that her father had played another major role in shaping her life and career without even realising how important that one little moment would become. Although teaching was not her original plan, she eventually grew to love and appreciate the profession. Alphonso said she enjoys the fact that teaching keeps her active and that she is always learning something new. She noted that every day is different because she deals with different students, personalities and situations, and sometimes even unexpected challenges. But one of the things she

time reading them. She related that, because of that, it is really no surprise that she eventually chose to major in English and become an English teacher. She always enjoyed stories, language and expressing herself, and she can now share that interest with her students. “Another thing I really enjoy is debating. I love being able to express my opinions and defend my ideas, but I also enjoy listening to other people’s perspectives. I had the opportunity to represent my region, along with two other colleagues, at Youth Parliament. I was fortunate enough to be awarded Best Speaker Regionally in both years, which is an achievement that I am very

Ready for school, Zephra Alphonso

enjoys most about teaching is interacting with students. Sometimes, students need help with schoolwork, and sometimes they need someone to listen to or encourage them. Alphonso said helping them in different ways is something she finds very fulfilling. She also said she is a very vocal person, so teaching probably suits her personality more than she

originally thought. She teaches English, and since she loves reading, it came naturally. As a child, she got extremely excited whenever she received storybooks as gifts at the end of term. Alphonso said she would read practically every storybook and novel she could get her hands on. They had a bookshelf full of books at home, and she spent a lot of

proud of,” she said. Alphonso added that those experiences helped her become more confident in public speaking and expressing herself. As a teacher, she believes that her job is about more than just teaching English, and she wants her students to become better people as well. “I want to grow as a person, as a teacher and as someone who can positively influence the people around me. I also want to inspire my students in the same way my father inspired me. My father saw potential in me, even at times when I probably did not see it in myself,” she said. Alphonso added that, when she looks at her life now, she realises that many

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of the things that seemed small at the time actually played a big part in shaping her. She said her childhood in Wauna, her family, her faith, the books she read, the games she played, the movies she watched, her experiences in school, debating, and eventually becoming a teacher have all contributed to the person she is today. Alphonso said that, somehow, that small decision became the beginning of a career that she has grown to love, and she is excited to see where the journey will take her. She is attached to Hosororo Secondary School, where she teaches English to Grades Seven and Eleven.

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

Why Do Organisations Underperform?

Section A: People Factor PEOPLE can make an organisation grow or fail. People often have a lot to offer an organisation. When organisations consider the views of some employees, they can avoid common pitfalls. However, some organisations refuse employee input, only to find themselves headed down the wrong road. Another area that results in human-capital failure in an organisation is the recruitment and selection process. If the organisation employs people who lack the required skills, experience, or qualifications, it is already heading for failure. Some organisations employ people who do not meet the basic requirements and who, through their deficiencies, contribute to the organisation’s decline. While most employees lean toward the organisation’s success, some employees have grievances with management and may undertake actions to show their frustration. Management must handle these employees differently from those who want to help the organisation grow. Once your organisation

employs people, management should make provisions for their growth and development. Training remains a critical need for many employees. When a person is first employed, they may lack some basic skills, but training can help them grow. Training can be internal or external. The employee or the employer can pay for training. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. Choose the option that provides the greatest benefit to your organisation. Leaders cannot ignore an organisation’s success or failure. Some leaders can guide a loss-making organisation to profitability in a short time, while others can lead a profitable organisation into loss in the same amount of time. Leadership provides an opportunity to influence followers to cultivate a committed attitude towards the desired outcome. Good leaders can influence others, but so too can bad leaders. Leaders must motivate people to help the organisation succeed. Section B: Technology Factor Technology has been, and will continue to be, an area

that can help an organisation progress or fail. This level of investment comes at a cost, which an organisation may want to make for growth. However, sometimes you must make careful decisions about which technologies will work for your organisation. Just because several organisations are using a particular technology does not mean that you have to use it. Sometimes you have to follow other leaders on technology until you can innovate. Technology can give an organisation a competitive advantage. Your organisation can move from a loss-making position to a profit-making position by introducing certain technological devices. Technology that worked several years ago may not suit today’s competition, so you may need to upgrade. Information systems and applications help organisations use fewer employees, achieve greater success at a lower cost, and improve accuracy. While you may want to depend on a person’s institutional memory, they may not be able to recall everything in sequential order. Therefore, you must invest in technol-

ogy and upgrade as needed. Communication between internal and external people is essential for all businesses, whether small or large. Communication devices will differ from organisation to organisation, but you must equip yourself with the tools that will help your organisation grow. Organisations can save costs by reducing the number of printed documents where practicable. Sometimes, organisations generate too much waste because of printed documents. With technology, there may be less need for many face-to-face visits. Section C: Operational Factor No matter how much planning senior staff engage in, if the plan is not executed, the organisation will fail. Operations are like a plane on a runway preparing to lift off and then taking flight. If the organisation spends all its time planning, that means the plane is still on the runway. For the organisation’s operational processes to flow smoothly, coordination is key. Sometimes, everyone has an idea of what they are required to do for the organisation, but without coordina-

tion, everyone does what they think is right, only to create confusion in the organisation. If an organisation has a product or service that it wants the public to have, then it must be able to market it. No one will automatically know that your organisation has something potentially life-changing to offer if it is not marketed. Organisations sometimes fail in this essential area. If you do not promote your products or services, then you will not be able to generate revenue to sustain the organisation. Good marketing can attract customers worldwide and help grow your business. If an organisation continues to produce its products or services with outdated tools, machinery and equipment, then the overall cost of the item may not be competitive. Sometimes an organisation must change its operations and use options such as business-process re-engineering and continuous improvement. These options can improve operational efficiency, helping the organisation become sustainable and possibly become a leader in its industry. Customers’ feedback must never be ignored. In fact, an organisation should

constantly seek customer feedback about the organisation, its products, services, and employees. When customers provide feedback, it must be analysed, and appropriate action taken quickly. Some organisations fail to encourage customer feedback and have paid the price for not knowing where they were going wrong. Customers often notice things employees may overlook and can quickly point you to areas of failure and, where possible, offer solutions. Some customers even go the extra mile to tell you what competitors are doing and how you can remain competitive. Customers like to know they have a voice in how things operate in your organisation. It is important to manage customer feedback, since you can’t act on everyone’s concerns. For more information about Geary Reid and his books, please use the following contact information: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/gearyreid; website: www.reidnlearn. com; Facebook: Reid n Learn; email: info@reidnlearn.com; mobile: 592645-2240.

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

TRULY UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS OF EMANCIPATION AND THE TROUBLED AGE THAT FOLLOWED…

CONTRARY to what we believe, North Africans are credited with the first acknowledgement as the custodians of what we today address as Christianity: those who survived the destruction of Carthage. But the barbarism of the pagan Romans drove many of those Africans deeper into Africa. The irony of that age was that the Ro-

mans themselves would adopt the religion that would later be called Christianity. The Romans stopped tormenting Africans, turned to their religion, and became its followers. For the exact chronicle, explore “The Arab Invasion of Egypt and the Last 30 Years of the Roman Dominion”, by historians Alfred Butler and John Henrik Clarke.

That the hierarchy of religion played a profound role in the slave trade in Africa and the New World should not be alarming. The adaptations will surprise, but do not be alarmed or overwhelmed; it also played a role, even in the destruction of European pagan belief systems. A prominent poet in the making of the embracing of emancipation in

colonial Guyana, P. H. Daly, the writer, in his book “Revolution to Republic”, quoted his brethren on Main Street. We knew this man, and we listened to his poetry. As the poet sat with us, he defined our world at the moment. Smiling, he read a poem on the social classes of the day: “Show you to make a living on the minimum of work and the

maximum of bluff and make-believe, while the law of compensation shouts: ‘A thief!’ Such were the men whose nature did begin our nation… From colony to Emancipation, as they began to recognise themselves as men with much to say and to do.” Join me next week as we conclude the poet’s narrative…

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

ARAWAK GIRL AND THE LEGACY OF EL DORADO

ANN-MARIE closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as the plane started its descent. She was home again! Elation, like the cool, rushing streams in the forest, flowed through her being. She had missed her people, the rainforest with its astounding flora and fauna, its amazing waterfalls and its adventurous life. She was a girl of the Arawak tribe and proud of her Indigenous heritage, for history had documented the different tribes that came and settled in the hinterland as the first people. Stories of their lives

from the beginning were written on the foliage of the rainforests and borne by the wind across the rolling savannahs of her home in Guyana, South America. She was returning home from expeditions to ancient cities and sites in Central America with her English husband, David. He and his team of archaeologists had unearthed and documented many places and relics of the early inhabitants. It greatly interested Ann-Marie; on the team, she discovered pieces of her ancestral history scattered like leaves across the Americas: old, valuable artefacts of the Mayan and

Aztec dynasties in sealed chambers, with inscriptions on the walls. On the stone steps of temples, she had walked barefoot, visualising the gods and goddesses of that era and the rituals and sacrifices. The spiritual power of the gods of the past was a bond she shared with her tribal people. An inheritance passed down and deeply imprinted on her mind was that unforgettable journey from Asia across the Bering Strait over seven thousand years ago to this land in South America. David took her hand and looked at her with a warm smile. “Happy now?” She nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder as the small plane touched down on the interior airstrip. A small welcoming party gathered for the special couple, and the Toshao’s son presented her with a bunch of rare orchids. She inhaled the heavenly scent deeply and gave him a warm hug. Tears of happiness gathered in her eyes at the joyous welcome she and David received in her village. That evening, there was a celebration with a feast, songs and dances, not only for her retur n but for her little princess on the way. Ann-Marie went to bed in her benab, the toned-down sounds of music and laughter lulling her to sleep in this, her paradise. In her dreams, scenes from her adventurous life replayed in nature’s secret little hideouts: treacherous trails and dark, forbidden places deep in the forest, bathing under waterfalls and swimming with her river friends, the otters. Such an exciting and fun life it had been, sometimes facing dangers, but free to run, play, and explore. But a chance for a new life

came when David, the English boy she had rescued when his family’s plane had crashed, fulfilled his promise to her and returned years later. He wanted her to share his life so that he could take her on travels across the world on archaeological expeditions. They had married, and she left the village with him, but Ann-Marie had missed home too much. Three years later, early one morning in Guatemala, she had told David, “Something has happened. I have to go back home.” “What happened?” he had asked, concerned that she had not been very happy. She had smiled, a glow on her face, and, taking his hand, placed it on her abdomen. “I would love for our baby to be born in my little paradise at home.” It was wonderful news for David, and, touching her face gently, he had said, “If that’s what will make you happy, we will return.” So, four months later, David took temporary leave from work so they could return to her home and await the birth of their baby. A happy smile played across her face, and she turned into her husband’s arms, laying her head on his chest in the bliss of sleep and the peace and quiet of the night. Ann-Marie awoke early the next morning, before the mist had cleared from the mountaintops. She stepped outside, her bare feet kissed by the morning dew on the grass, and inhaled the cool, fresh air deeply. “Such a blessing!” she exclaimed quietly, her hand touching her abdomen lovingly. “She will be the princess of El Dorado,” she had told David as they prepared to return.

He had looked at her, somewhat surprised. “The mythical El Dorado?” “Well, it’s a popular story that started a long time ago so that we can own it,” she had said, smiling with pride. Explorers searched for El Dorado, the city of gold, but never found it; it became a myth to the outside world and a legacy for the Indigenous people. As a young girl, she had been fascinated by the story, but as she grew older, her interest faded, for it seemed unlikely that El Dorado had ever existed. Then, one day, she stumbled upon something deep in the rainforest where no one had ever walked before. It was as though a door had opened to let her in, and she stood there in awe, looking around at the flowing streams, rare flowers and exotic birds. What took her breath away was the gold sparkling all around. “Could it be…?” she wondered, unable to believe that it actually was. She walked to the stream and scooped up water with both hands, watching in disbelief as it trickled through her fingers, leaving small gold particles on her hands. A deep thrill passed through her body, and she stood there, rooted, for a long moment. “No one has ever found this place. Why me?” “Because you are a chosen daughter of our people,” a low voice said from somewhere. “This is now your secret, which you will pass on to your daughter.” “That I will do,” Ann-Marie said to herself as David stepped out of the benab, looking for her. “El Dorado will forever be our legacy.”

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

The Portuguese in Business in Guyana, 1835–1935, by Joanne Collins-Gonsalves THE history we inherit in Guyana, and across the Caribbean, is too often a history of rumour and apocrypha rather than one grounded in verifiable fact. What has been remembered as truth is often what was repeated most often, not what was most accurate. For generations, we had not had enough substantiated history to persuade us otherwise. At times, it has seemed as though countries like ours were never considered worthy subjects of serious historical inquiry. When we did appear in written accounts, usually authored by distant observers from the metropoles of the West, it was often with a brevity that overlooked, or deliberately ignored, anything of real consequence that we achieved.

Such accounts were sometimes scarcely removed from the fantastical imaginings of Walter Raleigh in The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, with its golden cities and embellished geographies. The line between myth and history was thin, and too often myth endured. We encounter similar patterns in the travel writings of James Anthony Froude in The Bow of Ulysses, Anthony Trollope’s The West Indies and the Spanish Main, and Evelyn Waugh’s Ninety-Two Days, each offering portrayals of the Caribbean filtered through an imperial gaze that reduced, simplified or dismissed the region and its people. Even V. S. Naipaul, writing from within the Caribbean experience, echoed

elements of this tradition. There is a particular irony in this: a son of the soil reproducing, in certain respects, the same tone of detachment and disdain. Yet it is not entirely unexpected. Naipaul’s assertion that “nothing was created in the West Indies” reads as internalised condemnation, a sweeping judgement that borders on pathology. More importantly, it is demonstrably untrue. It is opinion masquerading as knowledge, an interpretation that gestures toward historical truth while revealing the observer’s limitations and biases. Reading Naipaul’s The Middle Passage can be an infuriating experience for a Caribbean person; it often feels less like an inquiry into Caribbean reality than an argument against it. The imperial gaze has

long shaped how the Caribbean was written about and understood. These texts, enshrined within the canon of Western literature, carried forward a distorted vision of the region, one that diminished our humanity and rendered our societies as lesser reflections of some superior “mother country”. This was not truth, but through repetition, institutional authority and literary prestige, it acquired the appearance of truth. For this reason, we have always needed to wrest our history from the pens of colonial scribes. Only then can we begin to approach the past with the honesty it demands and restore to it the nuance, dignity, complexity and seriousness so often absent from accounts marked by dispassion, derision or dismissal. In Guyana, this reclamation began in earnest with Walter Rodney, whose work brought intellectual rigour and moral clarity to Caribbean history. His scholarship offered a perspective unclouded

by the conventional colonial gaze and grounded instead in careful research, historical consciousness and a profound responsibility to fact. That tradition continues in the detailed, exhaustively researched studies of scholars such as Clem Seecharan and, more recently, Dr Estherine Adams in Slavery, Indentureship, and Women’s Labour: Early British Guiana’s Jails (2026). Adams’s work is a meticulous excavation of the exploitation of women within the colonial prison system, an area of history that has long been neglected, obscured or, in some cases, effectively erased. These modern histories stand in stark contrast to the simplified narratives that, for generations, were allowed to pass as historical truth. We were told, for example, that we were brought to Guyana as enslaved Africans; that others arrived as indentured labourers from India, Portugal and China; and that still others came as migrants from elsewhere in the Caribbean

archipelago. These statements may be broadly accurate, but they rarely answer the questions that history demands: Where precisely did these people come from? Under what conditions did they arrive? Who organised and financed their movement? What systems governed their labour and settlement? What did they encounter when they arrived? And how did their experiences shape the society that eventually emerged? Apocrypha cannot adequately answer such questions. It lacks the precision, documentation and accountability that distinguish historical inquiry from inherited narrative. In this context, new scholarship matters. Dr Joanne Collins-Gonsalves’s book, The Portuguese in Business in Guyana 1835–1935: A History of Entrepreneurship, Expansion, and Diversification, contributes to this growing body of corrective history. Like Dr Adams’s work, Collins-Gonsalves’s study has a TURN TO PAGE XIX

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Language and tradition

because that is who they are, and they can ultimately learn from one another. She noted that working with young people has encouraged her to build skills and pass on knowledge to others because her foreparents and other elders did not pass on much traditional

knowledge to them and died with it. She wants today’s youth to remember Indigenous stories and pass them on. Meanwhile, in terms of craft, Duarte is skilled in cotton spinning and shares her knowledge with youth, teaching them how to make

hammocks and other items. She lets them make traditional outfits from cotton and decorate them with beads to enhance the outfits at the Bina Hill Institute Youth Learning Centre.Duarte is happy to announce that her application to become a parttime teacher at the Universi-

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ty of Guyana (UG), where she will introduce the Macushi language as part of the curriculum, was approved. It will be an online course. She is also skilled at preparing local Amerindian foods, which are often showcased at events and enjoyed at home.

Rupertee resident Gloria Duarte decked out in her traditional outfit

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 13, 2026

WHEN KRISHNA PICKS UP THE FLUTE

I WAS scrolling Facebook a few mornings ago and realised many of my friends were sending out Krishna Janamashmi greetings. This is an observance I have known about since childhood but never really put much thought into it. This year, it was the perfect opportunity to do just that. So what exactly does the life of Krishna teaches us about love, duty, surrender and finding the Divine within? There are some figures in spiritual history who seem to belong entirely to the realm of worship, and then there is Krishna, who somehow manages to remain both divine and human at the same time. He appears in the stories as the mischievous child who steals butter, the enchanting young man whose flute draws

the Gopis into the moonlit forests of Vrindavan, the beloved of Radha, the warrior, the statesman, the strategist, the friend and, finally, the charioteer who stands beside a frightened Arjuna and speaks words that have travelled across centuries. Maybe this is why Krishna continues to fascinate us. He represents a spirituality that embraces the whole of life. His story contains laughter, love, duty, conflict, devotion, loss, courage and surrender, and his teachings in the Bhagavad Gita transform all of these experiences into opportunities for awakening. Krishna’s traditional life story begins with a child born into danger. Devaki and Vasudeva are imprisoned by the tyrant Kamsa, who fears a prophecy that Devaki’s child will bring about his downfall.

Krishna is carried secretly across the Yamuna and raised among the cowherds of Gokul and Vrindavan, where his childhood unfolds through stories of divine play, music, friendship and love. His life later expands into the great political and moral drama of the Mahabharata, eventually bringing him to the battlefield of Kurukshetra as Arjuna’s charioteer. It is there, in the space between two armies, that Krishna gives humanity one of its most enduring spiritual conversations. Arjuna looks across the battlefield and sees people he loves on both sides. His certainty collapses beneath the weight of his emotions, and he becomes unable to see his path clearly. Krishna meets him precisely where he is and begins to teach him about the nature of

the self, the responsibility of action, the discipline of the mind, devotion and the mysterious relationship between human will and the Divine. The Bhagavad Gita presents several paths of spiritual practice, including karma yoga, the yoga of action; jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge; dhyana yoga, the yoga of meditation; and bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. Modern scholarship continues to explore how these paths relate to one another, with some interpretations placing particular emphasis on devotion and others seeing them as complementary dimensions of the same spiritual journey. Yet beneath all those philosophical terms sits a practical question. How do we live when life places us in the

middle of a battle we never expected to fight? This question belongs to all of us. Our battlefields simply come dressed differently. For one person, it is a broken relationship, for another, it is a difficult decision about work or family, someone else is standing in the middle of grief, uncertainty, financial pressure, disappointment or a future that suddenly looks nothing like the one they imagined. Krishna’s answer begins with action. The Gita teaches that we have responsibility for our actions while the fruits of those actions remain beyond our complete control. Karma yoga therefore asks us to perform our duty without becoming consumed by attachment to the outcome. A recent scholarly treatment of the Gita describes this

combination of dharma and disciplined action as one of the text’s central themes. This teaching becomes especially relevant in an age where we have developed an almost spiritual obsession with results. We want to know whether the relationship will work before we give our heart. We want to know whether the business will succeed before we begin. We want to know whether the decision will turn out correctly before we make it. And we want guarantees from life before we even agree to participate. Krishna essentially says, ‘Do your part, give your best, then release your claim over the universe’s response.’ This is a difficult lesson because human beings love control. We arrange our little pieces TURN TO PAGE XVIII

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of life and then become personally offended when existence rearranges them without requesting permission. Krishna offers another way to live. He teaches disciplined action accompanied by inner freedom. The action matters, but the ego’s demand to control every consequence becomes a burden we can release. Swami Vivekananda saw this practical quality in Krishna’s teaching. In his lectures on the Gita, he emphasised action performed without attachment and presented Krishna as a teacher who brought together philosophy, work and devotion. Paramahansa Yogananda also interpreted the Gita as a deeply practical spiritual teaching, particularly in his extensive commentary ‘God Talks with Arjuna’. His tradition describes the scripture as a guide to transforming consciousness through devotion,

meditation and disciplined action. Sadhguru offers another fascinating perspective on Krishna. He describes him as a figure of extraordinary dimensions, a playful child, musician, dancer, lover, warrior, strategist, statesman and yogi. He argues that approaching Krishna requires more than intellectual appreciation because the deeper teaching lies in experiencing the aliveness that Krishna represents. This idea brings us back to the flute. There is something mystical about Krishna’s flute because a flute creates music through emptiness. It has space within it, and because there is space, music can move through it. Maybe the human soul works in much the same way. When the ego fills every available space with fear, control, resentment, expectation and the

endless commentary of the mind, there is very little room left for intuition, wisdom or grace. Krishna’s flute invites another kind of consciousness. It suggests that we can become instruments rather than constantly insisting upon being the composer, conductor and entire orchestra. There is also a beautiful lesson in Krishna’s playfulness. Spirituality has sometimes been presented as though becoming enlightened requires us to walk around looking permanently concerned about the condition of the universe. Krishna gives us another picture, he dances, he plays music, he laughs, he loves and he participates in life. Sadhguru describes ‘leela’, the path of the playful, as an essential dimension of Krishna’s nature. Perhaps that is something modern adults desperately need to remember that joy has spiri-

tual value along with laughter and wonder. The ability to stand beneath a moonlit sky and feel astonishment at being alive has spiritual value. Krishna teaches us that consciousness can be profound without becoming heavy. And then there is devotion. The twelfth chapter of the Gita explores bhakti, the path of devotion, and asks what it means to orient one’s heart toward the Divine. Contemporary scholarship continues to examine devotion as one of the central philosophical and spiritual dimensions of the text. Sadhguru’s discussion of this chapter similarly emphasises surrender and devotion while making an important distinction between the inner dimension, where transformation begins, and the outer world, where human beings still have to act and strive. This distinction matters

because surrender has become another word we occasionally misuse. Surrender does not mean abandoning responsibility. Surrender means releasing the illusion that we control everything. We can plant the seed, water the soil and protect the garden, while understanding that the flowering belongs to a mystery larger than our hands. This is Krishna’s wisdom. We act, and we surrender. We love, and we allow. We serve, and we release. We seek, and we remain open to being surprised. We walk our dharma while allowing life to reveal the road one step at a time. The battlefield of Kurukshetra therefore becomes more than a place in an ancient epic. It becomes an image of the human condition. Scholarship on the Gita has long examined its treatment of dharma and the difficult question of how a person acts rightly when circumstances themselves are morally complicated. Every human being eventually meets such a battlefield. There comes a moment when we must decide who we are beneath fear, expectation and social approval. There comes a moment when we must choose between the comfortable lie and the uncomfortable truth. There comes a moment when we must stop asking, ‘What will everyone think?’ and begin asking, ‘What is mine to do?’ This question is deeply Krishna and guess what, the most beautiful part of his story is that he does not ask Arjuna to become somebody else. He asks him to awaken. He reminds Arjuna of the deeper Self beneath the changing circumstances of the body and personality. He teaches him to act from clarity rather than paralysis, from dharma rather than fear, and from devotion rather than ego. This lesson reaches far beyond the battlefield. We spend so much of life trying to become the person the world applauds that we sometimes forget to become the person our soul recognises. Krishna calls us inward. He calls us toward the place where action becomes purposeful, love becomes devotional, knowledge becomes wisdom and surrender becomes strength. This is why his flute still seems to echo across centuries. The Krishna story ultimately becomes a story about remembering. Remembering who we are, remembering that life contains both sweetness and struggle, remem-

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bering that duty can become devotion when we perform it with consciousness, remembering that love can become sacred when we release possession, remembering that surrender can become freedom when we stop trying to negotiate with every circumstance and remembering that even on the battlefield, the Divine can sit beside us and hold the reins. Perhaps we simply have to become quiet enough to hear the flute. Below for a poem to the life and lesson of Krishna and his flute. THE FLUTE WITHIN Beneath the hush of midnight blue, A silver breath comes drifting through; The flute awakens what has been, A hidden cosmos breathing in. Where moonbeams spill on Yamuna’s tide, The veils of illusion slip aside; One note dissolves the mortal veil, And ancient stars begin to exhale. When destiny veils the road ahead, Let faith become the path you tread; The soul knows doors the mind cannot, And blooms wherever it is brought. When love arrives upon the breeze, Let it move wild among the trees; For sacred love possesses none, It burns like stars, then becomes the sun. When sorrow carves the heart in two, Let wisdom pour its nectar through; For grief can crack the sealed shrine, And make the broken spirit divine. Release tomorrow, release the known, Let silence speak in undertones; For truth has never shouted loud, It hides beyond the thinking cloud. So hear the flute no ears can hear, The song that draws the spirit near; Walk inward through the sacred flame, And find the Krishna without a name. Romella Dasratt

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The Portuguese in Business in Guyana, 1835–1935, by Joanne Collins-Gonsalves FROM PAGE XII

deliberately narrow focus and a specific geographical orientation: Guyana. That focus, however, should not be mistaken for insignificance. The very opposite is evident. A history of one community, one institution, one economic activity or one geographical area can illuminate the larger historical structure in which it is embedded. Sometimes, the most effective way of understanding a country in its totality is to examine, with unusual precision, one of the strands from which that country’s history was woven. Collins-Gonsalves’s book is precisely such a work. It examines a particular and important dimension of Guyanese history: the Portuguese presence in Guyana and their economic development within the colony. There is nothing mythical about this enterprise. The book is an exercise in historical recovery, grounded in documentary evidence and sustained by extensive research. What makes the study especially valuable is the historical period it examines. It takes us back into the territory’s pre-independence history, reaching into the period before the colony became British Guiana and offering glimpses of its earlier periods under French and Dutch rule. In doing so, Collins-Gonsalves situates the Portuguese experience within a colonial landscape already taking shape before British dominance was firmly established. More importantly, she excavates in considerable detail the beginnings of the commercial organisations and economic enterprises that would later provide the foundation for Portuguese entrepreneurial activity in Guyana, sometimes at the expense of competing racial groups. One of the book’s most interesting arguments concerns the British Empire’s divide-and-conquer approach and how it shaped the colony’s social and economic hierarchy. Collins-Gonsalves argues persuasively that the economic success of the Portuguese was connected, in part, to their installation as a “buffer” between the British and the rest of the population, as well as to their early and forceful embrace of entrepreneurship.

Collins-Gonsalves provides sufficient evidence that the British might have erred in this calculation, for within a decade, the Portuguese had become successful enough in certain areas of business to rival them. Soon after, the Portuguese parlayed their business acumen into political power, especially by building common ground with the Afro-Guyanese population on the coast and gaining political capital. This collaboration foreshadowed a later partnership between the Portuguese-led United Force Party and the African-dominated PNC regime of the 1970s and 1980s. Even while still indentured, the Portuguese had begun establishing small huckstering businesses, in some cases within a year or two of their arrival from Portugal. The book carefully traces how Portuguese migrants established themselves economically. Names such as J. P. Santos, De Freitas, D’Aguiar, and others emerge from this history, many of whose enterprises would become part of Guyana’s economic backbone. This is one of the book’s particular strengths. Collins-Gonsalves does not simply tell us that the Portuguese came to Guyana and became successful entrepreneurs. She takes us closer to the historical processes that made that development possible. She identifies the structures, circumstances, relationships, and enterprises through which a community established itself and participated in the colony’s economic life. We learn how the Portuguese came to Guyana, the political and economic undercurrents that made immigration necessary for some, and the personal histories of migrants arriving from Madeira, Cape Verde and the Azores, including those fleeing the economic and political circumstances of nineteenth-century Portugal. The book therefore focuses on the causes underlying the exodus of Portuguese migrants from Portugal to Guyana. By tracing these causes alongside the migrants’ subsequent experiences, Collins-Gonsalves provides a more complete understanding of immigration, not simply as movement from one geographical location to another, but as a process shaped by

economic necessity, political instability, opportunity and colonial policy. We therefore gain a fuller, more nuanced understanding of Guyanese society during this period. Ultimately, the reader gets more than a general account of Portuguese migration and entrepreneurship. The reader gets the facts and, through those facts, a clearer understanding of the underlying forces that helped shape Guyana’s nascent economy and the society that developed around it. The book is, in part, a correction: a response to the limited understanding of the Portuguese presence in Guyana and to the tendency to reduce their history to a few familiar propositions about immigration, commerce and entrepreneurship. But it is also a revelation. Collins-Gonsalves brings to light information that has either been overlooked, insufficiently examined, or remained unknown to a wider readership. The discovery that Portuguese migrants had begun establishing small businesses even while still indentured is particularly revealing, not simply as evidence of their entrepreneurial spirit, but as an indication of how quickly migrants adapted to the economic possibilities and constraints of colonial society. There is something pleasantly surprising about the way Collins-Gonsalves accomplishes this. The book does not seek to manufacture drama where the evidence does not provide it. Its revelations emerge through the patient accumulation of facts, documents, references and historical detail. She allows the evidence to do the work. Her citation notes fill many pages of the book. She clarifies and elucidates in the gentle, factual manner characteristic of good historical scholarship. This distinction matters. This is not a history of opinion masquerading as fact, nor is it an argument constructed first and supported afterwards through selectively chosen evidence. Rather, it is an excavation of what was there: facts that once existed but were insufficiently recorded, insufficiently researched or insufficiently understood. The book recovers a past that has been obscured, not necessari-

ly because it did not exist, but because the historical record has been uneven and our attention has too often been directed elsewhere. That is the larger significance of Collins-Gonsalves’s work. The history of Guyana is not a single narrative but an accumulation of intersecting histories: African, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese, Indigenous, European, Caribbean, colonial, commercial, agricultural, religious and political. Recovering one of these histories with docu-

mentary precision enlarges our understanding of the whole. Closely allied with this notion is the remarkable contribution of Portuguese women in business and their significant successes. The importance of such scholarship extends beyond the community it examines. A fuller history of the Portuguese is a fuller history of Guyana. A more accurate account of their arrival, settlement, commercial activity and social development allows us

to see the country not as a collection of inherited myths, but as a complicated historical construction shaped by people whose lives, ambitions, struggles and achievements deserve to be known. This is what serious historical scholarship can accomplish. It does not merely replace one story with another. It interrogates the stories we have inherited, tests them against evidence and recovers what has been lost between memory and fact.

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September 13th, 2026 STUDY SUCCESS Welcome, dear friend. If your studies are of top priority, your daily game plan for each session must allow much information and skills gathering, just like your classroom times. Utilise your learning style. If it is reading/writing, employ note cards even if you have had a power-point presentation. Rewriting content and using flash cards encourage you to re-read, understand and remember the material better, and provide opportunity to reorganise it. Pretend-teaching also helps the reading/writing

learner to maximise his study. Be wise. Love you. THE PASSAGE Reading comprehension Note: Doing reading comprehension is employing your ability to understand, interpret, and make meaning from a written text as you actively peruse it – not wearying your brain power. As you move along the lines, you can ask yourself questions, use tempo with purpose, stop in strategic points, and summarise as you proceed. You feel confident in your reading comprehension skills

when you can decode words and print symbols with relative ease, understand most vocabulary at your level, and connect each sentence’s information with what came before. For most purposes, this should enable you to answer questions about texts successfully under examination conditions. Read the following passage, and then respond to the questions based upon it. It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, some little experience is needed. Nature has done almost nothing to pre-

pare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders. Nothing but rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one or the other. One cannot easily forget to love freedom; and it is as hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures. On entering upon the career of a slaveholding business, Mrs. Ault was singularly deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such as office, had done less for her than any lady I had known… I was more than chattel, and she felt me to be more than that, I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew and felt me to be so. How could she then, treat me as a brute, without a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was victorious. Her noble soul was overthrown; but he that overthrew it did not, himself, escape the consequence. He, not less than the other parties, was injured in his domestic peace by the fall. (Frederick Douglas’s “My Bondage and My Freedom”) 1. Give the meaning of each word or phrase: slaveholder; nothing but rigid training; slave; Mrs. Ault was singularly deficient; no easy matter. 2. Do you think that the author’s description of nature is accurate? Why or why not? 3. How did the “I” narrator show that he was human to Mrs. Ault? 4. In what ways did she in turn feel him to be human? 5. Was it abnormal for a slave to have the ability to do the things that the author learned? Give your reasons of support. 6. “The struggle came.” What is being alluded to by the author in this short sen-

What seest thou else In the dark backward abysm of time? WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) “The Tempest,” 1.ii.49 tence? 7. Tell what you understand about this statement including what was overthrown: “… he that overthrew it, did not himself, escape the consequences.” 8. Write a short paragraph on any aspects of this abridged passage. Let your study partners comment constructively upon your effort. THE PASSAGE Reading comprehension Instructions: Read the following passage carefully, and then answer the questions below. … Again, stepping from a Pierce-Arrow automobile, like Mr. Mortimer Jones, Dexter strolled frigidly into the lounge of the Sherry Island Gulf Club – or perhaps, surrounded by an admiring crowd, he gave an exhibition of fancy driving from the springboard of the club raft … Among those who watched him with openmouthed wonder is Mr. Mortimer Jones. One day it came to pass that Mr. Jones – himself and not his ghost – came up to Dexter with tears in his eyes and said that Dexter was the – best caddy in the club, and wouldn’t he decide not to quit if Mr. Jones made it worth the while, because every other – caddy in the club lost one ball a hole for him – regularly … “No, sir,” said Dexter decisively, “I don’t want to caddy anymore.” Then, after a pause: “I’m too old.” “You’re not more than fourteen. Why the devil did

you decide just this morning that you wanted to quit? You promised that next week you’d go over to the state tournament with me.” “I decided I was too old.” Dexter handed in his “A Class” badge, collected what money was due him from the caddy master, and walked home to Black Bear Village. (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams”) Passage so Far: Dexter caddied only for pocket money at Sherry Island, there he dreamed of becoming as prominent as Mr. Mortimer Jones, but even more wonderful and even better. Questions: 1. “One day it came to pass that Mr. Jones …” Is this a fantasy of Dexter Green’s? Support your answer. 2. Give the meaning of each of the following words: automobile, strolled frigidly, lounge, gave an exhibition of fancy driving. 3. How do you sense the relationship between Mr. Mortimer Jones and Dexter first from the point of view of Mr. Jones, and second from the point of view of Dexter? Give evidence for each answer. 4. What does Dexter do for pocket money? Why do you think Dexter suddenly gave up caddying at Sherry Island that morning? 5. At this point, how much can you conclude about Dexter Green’s circumstances and desires? Why did Mr. Mortimer Jones cite Dexter’s age?

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Coping with fearful children

EVERY dental professional knows that children, as patients, present a challenge when drugs are required during dental treatment. Although not commonly practised in Guyana, special consideration should be given to the route of administration (oral or by injection), the selection of appropriate agents and the correct dosage for optimal effect. Premedication is the act of giving someone a drug before the dentist attempts to perform any clinical procedure, to tranquillise the person so that they may cooperate during treatment. The goals of premedication are to allay apprehension or fearful anxiety and prevent any attempt to hamper or resist treatment. The judicious use of a premedicating agent can therefore be substantially beneficial, especially when the patient is a child. Although not a substitute for psychological management techniques, preoperative sedation, when used with certain medications, can significantly expand the range of patients who can be treated in the office environment. A tried-and-true technique I often use is to hold the cotton with forceps (pliers) and place it over the affected tooth a few times. Obviously, the child observes that nothing is happening and will therefore allow me to do that repeatedly. On my fifth attempt, I perform the extraction. The patient should remain conscious and responsive to commands, with the protective laryngeal reflexes (coughing) intact. An ideal agent should be effective at a dose that minimally alters vital signs and allows rapid recovery, with a low rate of adverse reactions. While the so-called “laughing gas”, nitrous oxide, is among the best premedication agents, most dentists using preoperative sedation in children prefer the oral route of administration.

This method is largely effective, although absorption can vary. The major advantage of the oral route is that it is an innocuous delivery system that the child is less likely to perceive as threatening or suspicious. Chloral hydrate, sold under the brand name Noctec, is the oldest drug of the hypnotic group. It closely resembles a barbiturate. The drug is available as a syrup, and the child can take two spoonfuls 45 minutes before the dental appointment. A major drawback to the use of chloral hydrate is that no specific antidote is currently available to reverse any adverse effects should they occur. Side effects are minor, and the taste is frequently reported to be objectionable. Hydroxyzine has historically been one of the most popular sedating agents used in children. Available as Atarax and Vistaril, this drug tranquillises, prevents vomiting and inflammation, and relaxes the muscles. It comes in 25 mg and 50 mg tablets. Suspensions and injections are also manufactured. R e c e n t l y, d i a z e p a m , which is widely prescribed for the control of adult anxiety, has gained popularity for use in the preoperative sedation of children. It has been suggested that doses on the night before and the day of the dental appointment are necessary to achieve optimal sedation. This even works well with adults. Promethazine is widely used in medicine and dentistry as a co-medication for narcotic agents. Other similar drugs are meperidine and alphaprodine. Parents and guardians should know that it could be dangerous to give a child any premedication agent without the consent and supervision of the dentist. This article does not provide information such

as the dosage in relation to the child’s weight, the specific dental procedure

to be performed and its relationship to the type and dosage of the drug, etc. In

addition, the child’s mental state (hysteria, etc.), age, medical history and clinical

status must all be taken into account before premedication is prescribed.

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