We have a living legend in our midst

Aug 25, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am so pleased that someone remembers Eusi Kwayana (Freddie Kissoon’s column, Kaieteur News, August 23, 2013.) Recently the government and people of Guyana erected a monument to honor the 1863 East Coast slave rebellion. Commendations to all who made this happen. I wish to remind you that we have a human monument still living among us, namely, Eusi Kwayana. Is anybody thinking about this?
Like Mr. Kissoon at the Friendship Primary School celebration, I too become privy to “facts that . . . few people in today’s Guyana know” whenever I speak with Eusi, as we do from time to time. This experience is sometimes burdensome as you want to have it placed in the open and let it become common knowledge. Here are just a few of them.
In the 1950s, Eusi told Cheddi that he (Eusi) was not going to run as a candidate in the upcoming elections. I am not really a politician, I do not care to hold office, I much prefer to be on the ground working side-by-side with the people—was how Eusi explained his position. Cheddi’s response was, if you are not running, I am not running. To this day, Eusi has kept that faith, shunning the trappings of office while continuing to serve outside of traditional institutions—and pro bono.
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, I was ecstatically proclaiming the achievement of Mandela and what a man he is. Eusi saw more than I did. He said to me it is not only Mandela, tribute must be paid to De Klerk (the South African Prime Minister) as well, in that he got white South Africans to accept majority black rule. I was stunned that this “blacker than black” freedom fighter would recognize the white enemy’s contribution to peace and freedom.
Here is an incident that occurred at the Guyana Marketing Corporation, where Eusi held a titular position. An employee, who evidently was the party’s man on the job, had “chucked” another employee for not paying up contributions to the party. The matter was reported to Eusi, who expressed utter disgust at such behavior. The party man was relieved of his duties. Eusi told me that to this day no one ever called him to complain or ask about the firing. As Kissoon learned from Eusi, “you must speak out for principles and moral values, even if it means upsetting the mango cart.” No honcho from the party dared to call him. You had to come straight and clean when dealing with this colossus. Even though he is not against you, he would cut you down before you open your mouth if yours is an unprincipled thing.
At the Guyana Marketing Corporation again. Evidently there was a glut of pigs in the country at the time. Burnham asked Eusi to take some of the excess pigs from his wife’s (Viola’s) farm. Eusi explained that he couldn’t as there were other people in front of him on the waiting list. The man doesn’t bend, regardless of who!
Many readers are too young to know of the virtual one-man crusade Eusi led against corruption at the time, citing even Hamilton Green for appearance before the Ombudsman. Wish the likes of Eusi were in Guyana now.
An attempted strangulation of Eusi in the streets of Georgetown did not succeed. However, the scars remain to this day. Only a few years ago his throat ailment was assessed by a specialist to have been caused by a chokehold from a jiu jitsu expert.
I sometimes amuse myself by placing Eusi in the position of certain world leaders to chart how differently he would act. Let us have him be Pervez Musharraf, former President of Pakistan. Musharraf claims in his autobiography that the special U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte (“the Ambassador of Death”) threatened him that if he does not cooperate, the U.S. would bomb Pakistan into the stone age. Negroponte does not deny the story. If Eusi was in Musharraf’s shoes, Eusi would have chased him out of his office and told him never to come back. Eusi would have done that without any thought or concern that as a result the U.S. would have destabilized the country, overthrown the government, and assassinated him (Eusi).
Kissoon’s column has given me reason to recall some of the things dear to me. In a word, we have a living legend in our midst. Though marooned thousands of miles from the center, and now in his mid-80s, he soldiers on. People of Guyana (inside and outside) take heed and rejoice that you live in the same time and occupy the same planet as Eusi Kwayana.
P. D. Sharma
Los Angeles

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