Wordsworth McAndrew, November 22, 1936-April 25, 2008
(Wordsworth Albert McAndrew, folklorist and journalist, died on April 25, 2008, aged 71.)
Wordsworth McAndrew used to state his core beliefs plainly. In his chapter entitled ‘Guyana – A Cultural Look’ contained in the book Co-op Republic: Guyana 1970, he wrote “In my view, the folklore of a people is at the root of their being, and to cast it aside is to set oneself adrift culturally – an act which one performs at one’s peril.” With this in mind, he made it his personal mission to record the life and language of the common people.
McAndrew steeped himself in local folklore and craftily used the media to deliver his message. In the heyday of radio broadcasting in the 1950s and ’60s before the introduction of television, a good voice was a great asset.
Bright young high school graduates competed for the limited places at Radio Demerara, the British Guiana Broadcasting Service and the Government Information Service. Hugh Cholmondeley, Victor Insanally, Eileen Pooran, Ronald Sanders and Clairmont Taitt were some of the most heard voices of the day.
McAndrew was among them but, unlike the rest, he was always attracted to the unusual. He applied his not inconsiderable intelligence as a broadcaster and as an information officer in the Government Information Service to amass an awesome amount of anecdotes in the argot of rural Guyana.