Dear Editor,
In the Stabroek News Diaspora series co-ordinated by Ms Alicia Trotz a column appeared on December 31 captioned, ‘A constant teacher, a constant student: A collective tribute to Randall Mohan Butisingh,’ in which there were glaring omissions.
Mr Randall Mohan Butisingh of the USA who lived most of his early life in Buxton feared for his life and fled the 1960s riots to the nearby Indian village of Annandale, as did Pandit Sama Persaud (who died in Guyana) and Mr Rampersaud Tiwari, (in Canada) amongst many others. With this tribute being inspired by his “close friend” Mr Eusi Kwayana, who was an early migrant from Lusignan to Buxton, long after Mr Butisingh’s Buxton’s presence, they struck up a friendship. Mr Kwayana was a well-known regular visitor to many Buxton Indians’ homes prior to the outbreak of the racial animosities of the 1960s.
The tribute to the esteemed gentleman is not complete when such important details are left out. Mr Butisingh is portrayed as an original nurtured Hindu but then Christian convert (Buxton) who later found nirvana in his original Hinduism (Annandale) only to finally find solace in Islam’s richness in Florida.
My condolences to the Butisingh family.
Yours faithfully,
Sultan Mohamed
