Ovid Williams’s valuable research of ...
From 3A
Williams’ first language is Patamona. He also speaks Akawaio and understands Arecuna and Macushi. He is also fluent in Spanish and understands Portuguese. English is his second language.
At seven years old, he said, “I could not speak English.” His mother translated for the missionaries when they arrived during the Second World War to introduce Christianity in the hinterland region. As a child, he travelled with his mother when she translated for the missionaries in the Macushi, Akawaio and Patamona villages.
“I was getting big and the missionaries said I should go to school. They put me in Prep A at Paramakatoi Primary with some small children,” he recalled.
At nine years old, he was transferred to St Ignatius Primary School where he wrote the common entrance examination and secured a place at Queen’s College in 1968. He returned to Lethem in December 1968 for the Christmas holidays, but could not return to school until March 1969 owing to the Rupununi Uprising. “I had some setbacks,” he said. He finished school in 1974 and in February 1975, he was employed at Lethem Hospital as an assistant dispenser. On May 26th, 1976, he obtained a scholarship to study aviation in Cuba and so became Guyana’s first Indigenous aircraft pilot. Apart from venturing into his own businesses and working with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, he did a consultancy with the Amaila Falls Hydropower project on how it would impact Indigenous People, did data collection on the chainsaw European Union-funded Guyana Forestry Commission project and was project associate for the Amerindian Development Fund that dealt with community development plans until 2017, after which he founded the translation services.
Carib, Warrau
Every Indigenous group has named places in Guyana, Williams said.
In the Carib language, Kariako in Moruca, Region One is named after the small grey deer the Caribs called ‘kariagoo’.
In Warrau, the village Hosororo is named after the sound of trickling water. ‘Ho’ means water and ‘sororo’ is the onomatopoeia.
Waramuri in Moruca is named for the black ants in the Warrau language. Wauna in the Mabaruma district is the name taken from the crane prevalent in that area by the Warraus.
Akawaio, Arecuna
In Akawaio, the gum known as ‘haiawa’ is called ‘waruwa’. ‘Ta’ in Akawaio means plenty. Waruwata in Region Seven means ‘plenty waruwa gum.’
Waramadong is named after a pod shaped like an eyebrow.
Jawalla has been changed from ‘Usariwara’ which got its name from a monster rock that is shaped like a deer and a jaguar.
Imbaimadai means ‘savannah of a big shoulder’. In Akawaio, the shoulder is called ‘imba’, ‘ima’ means ‘huge’, and ‘dai’ means ‘savannah’.
Before outboard engines were available and paddles were used, people believed that the ‘water mumma’ capsized boats and ate people. According to folklore, one day a man was paddling and the ‘water mumma’ capsized his boat and tore off one of his shoulders. The man escaped and swam to the safety of the savannah with one arm. That was how Imbaimadai got its name.
Paruima is the only Arecuna village in Guyana. The Arecuna language is similar to Akawaio. According to legend, when the world was young, Makonaima, whose words had a lot of power, saw a nature tree and decided to chop it down. Makonaima’s brother chopped very fast and because of that Makonaima made the side his brother was chopping become hard and difficult for him to penetrate.
“Before the tree fell, it began to shake and fruits of every description fell from it and different plants grew in the area that was very fertile. Among the fruits were plantains called ‘paruru’. The word ‘ima’, which also means large in Arecuna was added and the place was called ‘Paruruima’ meaning a very huge plantain. Paruruima has since been converted to Paruima,” Williams related.
Macushi
The village of Karasabai in the Rupununi is named after a treasure chest ‘karasa’. ‘Pai’ is the deepest part of a body of water. According to folklore, some people were going with a treasure chest and Makonaima passed through and turned the chest to rock where there is a body of water in the formation called a ‘pai’. The Macushi called the place ‘Karasapai’ but it has since evolved to Karasabai, Williams said.
The naming of Surama, he said, had its origins during the conflicts between the Caribs and the Macushi many years ago. The
Caribs slaughtered the Macushi and placed them on a frame called a ‘sura’ over a fire to ‘mata’, the word for roasting in the Macushi and Patamona languages. Suramata is roasting over a frame. The Caribs named the place Surama but today it is a predominantly Macushi village.
Williams said that the same frame for roasting is called a ‘barbricut’ in Lokojan. The word has since been converted to barbeque in the English language.
In St Ignatius, he said, the place Quarrie originates from the Machushi word ‘Kwale’ or horse. “It is said that before cattle and horses were brought to that area, a couple was going to their farm below the Kanuku Mountains and a brown horse appeared to them out of nowhere. On their return they told the people they saw a ‘kwale’,” he related.
Wapichan, Wai-Wai Maruranau comes from the Wapichan word, ‘maru’ which is the giant armadillo and ‘nau’ means ‘hill’ in Wapichan. So the word Maruranau translates to ‘hill of giant armadillo’. Awariwanau means ‘windy hill’.
In Wapichan the word for creek is ‘wau’ so that Sawariwau Creek has two water words in its
ending that mean the same.
In Wai Wai, Masakenari comes from ‘masak’ which means mosquito and ‘nari’ which means ‘hill’. Masakenari translates to Mosquito Hill.
Williams has interviewed a number of elders countrywide, listened to oral stories handed down from one generation to another and read documented works including those of the late Canon John Bennett of Kabakaburi.
“Our languages were basically oral. I’m trying to fill as much of that gap, starting with the naming of places, initiation practices that we have or had, our music, our diet. Moruca people eat differently from the people of the Pakaraimas and the Rupununi even though we’re all Amerindians,” he stated.
At present, he is working on getting alphabets done for the Warrau and Arecuna. “People have been writing our history for us and some of it is distorted,” he warned.
Williams can be reached via email at ovidkapong@yahoo.com His cell phone is 592-664-4987. He knows better now. The correct spelling for kapong is ‘kappon’ in Patamona, he said.