FROM my interactions with him, Kampta Karran was not given to idle conversation; perhaps he was a student of the Bible long before he devoted himself to God and the Christian Church.

Yes, Karran was argumentative; always bent on getting to the truth as he articulated and ventilated his views, but never given into idle talk.  And he took a stand on various issues, including discrimination, equality, ethnic relations and literature, just to name a few.
Rev. Kampta Karran died one month after he was ordained as a minister of religion in the Lutheran Church. However, his service to that religious body started some twelve years ago, serving in various capacities and at various parishes, leaving a legacy that would be talked about for a long time to come; a legacy that was so inspiring that there were commitments to continue many of the projects he’d initiated.
A month is too short a time to assess anyone’s worth, but the month as an ordained minister is the epitome of the Karran’s life and work. In his last days, Karran was a fountain of ideas, especially with reference to the upcoming 270th Anniversary of the Lutheran Church in Guyana.
It was disclosed that his motto was encapsulated in the following words: ‘If it is doable, let’s get it done’. There was a certain urgency with which he carried out his functions.  Also in his last days, Karran took the church into the electronic (IT) age, tapping into the super-highway of information and communication. One of his sons, in eulogy, declared that his father’s greatest achievement was service to God through his ordination as a minister in the church.
Apart from his spiritual attainments, Karran also achieved much in secular life.  He started writing at primary school, encouraged by his teachers who also ensured he read widely, and read the right types of books; this was very helpful in his formative years, because it helped shape the man. Karran continued to follow the literary arts into secondary school, and later the University of Guyana where he found that the institution was not writing and publishing as much as it ought to as a tertiary body.
It was about this time that he started a journal called ‘Offerings’. This journal offered another outlet to writers who felt their work may not be carried in existing journals. At that time, there were many writers, but  few outlets. That move led to Karran establishing a poetry book prize, mainly because he came into contact with many local writers who were not only disenchanted but also felt marginalized by The Guyana Prize for Literature.
The Offerings Poetry Book Prize was a good move, in that entries came from all parts of Guyana.  (Through the years, several attempts were made by various individuals and organisations to elicit such a response, but most of those efforts were partially successful.)
Kampta Karran was a regular visitor of my brother’s, Sasenarine Persaud, when the latter lived in Campbellville. I got to know him much more after I entered the Offering Poetry Book Prize and won. That was the Offerings Fourth Annual Poetry Book Award in 1996.  The winning package was a set of books, including many authored by Karran himself.
The handing over of the prize took place in a dank room with leaking roof at the Public  Buildings, where Karran then worked as Secretary of the Race Relations Committee.
Thereafter, we met more often to discuss the literature of this country. I remember how enthused Karran was when I invited him to appear on my television programmes, ‘Oral Tradition’ and ‘Between the Lines’. That was way back in 2002; but his knowledge of the local literary scene and the literary scene in the Guyanese Diaspora was prodigious. He was able to talk with authority on the women writers and enablers like Lakshmi Kalicharran, Parvati Persaud-Edwards, Ada Debidin, and Rosetta Kaladeen.
I’d like to remember Kampta Karran on the day we sat around the mausoleum in the Botanic Gardens for many hours, preparing for the television interview. That day, we went between the lines on Guyanese Literature, using a poem by Sasenarine Persaud, ‘Literature’s Whoredom’, as a point of departure. The poem was taken from ‘A Writer Like You’.
On the television programmes, Karran was also able to show how our writers locally ‘value’ us, writing from within. He was able to show how our writers in the Diaspora ‘value’ us writing from a distance.
Karran went on to further his studies in the UK, first at Birmingham University, then at the University of Warwick. There, he continued to write and to publish the work of other writers. He teamed up with Cathy Perry to publish under the label ‘Writers without Borders’ a collection of writings in English, Urdu and Kurdish, titled ‘Griot’. Later he was to team up with Lynne Macedo to compile ‘No Land, No Mother’, essays on the work of David Dabydeen.
In 1991, he edited a significant source document titled, ‘An Introduction to the Poetry of the East Indian Diaspora’, subtitled ‘a Celebration of Guyanese East Indian Poets 1901 – 1991’.
That anthology was divided into six sections, namely, ‘Section One: Patriotism’, ‘Section Two: Estate’, ‘Section Three: Protest’, ‘Section Four: Nature’, ‘Section Five: Culture’ and ‘Section Six: Children’s Perception’.
The book included works by established writers, emerging writers, and little-known writers.
In 2003, he published ‘Race and Ethnicity in Guyana’, a collection of essays on the subject, written by authorities in the field like Prof. Clive Thomas, Dr Iris Sukdeo, Judaman Seecoomar, Eusi Kwayana, Kenneth King, Vincent Alexander, Henry Jeffery, Andaiye, and Ravi Dev.
Writer, editor, anthologist, sociologist, literary enabler and pastor, Kampta Karran left a rich legacy in the shaping of Guyanese Literature.

(To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)