Is literature no longer a part of Guyanese culture?

May 14, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
With reference to a letter captioned “The artists are not amused” that appeared in the Kaieteur News on 11th May, 2011, I seek to remind the Government of Guyana, members of the private sector and the Guyanese community at large that Guyanese literature is as essential and important to our culture and country as art.
The above-mentioned letter merely highlighted the fact that artists are given more opportunities to hone and display their skills, while none is offered to our country’s writers. In their defence against Mr. Desmond Ali’s column the artists informed him of how consumers choose their selections when purchasing art.
It’s rather bittersweet to know that our brothers, artists, are at least given a chance to sell their art, while writers are not provided any opportunities to share their work. No publishing houses are set-up in Guyana solely for the printing of Guyanese literature and I am completely unaware of how much the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education’s budget allocation goes into building the literature aspect of our country’s culture, if any at all.
This is insulting not only to the present generation of writers, but also to great authors like Martin Carter and Sir Wilson Harris whose expertise and magnificent skills, that the younger generations have sought to emulate, have gone to waste.
Young people today are writing and nothing is being done to help them along the way. English Literature is seen by Guyanese as a subject to be written at CSEC and nothing more.
Creative Writing classes are extremely rare in this country and nothing is provided to individuals who hope to expand their writing skills after secondary school.
Sure, you can go to the University of Guyana and study English, but even here English Language is thought and Creative Writing is not.
How writers are supposed to mould and utilize the knowledge of the Language into their stories or poems?
The English Department at the University, by the way, does not attract the amount of people it deserves and that’s probably because of the lack of job opportunities available to English Majors in this country. It’s no wonder that The School of Education and humanities page, under which the English Department falls, has been “under maintenance” for over a year now on the University of Guyana website.
People who’re interested in pursuing English-based careers cannot obtain the essential information necessary for making such an important choice due to “maintenance” problems that have not affected any other of the schools or faculties at UG (as far as I know).
It seems as though everyone has given up on literature. Artists have an entire school (Burrowes) dedicated to helping them; writers don’t even have a classroom.
The many works accomplished by the artists that are mentioned in the letter are indeed beautiful and deserve to be exhibited, but our writings equally deserve that as well. I note how much the Government has endorsed the artists and I cannot comprehend why the same treatment is not provided to writers. Many organisations and companies sponsor art, but nothing is done for literature. I cannot recall the last time a short-story or writing competition was held in this country by the government, artists have an entire committee planning for their competition.
They are even allowed to be a part of history by designing the monument to commemorate the Year for People of African Descent, while writers are denied any moments to shine.
The Guyana Prize has recently been resuscitated, but local writers are not going to win because they are not provided the same opportunities as those in foreign countries. We have no workshops, no Creative Writing classes, and no publishers.
President Jagdeo acknowledges that we live in a technological age and has decided to make the people of our country more “computer-literate” with the provision of laptops through the One Laptop Per Family initiative.
This, to me, is a chance for Guyanese children to go on Facebook and demonstrate their lack of writing and communication skills on a global level.
I also wish to remind the President that the greatest strides ever undertaken by this country occurred during a time when the internet was not available and the very people who were mobilized to bring about great cultural, economic, social and political change were people who read books; people who were not provided with computers but people who had great English teachers, individuals who had the good fortune to have wonderful imaginations crafted by words and those who indulged themselves in their Guyanese culture in the many forms it took, one of which is writing.
More needs to be done by the government and private sectors. Why can they not launch a short-story competition; with the proper advertisement this can reach writers all across the country, it can reveal the thoughts and views of people from various places and backgrounds and thus reflect the diversity in our Guyanese writing, this can truly be a great chance for the writers to prove to the leaders the talent they possess in writing. If activities like 10/10 cricket and the Cinderella show can attract sponsors, why can such a competition not do the same?
It is a chance to improve Guyana’s literature and by extension, the people and the country as a whole.
I also believe that it is not difficult for the government to form a coalition with the Guyana Teachers’ Union or the English lecturers at the University and set up special workshops that aid in helping individuals along with their creative writing.
I am sure that responses to such a venture would be overwhelming and it would be an important move by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture if it is launched.
There are young people in this country that have amazing poetic and writing abilities that are lost because they are not given the chance to use these abilities or because they do not see a profit in using their skills.
The government has to ask itself: would it rather young people who can master the art of writing or young people who shut away their unused talents and get involved in crime or drugs? Would the provision of writing classes/workshops not aid in helping a lot of young people to focus on their God-given skills and not be involved in the negatives of society?
Guyana has great writers. There are men and women, young and old, who can perhaps win a Pulitzer Prize or the Commonwealth Prize or even the Nobel Prize in Literature if they are provided with adequate training and opportunities to showcase their abilities.
However, at the rate our country is going and the with the attitude that is being demonstrated towards Literature, our writers’ skills and the legacy left by the great Guyanese authors and poets will shrivel, die and vanish.
S. Singh

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