Historical Repetition and Development Narratives in Guyana’s Coastal Drainage and Irrigation System

Abstract

This article takes a critical look at the historiography of development in Guyana as it appears in archival materials and the primary (governmental and non-governmental reports) and secondary (scholarly) literature. I ask why development schemes were so heavily focused on D&I necessary, how was this focus justified, and is there another way to think about the possibilities for development in Guyana in the future? It is argued that, in Guyana, various development actors attempt to relocate what they perceive to be the previous regimes failures through discourses of racial and political difference. Their solutions to these problems are often subsequently portrayed as corrections to the failures of the previous regime despite significant repetition of certain themes. Finally, it offers some insight into how these development projects might be reconsidered.