Dear Editor,
In 2001, I received a wonderful token from Mr Basil Cuthbert Rodrigues MS, AA, from Moruka, North West District. He had sent me his book entitled Uncle Basil – An Arawak Biography which was transcribed, annotated and introduced by one Justin Green-Roesel (1998).
It is about his teaching experiences in the South Rupununi and in his home town of Moruka, among other things, and indirectly about Father Bernard McKenna, an educationist priest of the Catholic Church who played a major role in the setting up schools for the Wapishana children.
According to Uncle Basil Father McKenna came to Guyana after the Second World War. The book also contains some of Uncle Basil’s songs and poems which became very popular during Guyfesta in the 1970s when people from all districts of the Rupununi used to gather at Lethem to compete in various areas of the arts. It is great reading material, because even though it focuses on Uncle Basil’s experiences, it also captures a span of time (mid ’40s – early ’90s) in the South Rupununi.
Uncle Basil, according to his biography, arrived in the Rupununi in 1951. He first landed at Wichibai where the plane (a WWII Dakota piloted by Art Williams) let off some cargo and teachers before it headed to Lumidpau not too far from Karaudanau village. It was there that Uncle Basil met his counterparts – the Wapishanas – for the first time and his school’s headmaster, Alex Atkinson, his village man, whom he had known before. It was at Karaudanau that Uncle Basil as a teenager (18) began his long and dedicated teaching service (40 yrs) to the children of the Wapishana people. It was there also he realized that he should have taken education more seriously at Santa Rosa Primary School, Moruka. Fortunately for him Fr McKenna tutored him for the Pupil Teachers’ Examination, which gave access to the teacher training college.
Father Mc Kenna moved around the South Rupununi with his bullock-drawn cart doing his church services and at the same time tutoring ‘his’ teachers. Later on Uncle Basil met many of his own villagers who had gone there before him as well as those who would later come after him. They were teachers who took up the challenges of teaching in the South Rupununi which called for lots of sacrifices in term of adapting themselves to an environment and people very different from their home inMoruka/North West. Despite the obstacles they endured and dedicated their services to the children. As time went on many other teachers from Moruka went to teach in the South Rupununi.
There were also coastland teachers who joined the Arawaks and contributed later to the education of the Amerindian children in the South Rupununi. These two groups of teachers not only focused on the teaching alone but they formed a branch of the Guyana Teachers’ Association. Being united they did community service − building bridges, for example, and other projects by means of self-help.
On behalf of the Wapishana and Macushi people, I say thank you very much for all the sacrifices you (Morukans and Coastlanders) have made for our benefit.
Yours faithfully,
Guy Marco