Dear Editor,
I was hugely privileged on Tuesday evening at the Nations University for a rare discussion on race and people’s personal racial history in Guyana. Simply, prominent Guyanese telling stories about their ancestors. Six races, plenty of stories. Komal Samaroo on growing up in poor circumstances in Cummings Lodge – his father was the longstanding groundsman for Queen’s College and making the most of his life; Tony Vieira on his grandfather who made a fortune in the ‘bush’ through owning twenty shops to spend it on buying two sugar estates; Melanie McTurk on her mother Margery Kirkpatrick – the chronicler of the Chinese Guyanese and me the descendant of a planter who had bought and set up the very same Cummings Lodge estate.
All when pushed said they were ‘Guyanese’ not any ethno-Guyanese….
Fascinating oral history and a portent for the future of Guyana if somebody could harness it.
Yours faithfully,
John `Bill Cotton/Reform’ Mair
