On August 31st, less than two months before he passed away on October 10 at the age of 101, a letter appeared under the name of Eusi Kwayana in Kiskadee Watch commemorating the April 13, 2021 upholding of the appeal of Donald Rodney against his conviction in 1982 for the possession of an explosive device.
That letter was an ineffaceable embodiment of the long walk of activism that had become second nature to Kwayana no matter where he was physically or the infirmities that he confronted.
The letter itself encapsulated many of the decades that Kwayana had lustily and quietly fought for freedoms no matter how big or small the cause was. Donald Rodney’s charge stemmed from the assassination of his brother Walter in June of 1980 and reflected the corrupting of law enforcement and the bench to achieve outcomes decided beforehand by the executive. Justice was not delivered until 2021.
Somewhere in its construction there must have been an allegory in the letter for present-day Guyana where the people remain confronted by a criminal justice system that increasingly labours under the direction of the executive. This much might have been discerned by Kwayana from afar.
His letter also tellingly reflected on the constitutional stalemate for the positions of Chancellor and Chief Justice of the Judiciary and for the two women who occupied it at the time of the upholding of Donald Rodney’s appeal, a matter that remains unsettled and saw the mysterious departure of the acting Chancellor.
“Guyana had become notorious in Caribbean legal practice because its judiciary was headed by two women who because of the nature of their societies had found themselves acting as chief justice and chancellor of judiciary respectively for over 5 years. On at least one occasion when asked to explain the need for the prolonged acting in these positions the Vice President (Bharrat Jagdeo) told his weekly press conference that `before there could be permanent appointments to these positions, the track record of the post holders (the chief justice and the chancellor of the judiciary)’ had to be examined by the President. The Guyana Constitution requires agreement by the President and the leader of the opposition for naming the Chief Justice and the Chancellor of the Judiciary. The Chancellor of the Judiciary in the trials following the now famous `no confidence’ motion, that brought the coalition government to an end in August 2020 had committed a professional blunder and was recently replaced by the Chief Justice”, Kwayana wrote.
It is nigh impossible to compress within this column the 80 years of political consciousness and humanism that were the cardinal points for Kwayana’s life of activism. It suffices to say as he is laid to rest today that he himself would not want extended dwelling on what has been a remarkable life of sacrifice, militancy, activism, compassion and empathy that touched all parts of society and the issues that mattered most.
The greatest tribute to his life’s work particularly in today’s Guyana would be to diagnose how he would have – in his trademark quiet speech – addressed the existential threats eating into the national fabric. How many fasts or hunger strikes might he have attempted to mobilize against the corrupt practices in procurement and the police force? How would he have campaigned in parliament against the profligacy with the money being earned from oil? How would he have confronted the climate injustice that Guyana itself is now fuelling from its ambition to produce 1.5 million barrels of oil per day? And what about the ripping up of grassy parapets to replace them with gravel and sand? One could easily picture Kwayana setting up camp at one of these corners in solidarity with householders. He would also have railed against the state’s capture of watchdog bodies such as the Public Procurement Commission.
Today’s parliamentarians can learn much by consulting Hansard on the period that Kwayana served in Parliament to gauge how to magisterially marshal the Standing Orders and how to conduct themselves with muscular decorum.
True to form, when his centenary was celebrated at Buxton in April 2025, Stabroek News reported Kwayana as saying: “As you know, in my political activity, I have gone on hunger strikes; fasting, for various causes and reasons. Right in the Caribbean we used that weapon to draw attention and public conscience to abuses of public life.
“… Tonight, after long deep consideration I must challenge people in Guyana, who listen and are concerned about themselves and the future, I challenge them now about naming a piece of activity that they can do or join me, as I can do it and what I am talking about is … a short one day fast; a hunger strike for a maximum time of one day”.
“We can’t go on doing what we do all the time… I hope that we take on the responsibility. I thought about some activity in which I can appeal to you members of the human planet … This includes freedom of action …asking you to consider taking on responsibility, in Guyana, for change for the better of Guyana. I am talking about deep change that comes from a deep place bigger than politics,” the centenarian said.
Those were words well spoken and a call to action to all Guyanese who want a better life for all of us here.
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