Another one… bites the dust

While it may seem irreverent to use Queen’s lyrics, “Another one bites the dust”, for your Eyewitness to reflect on the passing of veteran politician Eusi Kwayana, he just couldn’t resist it after another veteran politician, Robert Corbin, had passed only a few days ago. No disrespect intended but just a hope that all those present politicians who’e strutting around like Little Caesars – and dissing little folks – should be reminded that sooner or later they’re also gonna “bite the dust”, and all that’ll be left will be their reputation. Shouldn’t they then work on burnishing that reputation by doing what they’re supposed to be doing – REPRESENTING the interests of the people who put them there??
So what can we say about Eusi Kwayana who lived to the grand old age of one hundred and one!! Imagine that!! Born in 1925 he’s been a veritable living representative of Guyana’s political history starting with village politics and ending on the national stage integrally involved in the formation of the PPP, PNC and WPA!! Imagine that!! The only person from that era is Hamilton Green who’s no spring chicken at 91 – but still a full decade younger that Kwayana!! So what can be said about Kwayana that hasn’t already been said??
Your Eyewitness today won’t just talk about his specific political role – but start with his role in transforming how African culture was portrayed and then lived in Guyana in 1925! It would be rather tedious to regurgitate how the Whites who’d ruled Guyana had derided African Culture in their efforts to justify enslaving Africans. Suffice to say that when Kwayana was born, even Africans were ashamed to be called “Africans” and did whatever it took to appear white in behaviour – and even appearance!!
Kwayana was the pioneer in changing all of that – starting with getting rid of his “slave name” – Sydney King – and choosing the Swahili expression for “Black man of Guyana”!! Then there was the clothes – the dashiki and simple clothing rather that the woolen suit and tie that his predecessors had insisted on wearing – even in our boiling tropical heat!! He adopted the natural matted hair that the Rastafarians had pioneered in rejecting the abominations of “Babylon” – to top off his assertion of African humanity as equal to others!! But more important was his formation of the African Society for Racial Equality (ASCRE) and then the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA) for spreading his vision of how the African people in Guyana should live!!
Today, sadly, there’s been a retreat from his positions on culture and your Eyewitness hopes that his passing will spark a reappraisal of them in the young generation. RIP!!

…from politics
The then youthful Sydney King was one of the early responders to Cheddi Jagan’s frontal attack on the comfy colonial accommodations that made the early middle class local politicians claim they were “fighting” for improving the people’s lot. Inspired by the teachings of Marx on the need for the “working class” to move to the center of the struggle that was supposed to benefit them, Jagan was supported by Kwayana in his successful bid for a legislative seat in the Legislature from the East Coast Constituency that included King’s Buxton.
The 25-year-old King was there when the PPP was launched in 1950 and became Minister of Communication and Workswhen they won a majority in 1953. He initially stuck with Jagan when Burnham broke away but soon joined the latter to became general secretary of the PNC. He opposed independence under Jagan and during the 1964 riots to remove Jagan, played a prominent role to be feared as much as Green and Corbin were, later!!
He broke with Burnham’s PNC in early 1970s!!

…finale
Kwayana co-launched the WPA in 1974 and offered Rodney a platform which collapsed after Burnham assassinated him in 1980. In 1992 they were ignominiously defeated and petered out into obscurantism with Kwayana pushed out of Buxton.