I am honoured to have been awarded the Guyana Prize for Literature (Poetry) for my book of poems Not Quite Without A Moon. And I am proud and pleased that my 12 year old grandson, Jacob, on my behalf received the Award from the Prime Minister and impressed that he put the book aside and recited a poem in it from memory.
The Guyana Prize for Literature has resumed its place as an important national institution. In 1987 President Desmond Hoyte launched the Prize with these memorable words:
“It is not only good literature for its own sake that I feel we should celebrate – though that is important – but also recognition of good literature as a spur to making society as a whole aware of the importance of good writing and the effective use of language. We must give stature and status to our makers of words as we do to our makers of things.”
And then in 1992 the newly elected President Cheddi Jagan most emphatically reaffirmed the importance and continuation of the Prize – as indeed President Ramotar did in his Presidency.
The larger lesson of the Guyana Prize for Literature is not so much the rewarding of individual talent – though that certainly matters – as it is the encouragement of the habit of reading and understanding the English language and how to use it. What the Prize signals is that we have to improve the teaching of English in the schools, we have to renew a strong reading habit in the children, we have to get thousands of new books into the libraries and bookstores, we have to spread the realization that the ability to communicate clearly and comprehend without muddle is absolutely essential to the health and progress of any society.
Let us be clear what is at stake. It is not the production of great literature, though that can be a marvelous offshoot. The widespread ability to communicate clearly and concisely and to comprehend clear and concise communication is vital in the daily working lives of the farmer, the businessman, the engineer, the administrator, the chemist, the accountant, the agronomist, the banker and the thousand and one other movers and doers in society. In addition, the ordinary citizen simply functions better as a citizen if he has ingrained in him the fundamentals of good language. All men and women without exception benefit in the ordinary course of their lives from the ability to understand a logical argument, comprehend the exact meaning of words, and use language clearly in explaining things, describing events, and discussing his or her or the nation’s affairs.
There can be no doubt that the inability to use and understand language properly handicaps a person for life. Such a disability is far more serious than a deformed hand or leg or spine for instance. Hundreds of thousands of crippled, blind, and deaf people have made outstanding contributions to mankind. Not one person unable to comprehend clearly what is communicated or use language forcefully has ever made a mark in the world.
In Guyana today it is vital that this should be appreciated and action taken. Expenditure for the purpose would be repaid to the nation and our society a thousand times in the coming generations. In the end there is a Guyana Prize that everyone can aim at winning – it is literacy and the love of literature.
