One of the most striking events of the past two weeks was the demolition by fire of the Umana Yana in Georgetown on the afternoon of Tuesday September 9. It was a striking blow to the national heritage not only because of the architectural magnificence of the building, but the telling irony that this conflagration took place during the celebrations of Amerindian Heritage Month. It was not only an imposing structure but it was an outstanding symbol of the place of the Amerindian contribution to the national cultural fabric.
In one of his earliest poems, a sonnet called ‘A City’s Death by Fire,’ Derek Walcott asks “why should a man wax tears when his wooden world fails?” The poet was contemplating the great fire in Castries, St Lucia in 1948 and doing some reassessment. Quite excellently for a young poetic apprentice (as Walcott was then), he describes the physical scenes, lamenting the tragic loss, but at the same time realising that his greater concern was for the intangible, the immaterial. From all reports it took some 20 minutes to destroy the great roof of the Umana Yana. That is not surprising
