Indomitable Journalist Adam Harris, A.A. is a ‘Special Person’

Dec 02, 2018 Special Person

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Pull Quote: “You have to read; I always tell people you have to read. Read everything you can put your hands on because when you read, you expand your vocabulary, you expand your knowledge base…you develop the mental picture of things and places and the ease of expression comes easily. I tell every young reporter if you do that, you can’t go wrong!”

By Sharmain Grainger

There are some people who were born into existence with such magnetic personalities that they are easily able to make a lasting impression on the lives of many. One such character is the well-respected journalist, Adam Elias Harris A. A., who came to fame decades ago, because of his

ability to ask politicians the hard questions in order to deliver to the nation hard-hitting and comprehensive news stories. He is equally renowned for being generous to a fault, but yet incapable of daring to be any different.
But many might have known of this spirited individual, long before his entry into the local media fraternity. You see, Harris, years earlier, was making astronomical waves in the education sector by helping to mould the minds of the young.
Such a good educator was Harris that even when he changed his career path, he still retained his educating ways, holding true to the notion – ‘once a teacher, always a teacher’. In fact because of his approachable personality,

many aspiring journalists have turned to him, over the years, for support.
His years of work in journalism certainly have not gone unnoticed. Harris, just last year, was conferred with a national award – the Golden Arrow of Achievement – for his decades of

contribution in the field. In fact, today many young people refer to the veteran journalist as a ‘walking encyclopaedia’ and even a ‘dinosaur’ sometimes, given the wealth of knowledge he possesses in just about any subject area.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Born November 1, 1948, Harris is the eldest of the eight children mothered by Mavis Harris-Hoades. He recalled growing up in a nuclear family with his mother and step-father, James Hoades. However, it wasn’t until he became an adult that Harris met his biological father, Paul

Campbelle, for the first time. His father was understandably at a very advanced age and at the time was a resident of a privately-operated geriatric home. Indeed, Harris took advantage of the opportunity to reunite with his father. It wasn’t long after the two started to develop a belated bond that the elder man passed away.
Harris’s life story could have easily been one of the stories he’d told through the pages of a newspaper or via a television broadcast.
It all started in a village called Beterverwagting situated on the East Coast of Demerara. He was just a baby when the family upped and moved to La Jalousie on the West Coast of Demerara and then on to Den Amstel, before heading to Blankenburg also in the West Demerara. But, according to Harris, during an interview, “I only remember two of the moves…La Jalousie, I was a baby, two or three months old, I think, and we lived there till I was the age of eight…that was largely because my mother kept making children and she needed a slightly bigger house.”

EDUCATION IS KEY
Schooling for the young Harris started at La Jalousie Nursery and he recalled that, at the time, the school system was not as structured as it is today. He might have started out at the age of

three, shortly after he was able to walk independently. Harris didn’t fancy being thrust into the schooling environment, but he was raised at a time when persons really appreciated and fully embraced the notion that “it takes a village to raise a child.”
Moreover, Harris recalled that it was one of his teachers at the Nursery School, Enid Bart [deceased], who really helped him to develop a liking for school.
“There is a famous story… when my mother carried me to school I cried and of course she [Ms Bart] lived across the road and one day said, ‘Mavis you go and leave him’…I cried but Ms. Bart said that she picked me up, put me across her legs and dropped some slaps on my backside and that was the last time I cried,” shared a grinning Harris.
By the time he was ready to attend primary level school, the family had already moved to Blankenburg and he was enrolled at the school there. Reminiscing on his primary school days, Harris recalled his family being ‘extremely poor’ so much so that there were days when food was simply scarce.

Home for him was a logie, and Harris recounted that “the logie had a cooking area called the ‘cow mouth’ and that was an extension with just a roof and a mud fire-side that you poked wood into to cook. So when you’re going home from school and you see that smoke, you know you got lunch.”
But according to him, attending school was never an option once he was living under his mother’s roof, regardless of the shortcomings the family faced. This was in spite of the fact that the multi-ethnic society in which he grew up had embraced the norm of having young boys drop out of school as soon as they became teenagers to seek employment in order to contribute to the family’s wellbeing.
“Ironically, most people were poor at that time, but some were poorer than others,” recalled Harris, whose mother certainly did not conform to the notion of sending her young children to work.
“A lot of my friends left school very early and some of them went into the rice field…I suppose many of them ended up making more money than I can ever hope to see,” Harris reflected, as he recalled how his mother had long accepted and embedded in her children that education was critical to escaping a life of poverty.

Moreover, families, such as Harris’s subscribed to the colonial idea that young boys should grow up to become professionals such as doctors, lawyers or even overseers.
“At the time work in agriculture was seen as menial and mommy would say ‘that is not for you, so you will go to school and tek in yuh education’…that was drown into us,” Harris shared.
“As fate would have it, perhaps I had a good memory, or perhaps I just got lucky…I will never know, but I learnt something,” Harris noted, as he recalled performing so well at his school-leaving examination that he gained a place at the prestigious Queen’s College, an all-boys school at the time.
Back in those days, the results of the examination were published in the national newspapers. Of course, Harris’s mother was in no financial position to buy a newspaper to see if he’d passed, but neighbours who had the means to do so certainly did, and eagerly passed on the news that one of their own was named among the country’s top performers. “I remember one neighbour running over shouting ‘Mavis, Mavis, Adam pass’…” Harris recalled.
Sacrifices were made and two weeks into the new school term, Harris was eventually able to enrol at Queen’s College. That was in 1960 and Harris remembers learning to take the train, along with other ‘country children’, the likes of George McDonald [an executive at Banks DIH] who had to travel to Georgetown to attend school.
“The first day at school wasn’t difficult; you looked around and all you saw was children looking like the rainbow – the white ones, the light-skinned ones and the black ones like me…but one thing the school taught you was to look out for each other, so we had a very tight unit at school,” Harris recounted.
Queen’s College was a school that allowed him to participate in many healthy competitions, and over the years he developed a passion for many sporting activities too, especially cricket, which he played at the club level. But Harris was often mischievous, even opting at times to shoot his classmates with rubber bands which landed him many a day of detention.

DESPITE THE ODDS
Although he was learning at an unprecedented rate, studying at nights was quite challenging as, according to Harris, his home, which was at Den Amstel by then, had no electricity and the price of candles sure made them an inaccessible luxury item. He, moreover, had to complete his work many nights aided by the light of a flambeau [a bottle filled with kerosene with a cork and a wick which once lighted can illuminate an entire room].
Attending school was at times fraught with disturbances, which even resulted in the forced closure of schools, sometimes for weeks at a time. Harris even recalled attending school at a time when racial tension was at an all-time high, making it quite a challenge to travel through some villages. It was just this development that caused Harris’s mother to decide to uproot her family yet again to return to Beterverwagting. “Those years weren’t nice…segregation had started and people were being killed; chopped to death just for riding through some villages,” he recalled.
But since Harris was convinced that he was going to become a doctor, through it all, even on the days when he couldn’t attend school, he took his studies seriously. He had a knack especially for the science subjects. After sitting the General Certificate of Education [GCE] examination, Harris secured passes in five subject areas. With his qualifications in hand, the next logical move for him was to find a job.

JOURNEY TO BARTICA
Job hunting for the young Harris ended when he got accepted to teach at St John the Baptist Anglican School in Bartica, Region Seven. This meant he had to leave home and relocate to Bartica to take up the appointment.
“The ticket for the ferry to Bartica cost, I think, three dollars and something cents, and my mother bought that ticket for me,” Harris said, as he recalled entering the new locale with no idea where he would be accommodated or even if he could cope. However, with a $5 gifted to him by his mother, Harris quickly adapted to ‘living like a bachelor’ at the Third Avenue residence where he was able to secure boarding and lodging.
“I always tell people, I started life with $5 in my pocket,” Harris shared, as he spoke of being exposed to the entertaining night life in Bartica.
But of course his main focus was teaching. Harris was entrusted with educating students of Standard Two [Grade Four] and a senior teacher by the name of Leila Knights helped to teach him the ropes on how to deliver lessons and deal with the students. He, as a result, was able to develop the wherewithal to spend a solid year of his life [1966-1967] helping to educate a number of students. After completing that year of teaching, Harris was encouraged to attend Teachers’ Training College, which he did.
Upon completion of college in 1969, Harris, who had by then transformed into a fine young man, was posted back to Bartica. His return was on a high fashion-statement note, complete with fitted pants, pointed-tip shoes and well-relaxed and greased hair. It didn’t take long for his conspicuous appearance to land him the nickname ‘Slick’ which he answered to for many following years.
But although he was able to nourish many of the young minds, Harris recalled that “I didn’t want to go back to Bartica again, because once you come out to town and spend two years, why would you want to go back in the bush…” In fact, he confided that the decision to return was all the more harder when he learnt that a young lady, with whom he shared a relationship, was with child. It moreover took the persuasion of some of Harris’s closest batch mates to get him to accept a teaching position at the Bartica Government School.
Harris was able to educate students the likes of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport with responsibility for Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton, and Monica Odwin who has held senior positions within the health sector. In fact, he recalled that many of his students went on to become very productive citizens, with some gaining notable appointments even in the Diaspora.
It was months after settling in Bartica for the second time that Harris’s first child – Karen – was born. However, since the relationship with the mother of his first-born did not withstand the test of time, he eventually met and married another woman who would give birth to three more of his children – Sharon, Alan [deceased] and Dwayne. Harris also fathered another daughter, Kryslyn. “Bartica forced you to grow up quickly…at 22, I was the father of two, at 23, I was the father of three, and at 24 I was the father of four…things really started to pick up from then; it was either you sport and drink rum or raise a family,” Harris recalled. He chose the latter, mostly…

A NEW PATH
Even as he improved as an educator, Harris at times would try his hands at writing for a local publication called the Graphic. Additionally, when the government of the day sought to expand its news gathering reach to Bartica through the Government Information Service [GIS], which fell under the purview of the Ministry of Information, Harris was encouraged to get on board. An appointment as an Information Officer in 1973 would mark his official introduction into the field of journalism.
“I came out to Georgetown for an interview and I returned with a typewriter, a tape recorder, a camera and a ream of paper; no office…they said I could work from home and it worked out. I would travel the length and breadth of Bartica, to the upper Mazaruni…you name it I’ve been there,” Harris related.
As an Information Officer he was required to seek out newsworthy developments and this essentially saw him being the eyes and ears of the government.
“I had to find out what were the needs of communities; how self sufficient they were and what were some of the input needed,” Harris shared, as he recalled taking pride in writing down the notes from his interviews rather than utilising a tape recorder, a trait he retains even today.
But although he opted to continue in the field of journalism, even moving up the ranks in the Ministry of Information after completing a degree in Communication abroad, Harris reflected, “teaching was always more satisfying, because you saw the results of your handiwork…you were under pressure to see a child produce because I believed, and still do, that if a child doesn’t learn, it means the teacher hasn’t taught. As an Information Officer on the other hand, the task was to “sell people to other people…trying to let people see what life is like in a particular community and at the same time I was able to see many communities for myself.”
However, it was through the publication of his articles in the daily newspapers that Harris shot to unprecedented recognition, eventually becoming a household name.
“Newspaper in those days were Georgetown-oriented, so because I was writing these stories from out of the ‘bush’ and all of these other places, people noticed, and I started to become famous…everybody got to know the name Adam Harris,” he recalled.
As he evolved as a journalist, Harris was able to offer his services to a number of media outlets, including the government-run New Nation and Guyana Chronicle. Both places he was able to serve as Editor In Chief.
However, with a change of government in 1992, Harris was forced to resign his position as Editor in Chief of the state-owned Guyana Chronicle on a promise to receive full benefits. [The fulfilment of that promise is yet to materialise.]
With a family to take care of, Harris found himself in quite a bind, as he was on the breadline and barely had $800 in the bank. The political climate was of such that Harris was finding it nearly impossible to land a job. He eventually got a break when he was recruited by the Barama Company Limited to teach English to their South Korean staffers. But even that job was snatched away because of a political directive. Harris was however retained by the boss of the company just so he could offer his daughter private English lessons. By early 1993, Harris was able to land yet another tutelage gig to help augment his income.

MAKING AN IMPACT
However, towards the end of 1993, November 1 to be precise, Harris was approached by Anthony Vieira to be a part of his fledgling television newscast – The Evening News – which was aired for a number of years on Channel 28. At first, Harris’s role was small – to conduct daily editorial meetings – but then he was required to offer more of his time and expertise into the venture.
Even though the newscast was privately operated, Harris was still a target, but by then had proven that he was worth retaining, even in the face of continued political threats.
“We had the best television newscast for five years straight,” said Harris of The Evening News which he left in 2000, along with fellow journalist, Julia Johnson, to start up Prime News – another television newscast.
With a voice that captivated the listening ear, Harris’s popularity soared causing an increasing number of persons to gravitate to the media outlets he became affiliated with. In fact it was no different when Harris was invited by Mr. Glenn Lall, publisher of the Kaieteur News, to contribute to his then fledgling newspaper company which took off in 1994.
Although attempts were made to block Harris from joining Lall’s company too, these were not successful. In fact the two became as thick as thieves as they aspired to change the landscape of journalism.
“The Kaieteur News started off as a once weekly publication and we tried a lot of things to sell it at first… We later introduced a Monday paper and then we eventually added more days…I told him [Lall] what the front page should look like…one photo and no more than two headlines,” recalled Harris, as he spoke glowingly of the introduction of signature columns such as: ‘The Baccoo Speaks’ and ‘Dem Boys Seh’ which have become synonymous with the Kaieteur News.
Today as Editor in Chief of this publication, Harris has an appreciation for journalism, the kind that not only reports facts, but helps to foster needful societal changes. But success, he assures, does not come overnight. In fact, he divulged that anyone desirous of becoming a sound journalist must start at the most basic and crucial level of developing a passion for reading. “You have to read; I always tell people you have to read. Read everything you can put your hands on because when you read, you expand your vocabulary, you expand your knowledge base…you develop the mental picture of things and places and the ease of expression comes easily. I tell every young reporter if you do that, you can’t go wrong!”
For his outstanding attributes, including being a devoted journalist, today, we at Kaieteur News honour our Editor in Chief with the title of ‘Special Person’.

 

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