Basil Rodrigues, the educator, musician and cultural activist, who was bestowed with two National Awards died on Friday at the Georgetown Public Hospital. He was 81.
Fondly called Uncle Basil by those who knew him, Rodrigues was one of the pioneers of formal education in the Rupununi and was known for using music to get his lessons across, composing many songs and poems that the indigenous Wapishana children of the South Rupununi could relate to and to date, still sing. The devoted singing, guitar-playing teacher spent over 40 years in the Rupununi before returning to Santa Rosa in the North-West where he continued his teaching and cultural activities until about two months ago when illness took a heavy toll on his body.
“He was very, very active and he never grumbled to share his knowledge,” his wife Delores Rodrigues told