Dear Editor,

Tacuma Ogunseye like most thinking black Guyanese has made a spiritual pilgrimage and has discovered the authentic African self, whose natural home is ACDA. I venture to say that the brilliant Walter Rodney would have been in ACDA if he were alive today, like many other African W.P.A members.

Tacuma in his authentic African self, has forgiven Clem David and the P.N.C for framing him during that spiritual journey. Clem like the biblical false witness should be ashamed of himself and seek the forgiveness that the present African reality demands. Tacuma, is asking the ancestors to forgive them "for they know not what they have done". He realizes that the interest of the African collective comes first.

Dr Nehusi and Dr David Hinds, the question is not if we had written languages. Today we are speaking to each other in English while African languages are dying in Africa; we need to know why? Today our Godheads are Jesus, a Jew in Jerusalem and Mohammed, an Arab in Mecca, geographies alien to our origin, we need to know why. Today we are studying English and Scottish orders in lodges while we know little about the philosophies and opinions of Saint Marcus Garvey; we need to know why.

Yes, we made great contributions to the world; the question is where we went wrong and why we continue to do so? Another question is why a race of people is so far removed from self. Prince Michael is wrong when he said, "we love and revere our ancestors". If that were true we would be practicing Ifa, not Christianity or Islam. Religion is nothing else but the deification of ancestors in a historical context.

Why do we proudly call ourselves West Indians when we are not Indians but simply Africans stranded in this geography? Words and definitions are not innocent. Why aren't our scholars answering these questions? In the forensic and unemotional analysis of these questions lie our solutions. If we don't address these questions we are doomed as a race.