Attempt to set fire to Umana Yana thwarted

An attempt to set fire to the cultural landmark, the Umana Yana was foiled early yesterday after an alert security guard raised an alarm scaring off a man.

A source told Stabroek News that a male had scaled the fence and thrown a flammable object towards the roof, which is constructed mainly from thatched troolie palm leaves.

The security guard after hearing of a commotion made checks and found a section of the roof on fire. She alerted a police patrol that was in the area and they managed to help put out the fire.

No one has been arrested.

In 2014, the national monument which is located in Kingston, Georgetown was destroyed by fire.

The Kingston building, which was built by Amerindians in 1972, was ravaged within a matter of minutes despite attempts by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) to save it.

The fire, suspected to be electrical, began sometime between 3:25pm and 3:29pm.

Following the fire, reconstruction of the building started in 2016 and was done at a cost of $66.7 million. More than 32 Wai Wai men from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) worked to reconstruct the benab, which serves as a leading centre for cultural events in the city.

The structure was rebuilt from thatched allibanna, manicole palm leaves, and wallaba posts latched together with mukru, turu and nibbi vines the Department of Public Information had reported.

The structure was originally built by the Wai Wai’s in 1972 for the meeting of NonAligned Movement foreign ministers in

Guyana. The construction took some 80 days and cost about $26,000. In 2010, it was refurbished by 39 Amerindians of the Wai Wai tribe at a cost of $16M and included the team painstakingly affixing over 500,000 troolie palm leaves, held together by vines gathered from St Cuthbert’s Mission. The name, Umana Yana, is of Amerindian origin and means the meeting place and the structure served as a venue for many events over the years.