By Safraz Hamid
As I drove down Guyana’s Corentyne Public Road towards the capital city of Georgetown, I could not help but admire the beauty of the small South American country that I was visiting. The tall coconut palm trees lining the side of the road and the occasional meandering lake off in the distance reminded me of why I always felt at peace in Guyana.
Yet, I was aware that behind this picturesque tropical landscape lied an unsettling reality. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in the past decade Guyana has consistently ranked as a nation with one of the highest rates of suicide.1 In 2015, it was estimated that 30.6 suicides were committed per 100,000 people, a suicide rate second only to that of Sri Lanka.1 Why is suicide such a common phenomenon in a small country where most of its inhabitants live seemingly easygoing lifestyles? Here, I explore some of the social, cultural, and historical forces underlying Guyana’s high suicide rate. I then discuss what needs to be done for Guyana to shed its designation as the “suicide capital of the world.”
Roughly speaking, there are two primary ethnic populations in Guyana, those of East Indian origin, referred to as Indo-Guyanese, and those of African origin, referred to as Afro-Guyanese. Though Indo-Guyanese comprise about 39.5 per cent of the country population, they account for three-quarters of the documented suicides in Guyana. A study by the Mibicuri Community Developers (MCD), a local NGO, found that in East Berbice, 81 per cent of suicides are committed by Indo-Guyanese even though the ethnic group makes up only 44 per cent of the East Berbice population. This disparity begs the question: why the Indo-Guyanese? What is different about the East Indian population that predisposes it to disproportionately commit suicide in Guyana?
Answering this question requires exploring the history of slavery in Guyana.
Beginning in the late 18th century, the land that is now present-day Guyana was colonized by the British Empire. Up until 1834, the British relied on slaves from Africa to work the many fields and plantations throughout Guyana. In 1834, following the United Kingdom’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, the British ceased importing African slaves and, instead, adopted a system of indentured servitude.
As part of this system, the British Empire contracted people from India to work in Guyana for a period of 7-10 years as indentured servants. After completing their required years of work, the Indian servants were given the choice of returning to India or accepting land in Guyana and making the country their new homeland. It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of the indentured servants chose to remain in Guyana and continued working on fields in the rural parts of the country. Meanwhile, the African population, which had not been given land by the British, moved into the urban centers of the country.
This spatial ethnic divide—Indians in rural regions and Africans in urban centers—persists today. The Indo-Guyanese population works mostly agricultural jobs in rural areas while the Afro-Guyanese mainly have public sector jobs in the cities.
Guyanese sociologist Paulette Andrea Henry suggests that there is a link between the agricultural lifestyle of Indians and the high rate of suicide documented among the Indian population. She hypothesizes that the rural locality of the Indo-Guyanese and their tendency to work in the agricultural sector increases their exposure to pesticides and other toxic agrochemicals that can be ingested to commit suicide.
Her claim is supported by data from the Ministry of Public Health that indicates that the regions of Guyana that purchase the largest amounts of agrochemicals are the same regions that report the greatest number of suicides. Furthermore, her hypothesis is consistent with the fact that the majority of suicides in Guyana occur via ingestion of poisonous chemicals.
Poisonous agents account for approximately 65 per cent of all suicides in Guyana compared to only 17 per cent and 25 per cent in the United States and Canada, respectively. According to Henry, because Afro-Guyanese do not generally work in the agricultural sector, they are not overexposed to these poisonous chemicals and are thus not at high risk for attempting suicide.
While scholars like Henry have pointed to an unsettling phenomenon permeating the predominately rural Indian population in Guyana, what is puzzling is that in countries with larger agricultural sectors than Guyana, like China, Indonesia, and Brazil, the suicide rates are not alarmingly high. The farmers in these countries are also overexposed to toxic agrochemicals, but they are not committing suicide at the same rate as the Indian farmers in Guyana. Why? Why are the Indo-Guyanese reaching for and ingesting agrochemicals?
One possible explanation is that a “suicide contagion” has overtaken Guyana.
“Suicide contagion” is a term that describes the process by which exposure to the suicide of one or more persons influences others to commit suicide. It is characterized by a spatiotemporal clustering of suicides, similar to what was observed after the death of Marilyn Monroe.
Susan Scotti, a journalist for the Medical Daily, believes that this phenomenon can partly account for the clustering of suicides among the Indo-Guyanese population. For spatial clustering of suicides, she points to evidence for a “suicide belt” in East Berbice, a farmland area along the Corentyne River. This area includes the region where the 2015 MCD study found that 81 per cent of suicides were committed by Indo-Guyanese. As for temporal clustering, most scholars point to the infamous 1978 Jonestown massacre as a possible trigger for suicides in Guyana.
Since the event, the suicide rate in Guyana has steadily increased from 1.4 suicides per 100,000 people in 1984 to its current rate of 30.6. Clearly, the “suicide contagion” hypothesis is an interesting one that warrants robust investigation. Perhaps researchers in Guyana can replicate the landmark study by epidemiologists Sonja Swanson and Ian Coleman (2013) who showed that the suicide of a schoolmate increased the risk of suicidal behavior in Canadian youth. This would provide better insight into the cognitive and psychological processes that cultivate suicide contagions not only among the Indo-Guyanese but also among other global populations at high risk for suicide.
Perhaps we do not have to settle for a speculative hypothesis like the “suicide contagion” to answer why Indo-Guyanese farmers are committing suicide at alarming rates. For years now, public health scholars have documented the stigma of mental illness that is prevalent throughout Guyana. Savitri Persaud, a mental health expert in Georgetown, worries deeply that “mental illness is misunderstood” in many rural parts of Guyana.
Symptoms of mental illness, Persaud explains, are often attributed to witchcraft or to the “evil eye” of ill-wishers in the community. With very few psychiatrists employed in the entire country, these misunderstandings get reinforced by untrained religious leaders who are both highly respected and trusted by community members. Moreover, because it is believed that one can “catch” mental health illness from someone, the same way one “catches a cold,” those who have symptoms of mental illness are often ostracized and isolated from the community.
Such misunderstandings about mental health become particularly alarming when we consider that depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, and other mental diseases are prevalent among populations in Guyana.
A recent study revealed that mental illness affects nearly 1 in 4 people with only 10 per cent of patients being treated for their condition. So while it may be that access to poisonous chemicals represents a convenient means to commit suicide, Guyana’s poor mental health awareness is likely the underlying problem that is causing many to end their lives.
The problem is clear. Guyanese, particularly those of Indian descent, are committing suicide at disproportionate rates. What now? What should be done to stop this?
The regional governments have distributed storage cabinets with locks to farmers to limit their accessibility to toxic agrochemicals and to encourage safer handling of pesticides. Though there are currently no reports about changes in suicides rates in regions where this intervention has been implemented, it should be clear from my discussions above that this would not be an effective manner of solving the problem. Tackling the issue of suicide requires addressing the stigmatization of mental health that is prevalent throughout Guyana.
At the federal level, this can be done in several ways. One way is by allocating more funds for treating mental health illnesses. Currently, less than 1 percent of the health budget is set aside to address psychiatric and psychological illnesses. Additionally, the federal government should repeal the law that criminalizes attempted suicide. Because attempted suicide is rooted in mental health issues, it should be addressed by family members and doctors, not the police or court system.
Even more can be done at the local level. There have been early grassroots efforts by community NGOs to bring awareness to mental health issues. For example, volunteers at The Guyana Foundation have worked to challenge the current misconceptions about mental health by visiting schools to educate children about the symptoms of mental illness, conducting mental health training sessions for religious leaders and social workers, and writing op-eds in local newspapers about the prevalence of mental health illness. This type of outreach by community-level organizations will be critical for overcoming Guyana’s high suicide rate.
I am confident that, one day, the natural beauty of Guyana, which I have come to adore, will no longer be tainted by the grim reality of a society that neglects its mentally ill members and drives them to commit suicide. (The author used a number of local sources in the compilation this article)
