Development is too often spoken of in terms of policy and capital, not being and knowing. Guyana's recent growth has been narrated almost as a technical process: oil, GDP, infrastructure, without a mirror held to what it means to become.
Ontology asks what we are turning into through this development. Are we cultivating a civilization that understands itself, or merely engineering its own reflection in Western ideals?
Epistemicide and Local Knowledge
Boaventura de Sousa Santos's notion of epistemicide fits our local struggle. Every time we silence Indigenous knowledge, undervalue agricultural wisdom, or treat ecological balance as a side issue, we continue that slow erasure. Development, then, must be a reconciliation between what we know, what we have forgotten, and what we are becoming.
This is where the philosophy has to pay rent. Policy that is only efficient will still erase what it cannot count. Development that cannot talk to the people living it is just accumulation.
When epistemology and ontology meet in practice, we stop asking "How do we grow?" and begin asking "How do we grow well?"
From Forum to Policy
These questions are not abstract. They shape how we evaluate infrastructure projects, education reform, and the distribution of oil wealth. A highway that connects regions but displaces communities without consultation is not development in Sen's sense. A tech hub that imports expertise but neglects local training reproduces epistemicide in a new register.
Guyana's opportunity is to hold growth and reflection in the same conversation.