Framing a conversation with Eusi Kwayana

There are legendary stories told to you as a child that lives with you forever. As you navigate life’s pathways, things become clearer and the legends become a part of your psyche. Even when the moment is yours, the mind uncoils its stories to reach whom it belongs. I would have liked to meet Burnham in a conscious state. I was reliably informed that he held me in his arms when I was just an infant. That was an unconscious state. My dreams of him is an aspect of my subconscious and the indelible political contributions he made to our nation.

Another dream I have is to sit and talk with Eusi Kwayana. I will never regard our conversation as an interview. I have never heard the term coined, “an interview with gods”, Kwayana is a remarkably humble man with a history of Black excellence. He will politely reject such high accolades. Such men have not accomplished the path to immortality while alive by being pompous.

If I were blessed with the opportunity to speak with him, what would I ask him? What would I say? Would the child in me ask him if Burnham locked him up out of fear that he would be dwarfed by the steel of Kwayana’s righteous truths and activism? Would I ask him if the police saw him lying comfortably on the cot in his cell while Burnham saw him present at the community meeting he was holding and did not want him to be present at out of fear Kwayana would win the people, or would we just talk calmly about colonialism and his work to end it?

Perhaps, he would give his insight into today’s Guyana. Definitely a discourse about Independence and onwards; a struggle he played no ordinary role in. I have no doubt that an opportunity to have a conversation with the Buxton Sage will live with me forever. But I accept that all cannot be accomplished in this lifetime and our talks could come in the form of dreams. Whatever the form it takes, I would be honoured to be given such opportunity. The Sage lives!

Sincerely,

Norman Browne

Social and Political Activist