The hinterland no longer waits

For much of our country’s history, the hinterland was treated as a distant frontier rather than an integral part of our Republic. The post-independence PNC-UF government proclaimed the importance of indigenous peoples, celebrated their culture on national occasions and praised their stewardship of the forests. They even invented an “Amerindian” word to describe their Republic bash – Mashramani. Yet when budgets were prepared and national priorities established, the coast in general and their supporters in particular, invariably came first.
The result was a development model that effectively placed the majority of Guyanese within the narrow Atlantic corridor paramount while leaving thousands of indigenous citizens separated not only by geography but by opportunity. The roads ended where the forests began; electricity was sporadic; communications were unreliable and health care often depended upon periodic outreach. Children seeking higher education had to leave their villages altogether. Development reached the hinterland slowly, unevenly and sometimes only after years of promises.
The just completed National Toshaos Conference demonstrates how profoundly that philosophy has changed during successive PPP administrations. They have increasingly made hinterland development a central pillar of their national agenda rather than an occasional act of political charity. That distinction is fundamental: it recognises that indigenous communities are not peripheral to Guyana’s future but are central to it.
The difference between yesterday and today is not merely one of rhetoric but of scale. For decades, hinterland policy was largely about managing remoteness but today, it is about overcoming it. Roads have been extended deeper into the interior while airstrips and river transport have mushroomed. Renewable energy is reducing dependence on costly imported fuel and internet connectivity is shrinking distances that once isolated entire communities. New schools, health facilities, housing programmes and economic initiatives – especially the latest one unfurled – seek not merely to improve living standards but to create opportunities that allow young indigenous Guyanese to build prosperous futures without abandoning their ancestral communities.
This represents a decisive break from an older mindset in which the hinterland was viewed principally through three lenses: timber, minerals and conservation. Indigenous peoples were too often expected to protect the nation’s forests while remaining among its least-developed citizens. Such an arrangement was neither just nor sustainable.
Our country’s unprecedented oil revenues have made it possible to correct this historic imbalance, and the Government deserves credit for recognising that national wealth carries national obligations. Development has not stopped at the BJ Demerara River Bridge or the Berbice River. It has extended to the Rupununi, the Pakaraimas, the North West District, the Upper Mazaruni and every community whose citizens have waited generations for the same opportunities enjoyed on the coast.
Equally significant is the evolution of the National Toshaos Conference itself. Once viewed largely as an annual ceremonial gathering, it has become an important forum through which indigenous leaders directly influence national policy. Ministers are expected to answer difficult questions, defend programmes and hear firsthand the concerns of village leaders. That is participatory democracy in action.
Naturally, much remains to be done. Land titling must continue; infrastructure must be completed on time and maintained; public services must improve in quality as well as quantity and overall economic development must proceed with respect for indigenous traditions and the constitutional rights of Amerindian communities. But those are questions of execution, not of commitment and today, the hinterland is increasingly viewed as the nation’s next frontier of growth, investment and opportunity.
History will judge governments not by the speeches they delivered about indigenous peoples but by whether they transformed their daily lives. The PPP administration has set itself that ambitious task. If it sustains the momentum evident at this year’s National Toshaos Conference, it will not merely have developed the hinterland; it will have helped complete the unfinished project of building a truly unified Guyana.
For the first time in many decades, the nation’s development map is beginning to resemble its geography with the hinterland increasingly becoming its strategic future. This is holistic nation building.