By Oscar Ramjeet
Guyana has lost one of its greatest cultural and folklorist icons who died at the South Orange Hospital in New Jersey.
Wordsworth Mc Andrew died after a prolonged illness. He contributed significantly to Guyana’s cultural heritage with his poems, articles, booklets, radio programmes, and other outlets.
According to his daughter Rosanna Zammet, he was 69 having been born on November 22, 1938.
Rosanna told me that he was hospitalized for the past three weeks, and died from prancreatic cancer. She said to the last he maintained his creolese dialect and spoke to her a lot while he was hospitalized. In their conversation he spoke a lot of his cultural activities and some of his close associates. She said, however, he couldn’t speak the last two days before he died.
His work was so outstanding that the Guyana Cultural Association in New York, organizers of the annual Guyana Folk Festival established an award in his name, The Wordsworth McAndrew Award, and Dr Vibert Cambridge described him as a Guyanese National Treasure.
I worked with Mac in a GBS nationwide programme in which we projected the history and cultural activities in the various villages. He was a remarkable man who tried his best to promote Guyana’s rich culture, but unfortunately the Guyana government did not see it fit to honour this great son of the soil, despite several calls by me and other Guyanese including Dr Cambridge who is a Professor at Ohio University.
Dr Cambridge, in a series titled ‘A Guyanese National Treasure,’ said for almost five decades Wordsworth McAndrew had been an unyielding advocate for the collection, preservation and celebration of Guyanese folk life.
He added that in the early 1960s, many Guyanese felt ashamed of things that were of African and Indian origin. In some segments of the society, cook-up rice was considered ‘improper’ for polite circles. The embarrassment that McAndrew referred to was a function of Guyana’s history. “Not only was there embarrassment about cultural practices and retentions, but also widespread ignorance of the cultural practices of the racial and ethnic communities that made up Guyana.”
Mac got the headlines in the newspaper when he rode off with his English bride on his bicycle after his wedding, wearing a dashiki shirt and rubber slippers. In fact, he always wore rubber slippers to work and refused to put on shoes despite a stern warning from the GBS General Manager Hugh Cholomondeley
He grew up in Cummingsburg and Newtown Kitty and was a student of Queen’s College.
He had problems with his sight in his later years and according to his close friend, Vic Hall, his health started to deteriorate and he was hospitalized.
No date has yet been fixed for his funeral. Rosanna said that they are awaiting the arrival of his sister and other relatives from England.
Rest in peace Mac… You have played a good innings.
