As Guyana enters a period of unprecedented economic change, historian Dr. Estherine Adams is urging the country to confront a difficult question: Are we consciously building a new future, or quietly repeating the patterns that shaped our past?
That question became the centrepiece of “Before the Red Dot,” a new curated conversation series presented by TEDxTurkeyen, designed to ground national dialogue in history before turning to the future.
The inaugural discussion, held on February 27, featured Dr. Estherine Adams, an award-winning historian whose research explores Guyana’s colonial past, labour systems, gender and social power, in conversation with journalist Kurt Campbell.
The evening unfolded inside the preserved colonial-style Dutch Bottle Cafe, a setting that served as an almost symbolic reminder of the discussion’s central theme that in Guyana, the past is never very far from the present.
But before Guyana can talk about tomorrow, Campbell suggested during the discussion, it must first understand how the present was shaped.
“Guyana may have been imagined long before it was ever truly built by its own people,” he said in his opening remarks. “Before there was a Guyanese identity, before independence, decisions were already being made about this land… about its resources, about who would live here and how it would be governed.”
Adams agreed, arguing that much of Guyanese society emerged from systems designed elsewhere and imposed locally.
“Our language, our culture, even the systems we operate within… most of it wasn’t something we consciously chose,” she said. “It was pressed upon us. But we adapted it, because Guyanese people are resilient.”
That resilience, she suggested, helped communities survive slavery, indentureship and colonial rule. But the systems that shaped those experiences did not disappear overnight.
According to Adams, independence changed national symbols but left many underlying structures largely intact.
“We got a new flag, a new anthem, new symbols,” she said. “But the legal structures, the parliamentary system, the institutions… many of those remained essentially the same.”
The conversation also examined how colonial authorities deliberately engineered divisions among the different groups brought to Guyana for labour.
Unity, Adams said, was never the objective of the colonial project.
“The goal was labour,” she explained. “Different groups came here at different times, and the system was designed to keep them separate and competing. It was easier to control society that way.”
Audience members added their own perspectives throughout the evening, challenging and expanding on Adams’ arguments. Some pointed to the progress Guyana has made since independence — including constitutional rights and increased representation of women in politics — while others raised questions about lingering external influences and structural inequalities.
But it was the conversation about the present moment that drew the most reflection.
Campbell described it as his favourite part of the evening: as Guyana experiences rapid economic transformation, particularly through oil wealth, is the country building intentionally, or slipping into familiar patterns?
Adams warned that resource-driven societies can easily reproduce the dynamics of colonial governance.
“It’s very easy to slip back into a system where a small elite controls resources and power is distributed through patronage,” she said. “If we are not conscious about it, we can repeat those patterns.”
Part of the challenge, she argued, lies in Guyana’s unresolved relationship with its own history.
Different communities often carry different versions of the past, passed down through families and shaped by experience. Those fragmented narratives, Adams said, can make national unity fragile and leave society vulnerable to manipulation.
“We tell ourselves the story that we are ‘one people, one nation, one destiny,’” she said.
“But if we look honestly at how we operate, we know it’s more complicated than that.”
For Adams, confronting those complexities begins with education.
Guyana, she argued, needs a stronger and more honest engagement with its own history, one that includes uncomfortable moments as well as celebrated achievements.
Still, the discussion was not without optimism.
Adams pointed to Guyanese resilience, cultural creativity and the ability of communities to adapt and synthesise diverse traditions as strengths that could help shape a better future.
But resilience alone, she contended, will not define Guyana’s next chapter.
For a country experiencing rapid change, the real question is whether citizens, leaders and institutions are prepared to learn from the past rather than unknowingly reproduce it.
That, in many ways, is the purpose of the “Before the Red Dot” series.
It asks Guyanese to pause, look backward, and reflect before the national conversation turns fully toward tomorrow.
TEDxTurkeyen, organised by consultant and longtime journalist Janelle Persaud, is preparing for its first major event in May 2026, themed “Bold Voices, New Visions: Shaping Guyana’s Tomorrow.” The “Before the Red Dot” series is intended to create space for reflection before that forward-looking conversation begins
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