Dear Editor,
Sankar Nirahu has passed on. His funeral service on the evening of Friday, February 6th in this largely Guyanese village in Queens, New York was quite an event. The MacDonalds’ funeral chapel at the corner of 111th Street and Atlantic Avenue was filled and mourners overflowed onto the street. It was an evening of freezing temperatures and banks of hard ice filled the sidewalks, but it didn’t seem to deter his friends and supporters from the large AFC family from attending. AFC party leaders Khemraj Ramjattan and Ramayya flew in from Guyana to pay glowing tributes to a founding member.
Several speakers that included Professor Euclid Rose, Sasenarine Singh and Ed Ahmad eulogized Sankar as a “decent, humble, jovial human being,” but a “giant of a man” for his contributions to the youths of Guyana and to the newest political party of Guyana, the Alliance for Change.
Sankar Nirahu, aged 60, was from No 47 village on the Corentyne Coast, and emigrated to New York in the 1980s establishing himself as a successful real estate broker. He was known to support many charitable causes in Guyana, donating computers and sports gear to community centres. He was known to be an innovative organizer for the AFC, creating party cells throughout Guyana and establishing communication networks by giving them cameras and laptop computers. The news feeds sent in to Sankar in New York were then shared on facebook and websites.
Sankar’s funeral chapel service will best be remembered as one of the largest in this Queens community (perhaps, second to Prakash Gossai), and one at which Ed Ahmad, awaiting sentencing on fraud charges in a US court, made a rare public appearance. Ed Ahmad who looked tanned, in good spirits, and much younger than his real age had known Sankar for many years. They shared the same real estate fraternity. Ed spoke of their lasting friendship. Ed Ahmad related a tale of himself and Sankar hanging out in a bar in Guyana some years ago and there was one song playing over and over. Ed, finally ended his tribute by singing that song. The song turned out to be a Pradeep hymnal (bhajan), and provided much humour when someone audibly said, “Was that the song from the rumshop?”
Sankar Nirahu will be missed in this community, but for the AFC, it will be a major blow – an irreplaceable loss. Sankar’s passing also highlighted something else: his AFC family has solid multi-racial credentials. Several African Guyanese travelled from as far away as Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania to pay their tributes.
Finally, I will say I was privileged to know Sanko for many years. He was one of the more decent, humble and generous men I have ever known.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
