Dear Editor,
With deep respect and a heavy heart, I pay tribute to Brother Eusi Kwayana, who has passed on in the United States after more than a century of life. He was an outstanding freedom fighter, politician, and activist, and a true son of the Guyanese soil.
I first met Brother Eusi around 1979, when I returned from Canada and joined the Working People’s Alliance in the Berbice chapter, led by John Pinkerton. Those were difficult and dangerous times. We stood together against the dictatorship of the People’s National Congress under Forbes Burnham, and we gave ourselves fully to the pursuit of freedom for our nation. In that struggle our brother Walter Rodney was assassinated, yet Eusi Kwayana stood firm as one of the leaders who fought the good fight.
Across Berbice, on the Corentyne, in Canje, and along the East Coast of Demerara, we held political meetings and “grounded” with the people, listening, teaching, and learning alongside ordinary Guyanese who yearned to be free. In all of that work, Brother Eusi made an outstanding contribution to the liberation of Guyana and its people.
I will always remember our many conversations on political struggle and philosophy. Eusi was a sharp and gifted thinker whose wisdom, clarity, and principle left a lasting mark on all who had the privilege of speaking with him.
We salute Brother Eusi Kwayana for his courage, his strength, and the leadership he gave throughout the history of British Guiana and Guyana. His legacy lives on in the struggle for justice and freedom that he never abandoned.
Rest in peace and in power, Brother Eusi.
Kris Kooblall
Toronto, Canada
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