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The Guyana Prize for Literature

Dec 07, 2020 Editorial

Kaieteur News– A little over a year ago, it was discovered that the intricately carved signboard in front of the Walter Rodney Archives was removed and replaced with a basic plastic signboard that said “National Archives of Guyana”. What followed was an embarrassing bit of theatre in which the then Minister of Culture within the Ministry of the Presidency, the perpetually clueless Dr. George Norton, pretended not to know that the order to remove and replace the sign came from above his head, and in which the increasingly supine Working People’s Alliance pretended to await an explanation from Norton’s superior, then President David Granger, about an explanation about why the sign was removed and who gave the order. Of course, neither non-mystery has been ‘solved’ to this day, an incident that typified the arbitrary ‘management’ approach that the ironically ‘historian’ former President had with reference to the creative arts and culture.
While Granger’s removal of the Rodney sign might be understandable, considering the former President’s Burnhamite sentiments and the role Rodney played in challenging ‘King Kong’, one curious similar erasure remains puzzling – that of the Guyana Prize for Literature. The Guyana Prize for Literature was started in 1987 under then President and Leader of the People’s National Congress Desmond Hoyte as a state award for exemplary literary effort.
As with the Walter Rodney Archives issue, when confronted about the disappearance of the Guyana Prize under the Granger administration, Minister Norton would bumble from clueless obfuscation to clueless obfuscation. For example, in January of 2018, when it was pointed out that the government had failed to provide funding for the Prize that was to be held in July of 2017, Norton simply denied that the government was deliberately withholding funding, but could not provide an explanation for why the funding was not given. The prior and to this date, the last Guyana Prize for Literature had been awarded in 2015 under the APNU+AFC but was budgeted for under the Ramotar administration. In June of 2018, Norton was equally helpless when asked by Kaieteur News about the fate of the Prize, rambling that:
”I am not in a position to say if it is being scrapped, I have been trying to get information and some information I have received says it can’t be business as usual, some changes have to be made… Some of the information that I have, which I can’t verify is that, things are not going the way it should…I am getting the impression that there were some areas that were not too specific, and as a result, some people may consider them as not being fair and above board.”
Eight months later, in February of 2019, we were told simply that the Guyana Prize issue was due to be discussed at “Cabinet” and that said discussion was delayed because some overseas-based person was overseas and therefore not present to present some nebulous report that no one knew had actually been commissioned.
For all its flaws, the Guyana Prize for Literature was a visionary initiative by Desmond Hoyte and one of the few PNC era institutions that were retained when the People’s Progressive Party took office in 1992. There were years that it stumbled, and a significant hiatus when it was not held, but it regained footing in 2013, was held again in 2015 bringing significant new talent like Subraj Akash Singh to the fore, before being killed off by a government and president that had far more empty rhetoric than vision.
When it comes to the creative arts funding, the temptation of new governments is to let the victims of their predecessors rest in peace. Monies for artists and writers that might still turn around and criticize politicians might very well be spent on community pork-barrel projects and vote-getting gimmicks. The Irfaan Ali administration would be in error if it took this view – the reality is that the Guyana Prize is as much a PPP achievement as it is a PNC one. If the new President is going to take tangible steps in not only bridging the socio-political divide, but also correcting one of the more absurd and egregious acts of his predecessor, he needs to ensure that the Guyana Prize is resurrected, reformed and put to work. That and, of course, restoring the Walter Rodney Archives sign.

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