Edited by Mrs. Janet Jagan
For some time I have been contemplating a collection of children’s stories from Guyana. When I came across an old undated publication entitled Stories from Guyana, I felt more convinced that one could be useful. This book which I guess was published in the 1960s or 1970s contained some delightful stories which I felt should have a wider audience.Stories from Guyana included the following lovely stories: “Princess Sunshine’s Golden Necklace” by Sheila King; “By the Lotus Pond” by Rajkumari Singh; “El Dorado’s Golden Princess” by Cecile E. Nobrega; “Samaan” by Doris

Harper-Wills; “The Lure of the Mermaid” by Evadne D’Oliveira.
I have no idea of the quantity printed, but clearly today’s children could not have had the opportunity to read these particular stories from Guyana.
Of the five writers, I knew Cecile Nobrega and Rajkumari Singh. The late Rajkumari Singh wrote poetry and was interested in the arts. Her parents, Dr & Mrs. J.B. Singh, were well known in British Guiana of the 1930s and 1940s and had been involved in many cultural events.
I knew Cecile Nobrega for many years. She once ran one of the best schools in Georgetown and my daughter was one of her devoted students. Cecile now resides in London.
Krishna Nand Prasad whose story “The Laziest of the Birds” has been writing children’s stories and poems for many years. He is a teacher by profession and has published many of his poems.
The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development along with the North Rupununi District Development Board are to be complimented for publishing in 2000, the beautifully illustrated “Stories about Iwokrama.” I included one of their stories told by four of Guyana’s indigenious people living in Annai, Rupununi.
Three stories are by well-known Guyanese writers: Jan Carew, the legendary Dr. Walter Rodney – writer and historian – and Dr. Odeen Ishmael, presently serving as Guyana’s Ambassador to the USA (now in Kuwait)
Dr. Rodney, before his unfortunate and untimely death attributed to the challenges he made to the dictatorship that hurt the people of Guyana for many years, began writing, for children, stories about their origins.
“Kofi Baadu out of Africa” was written so that Guyana’s children could know of their origins arising out of slavery and “Lakshmi out of India” told the story of indentured workers. His death came before he could complete the series he had intended. Because of the length of “Kofi” I have printed only a part.
Jan Carew is a well-established author who has written important novels and poetry on Guyana. “The Coming of Amalivaca”, he describes, as “retold by Jan Carew”. There is another, “Children of the Sun” in the same manner, and both distributed by the Guyana Book Foundation. These, as well as those of Dr. Walter Rodney, are used in Guyana’s school system.
Henry Josiah’s “The Day the Sky Fell Down” comes from the book Amkonaima’s Children published in 1994 and containing eight wonderfully written stories of Guyana’s Amerindian people. In his preface, the late Henry Josiah wrote “I have taken the liberty to recreate them (folklore stories) in such a way that the familiar ad universal English languages create the spirit of the old Amerindian tongue – Carib, Macushi and Patamona, Wapishana, Warrau and Wai Wai, Akawaio, Arecura and Arawak – and reflect for the new generations those things of value now almost overrun by the new civilisation.”
I have included two of my own stories – very short ones- since they are of a different genre. One comes from my Children’s Stories of Guyana’s Freedom Struggles and the other from Anastasia the Anteater and other stories.
In preparing this anthology, it is my hope that it will stimulate other writers to focus on children’s stories and it may, as well, result in the unearthing of children’s stories lost or neglected.