Dear Editor,
Sometimes, when praising a person’s achievements, it is worth mentioning where that person was born and raised, as with the late CANU Prosecutor, who was born and raised in Dartmouth.
Dartmouth is one of Guyana’s villages established by freed slaves, and though Dartmoutharians now live in general conditions better than their ancestors did nearly two hundred years ago, the village is still depressed in several ways. Oswald Massiah was born in that depression but, like the late Dr. Ptolemy Reid (former Guyana Prime Minister), the late Dr. Harry Annamunthodo (Surgeon ), Dr. Kurt G. Clarke (Texas attorney) and a few others, he rose above his circumstances to become one of Guyana’s main law enforcement officers, CANU prosecutor.
Oswald Massiah was four years older, and I was privileged to watch him perform as an athlete at Dartmouth’s St. Barnabas Primary School, now Dartmouth Govt., in the late 50’s and very early 60’s. He was a most unique right-handed batsman, with one shot for every ball. When the ball was straight on his stumps, he got down on his knee and cross-batted it. Full pitch, ‘ground-digger’, leg-cutter, off-cutter, beamer, way outside the off stump, way outside the leg stump, all deliveries got the same shot – down on the knee and WOOK, that vicious cross-bat! At the time he played, the school ground was behind the school on the seaside half of the village. Oswald’s WOOK missed most of the balls. However, he did connect on a few and launched them almost to the sea dam. Nevertheless, I remember Oswald best as an unbeatable runner. At the time he ran, there was no limit to an athlete’s number of events. With students being in Houses (A, B, C and D) and every House teacher wanting his/her house to win, teachers advantageously placed their best individual athletes in as many events as possible, even in age groups higher than their own. Oswald, built like a middleweight fighter, ran in different age groups; he ran the 100-yard dash, the 200, 400, 800 and relays. Then, he ran the mile. At the end of an inter-House track meet, he had run over a dozen races, winning them all! Needless to say, he was inter-house (as well as inter-school) champion boy for several years.
Although four years younger than he, I wanted to run against him but that never happened. However, around 1961 the impossible happened! At the Essequibo Coast’s inter-school athletics at Onderneeming, Oswald, already the meet’s champion boy, was too tired to run, and I was put to run the mile. I did not win, but ran a credible third, which must have pleased the champ.
As Guyana Police Force and CANU prosecutors, Oswald Massiah was also a champion, championing the causes of people. May his good work inspire others, especially Dartmoutharians.
Yours faithfully,
Roy Brummell
