The citizens of Catholic-dominated countries in Europe and Latin America had long celebrated “Father’s Day” on March 19, which is St Joseph’s Day, named after the father of Jesus. Since Joseph was actually Jesus’s putative “father”, the day probably emphasised the role played by fathers during a very patriarchal-dominated age.
As usual, it was the Americans who decided to secularise it. It became “Father’s Day” in 1910, and was to be observed on the third Sunday of March, when there could be massive “Father’s Day sales” to give the economy another boost.
For us in Guyana, this commercialisation of “Father’s Day” reflects the march of westernisation into the value system of the rest of the world. In traditional cultures such as those from whence the vast majority of Guyanese originated, the roles of fathers did not need a day to remember and honour them. On Father’s Day, therefore, it would do us well to reflect on the violent wrenching of fathers from their role of being the provider and protector of their families during the humiliation of slavery, and to a lesser extent indentureship.
Nowadays, there is a large and vigorous hue and cry over the “missing fathers” in many homes, which creates severe pathologies in the children, especially boys; because of the lack of a model father figure. But scant attention is given to the fact that in West Africa and India, from whence most of these persons’ ancestors originated, this condition is absolutely the exception.
On Father’s Day, therefore, we suggest that there be a national reappraisal, formal and informal, of the recuperation of the traditional role of the father in our society; rather than the superficial handing over of gifts that were conceptualised by marketing agents in the North.
In traditional Indian culture, for instance, there is a maxim that is still known to most, and is supposed to be repeated every morning: “Mother is God; Father is God”, as a sacred fire is circled in front of parents. While it is a reminder that parents are supposed to be honoured every day, it is also a reminder to the parents – both father and mother – that they also have to perform their roles: to protect, socialise and provide for their families.
But the traditional role of “father” originated before the revolutionary onset of the nation-state in the 17th century. After this, to a large extent, the nation-state was now supposed to play the role of the “father” writ large for the entire society. Like the father was supposed to do for the family, the state would protect the people from outsiders; create the conditions for the people to flourish; socialise them into their roles; and sanction them if they were to act against the good of all.
On Father’s Day, we therefore also ought to evaluate our state, and the Government that we placed in charge of it, from the standpoint of whether it is performing its designated role for the people of Guyana. These people, by and large, are performing their roles by accepting they will be taxed to provide funding for the activities of the state to provide the “good life”. Are the people being provided with the level of public security they were promised?
In the provision of health services, there is presently a public debate on the propriety of a Government minister being whisked away abroad for medical treatment when a young national cyclist was allowed to die because treatment was not available locally. Is this how the state, as parent, ought to act?
Then there is the unilateral action by the PNC-led Government to shut down the state-owned GuySuCo, and throw 7700 sugar workers (inclusive from private cane farming) on the bread line. The Government justified their move by invoking the cold calculus of private enterprise, but this was what they inveigled against in 1976 to justify the nationalisation of the sugar industry. The PNC, under Burnham, then invoked the role of the state as father writ large.
