Schools across the Linden community benefited from a donation of books entitled Children of Watooka, a Story of British Guiana, written by author Steve Connolly. While the first batch was distributed on Monday, a total of 4000 books are expected to be distributed to school libraries across the community by the end of the week.
The book, which captures the captivating history of British Guiana and the
Linden by a representative of author Steve Connolly
bauxite/aluminium industry, also captures stories of Guyanese and ex-patriates from Britain, Canada, Holland and the United States, with a focus on the village of Watooka in the mid twentieth century. Connolly himself was born at Mackenzie, Linden in 1943 to Canadian parents who were ex-pats associated with the bauxite company living in Watooka at the time. Children of Watooka was published to coincide with Guyana’s 50th Independence anniversary and the 100th year of bauxite celebration in 2016.
During a simple distribution exercise at the Mackenzie Primary School on Monday, Samuel Wright, a representative of Connolly said the presentation was symbolic since the book is a very important one in highlighting the country’s history. He said there are many important things about Mackenzie that people are unaware of, as he opined that more books like Children of Watooka is needed.
“For example, this book reminds us that during World War II, most of the aluminium that was used to build the ships and aircrafts, was produced from bauxite mining at Mackenzie… This book reminds us of how exciting it was… This book was written by someone who lived at Watooka… It reminds us that as we teach our children, there are so many things that we have to excite them about,” he said.
He encouraged teachers and head teachers who were recipients of the books to read and discuss it with their students. Wright noted that it is important for teachers and children to read the book to have an understanding of some of the things that Connolly saw and felt as a child.
Several students, teachers and head teachers were the first recipients of the book during the distribution on Monday.
