By Shauna Jemmott

IN A masterpiece collection to commemorate Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations, award-winning author and playwright Harold Bascom has produced a Dictionary of Guyanese Words, celebrating his pride at being Guyanese and at the same time working toward preservation of our native culture and endorsing the survival of “roots heritage”.The dictionary of words patriotic to Guyanese has been compiled and launched in the United States of America. It spreads the rich literary culture of a country unique as the only English- speaking country on the South American continent; and yet this country is culturally Caribbean-oriented.

In a statement to Guyana Chronicle, Bascom said the collection is presented in a 150-page book which he has also illustrated. It is his belief that Caribbean writers should also focus on the preservation of their native culture to ensure the survival of roots heritage. He feels that when this is done, the relevance of Caribbean writers to their respective societies will grow into realization.

In an interview with Sunday Chronicle, the prolific writer said he had decided to seek grassroots origins instead of having an academic survey, and had taken the words from communicating with fellow Guyanese from various ethnic cultural backgrounds.

“My words have all been drawn from the popular Guyanese usage. I drew on words known to me as a Guyanese, and did not approach it from an academic pedestal like the intellectuals might.”

Bascom describes himself as a “beacon, a representative of the grassroots’ perspective,” and added, “that is the launching pad for everything I write: from an ordinary Guyanese citizen’s perspective”.

He told this publication the idea came about when he began casually sharing some Guyanese words on the Facebook social media and observed how much Guyanese were enjoying them.

His book is broken down into sections of Guyanese words and names that describe different kinds of people; Guyanese names for illnesses that would battle the worldwide medical community; words used popularly in mythological figures, folklore figures and occult matters; and more Guyanese words and names in alphabetical order.

Some of the words defined in the classic collection are krass, kangalang, konomomo, briga, likdown, lamata, absalam, clothespin, sweetman, katchar, lickrish, frontin, paschuma, patsalt, goadie, bigfoot, darkeye, nara, bungi, whitemouth and bunganable, among others.

Copies of the book, which costs G$4,500, are available in Guyana at Rihoboth Group at Lot 305 East Street, South Cummingsburg, and you can contact Picola Johnson at 266-4662.

The book, according to Bascom, is “a very rich, juicy, amusing lexicon” with amazing illustrations and stories using some of the featured words.

Bascom won the University of Guyana’s coveted Caribbean Award for his full-length drama ‘Desperate for Relevance’, which he describes as a surreal drama of dead Caribbean writers bound in a curious hereafter in which named writers of the region — novelists, poets, playwrights, essayists — are troubled characters in a unique hereafter that is parallel to a present time in the Caribbean, where their works are not being read.

The writer said that as he focuses on contributing to a much-needed Renaissance of the arts in Guyana, along with the need for a re-recognition of Guyana’s cultural roots, he feels that writers from the wider Caribbean should do likewise, and “come to the realization that the survival of Caribbean culture rests on Caribbean writers shifting from the stance of being ‘separate, nationalistic and aloof’, to the stance of being ‘separate but equal’”.

“Let us each be as an individual finger joined to one hand; let us be cognizant that we are sisters and brothers in one Caribbean consciousness — and that we can do that while doing our own thing,” he advised.

The hard copy of, ‘101 Words that Tell You’re Guyanese’, has been launched through the author’s Laughing Palette website, and the eBook version is available on Amazon.