Guyana Review: Take us back to your formative years as a writer.
Ras Leon: I was first a primary school teacher, then an Accounts clerk in the Ministry of Health before becoming an Information Officer in the Ministry of Information and Culture. Later I worked at the Chronicle as a Senior Reporter Those were heady days. I recall Carifesta ‘72. That was a landmark event for Guyana and the Caribbean. That was also the time of National Service, self-reliance and cooperatives… The Burnham years as they were called.
Guyana Review: Did the absence of strong independent media shape your own outlook as a journalist?
Ras Leon: Yes. There was a lot of political control of the media and interference in the state media by Ministers of the Government… the same as persists today. Because of that condition, I utilized my training as an actor to, satirize and entertain listeners about everyday happenings in Guyana. This is stuff that was dramatized.
