Godfrey Chin, considered Guyana’s “memory man,” was laid to rest yesterday.
Chin was remembered as a sportsman, a designer, a cinephile, and a music lover with a great memory and a deep love for his country, which saw him chronicling his experiences and memories of his boyhood days in Guyana.
Considered by some to be a cultural icon and well-known for his popular Nostalgia series, he was found dead at his David Street, Kitty residence on Monday.
Relatives, friends and acquaintances turned out for a remembrance service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception yesterday and Guyanese were urged to be conscious of his works so that his passing of this “significant thinker in Guyanese culture” would not be in vain.
Chin’s participation in sports, his penchant for playing pranks, his avid love for the cinema, and the various manners in which he brought a spark to life were all recalled and hailed in the various tributes. Friend Joe Singh said that Chin was a man of many talents. “There is no aspect of life in Guyana which has not been captured” in Chin’s Nostalgia book, Singh said. He recalled that the “repository of modern Guyanese history” was a regular contributor to radio, televisions and the newspapers and was willing to give of his time. “It seems that he was directly and indirectly involved in everything,” said Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony. “He was a cultural icon,” he added while recalling Chin’s pioneering work in costume design in the 1960s and 1970s. ”He was the Wikipedia for Guyana even before Wikipedia was invented,” he said. The minister recalled that he had encouraged Chin to write a second Nostalgia book and he said that he had started but “I guess it was never meant to be.”
Although Chin lived abroad, he was always determined to keep his “Guyaneseness,” said the minister. “He represented what it truly means to be Guyanese first,” said Anthony. ”He was truly a son of the soil.” The minister added that Chin’s reward will be the eternal recognition that Guyana will grant his work and life.
In delivering the eulogy, Chin’s son, Brian, recalled that his father had a penchant for bright, vivid colours because they helped to brighten a room and put people in a festive mood. “He gave a full effort to everything he was involved in and everyone was the beneficiary of that,” he said adding that his father did everything with flair and pizzazz. “Guyana, this country that he oh so loved, was his canvas and you friends was his audience,” Brian said. Chin spent close to three decades in the United States but even after all this time “his heart remained in Guyana,” he stated.
Brian also recalled growing up with his dad, sharing anecdotes of family life and like others who paid tribute, threw out the phrase popularized by his father which was virtually his trademark: “Ya think it easy!”
