Dear Editor,
Listening to the Voice of Guyana recently, I was reminded that September is heritage month for Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples. I heard on one programme a very informative and enlightening paper read by Professor George Mentore on the metaphysics of the WaiWai as revealed by their craft. Most exciting to me were the references in other programmes to the late Stephen Campbell and the expressed intention of the speakers to bring him back to life by making his works known. I was a contemporary of Stephen Campbell, though younger, and can bear witness to his importance for the benefit of present-day readers. Stephen Campbell had been a teacher in the primary school system before he became an elected member of the Legislative Council for the National Labor Front in 1957.
Mr. Campbell was, in fact, a historic figure. My information is subject to correction, but so far as I know, he was the first indigenous figure since 1812 to make his presence felt at the colony’s law-making body under its old name in the capital. The first was Chief Mahanarva who travelled to the capital to demand the performance of a contract between him and a previous administration which had engaged his services for payment. Webber, in his Centenary History of British Guiana tells how Governor Bentick tried to avoid payment by arguing that because of the circumstances, it needed the authority of the British Government. Chief Mahanarva responded that if he, as a chief, entered into an agreement with someone, his obligation would be binding on his son after him. This story is rich enough to be expanded for today’s generation.
My other interest in Stephen Campbell is that, as a teacher who was also editor of the PNC’s New Nation at that time, I asked Mr. Campbell for an interview which he readily granted, and which was published in two parts in that paper. The interview was held at the Georgetown home of his daughter, Mrs. Stephanie Correia and her husband, a classified public servant. In that interview, Mr. Campbell described himself as a Spanish Arawak.
Stephen Campbell was to make more history after that interview. He was the first elected representative of the indigenous people to attend a constitutional conference in England held to negotiate Guyana’s Independence.
There is much more about Stephen Campbell that needs to be known.
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
