– THE TRAIL TO RUPUNUNI!

Though I’d promised to follow the trail of that viral “IS WUH GOING ON?” question – frankly, today …would prefer to kick all the negativity down the road…best we keep on our way up; let’s deal with some positive retrospection on that time…remember? Before The Road to Brazil, when Terry Fletcher and his fellow Trail to Rupununi pioneers, Peter Fraser, Gordon Forte and Neville Chin among others, surged South to Kurupukari!…remember? …am choosing to trash the thrash because I too, honestly believe as Julian Mayfield affirms in the essay: ‘Into the ‘Mainstream & Oblivion’, that–
“Salvation Lies In Escaping THE NARROW NATIONAL ORBIT—Artistic, Cultural And Political—And Soaring Into The Space Of More Universal Experience” (the emphasis here, is mine).
That “narrow national orbit” is the vortex of this constricted political space we call our homeland, Guyana….is a helluva rough ride; especially if yours is one of the “huddled masses” of minds yearning to transcend and feel free, truly free in this 50th Jubilee year of Independence celebrations….penalty for trying to “escape” has been literally death, and figuratively, the loss of ‘life’…consequence of losing one’s livelihood; and, for those who grow weary of holding on –apathy…total loss of interest.

“….jail me quickly – clang the illiterate door if freedom writes no happier alphabet” Martin Carter

This was our state during the past 23 years of the PPPC regime during which, with “muzzled mouths” we either endured and survived the infliction of scars on our minds as deep as that on the backs of our enslaved ancestors or were physically eliminated.

…said I would kick down the road, that “big question on everyone’s lips these days” trusting that as we progress on our journey into the future, it would confidently and demonstrably answer itself in the infinite possibilities of our horizon(s) …a virtual mosaic of cultural identities ….currently shrouded by the grimy fog, the accumulated detritus…waste of a shipwrecked PPPC government that’s still floating about and washing up on the green, clean(?), liberated shoreline of our Guyanese prospect.
…can’t wait to talk about the genesis of the Trail To Rupununi but will just say this first.
Now that’s said – and we all need to say it – let’s “begin the road” –
…am talking about the future coming forward from the retrospective of Terrence Fletcher and Peter Fraser circa 1984/85 when two friends sat having a drink at the Georgetown Club and imagining how great it would to be to drive all the way to Surama and Brazil visiting…been looking back at the chronological sequence of events Before The Road To Brazil including the Trail to Rupununi seems it all began with those two friends, it seems and if anybody wants to challenge that claim – DO IT! Challenge it with unexpurgated well documented facts…
This incidentally is exactly how I feel about the response to challenges of the claim that Amerindians were the first Guyanese…a lie you say? I say challenge the lie then; challenge all revisionist history including such as is served at University Of Guyana level where, without so much as an invitation to DISCUSS, students are being indoctrinated thus–

EVERYBODY HATES BURNHAM!
From my POV such dogma is not an acceptable approach to the ESSENTIAL DIALECTIC any mention of Forbes Burnham and his Presidency should stimulate on the UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA campus….
“…we wanted to contribute to the inter connection of roads between Guyana and South America and into the USA,” Terry Fletcher recently told me.
…was there at the time on Yukuriba Heights – while the Trail to Rupununi dreamers were conjuring the future…was there with Capt Roy Bowen, my teacher, my friend, dreaming of a community at Yukuriba embraced by an environment of infinite beauty and that community for me was a community of artists….was not thinking about the Road to Brazil in terms of its bridges’ construction; for me it was already there in my creative imaginings.

Luiz The Brazilian

I’m luiz the Brazilian!
from a landlocked region I come
from Green Mountain State of Roraima…
Manaus and Alto Alegre traversing this developing highway
that’s called The Road To Brazil! –
I’m bound for the Port of Georgetown!

I’m Luiz the Brazilian!
for days I’ve been making my way from Boa Vista…
Rio Branco and Uraricoera; then on to
Bonfim and Lethem at the Guyana border through
Surama and Iwokr-ama at Kuru-pukari!
since then I’ve been trucking on a route that goes uphill
then down into gullies that are muddy; I get stuck –
but so what? I dig myself out…keep moving along
singing my song…a-trucking my way on
this developing highway they’re calling
The Road To Brazil! –
It leads to The Port Of Georgetown….

I’m Luiz The Brazilian! Luiz The Brazilian!
a-bumping and a-rocking with my truck-full
of footwear and food for garimpeiros…feijao
and preto e marrom…tasso and farinha; moving along…
singing my song while I’m dreaming –
just dreaming of that day soon to come when I’ll be
passing this way in my eight-teen wheeler
on a completed highway –
bound for The Port of Georgetown!

Ohhhhh I cannot wait for that day – I just can’t wait for that day –
even now i can see her, I can feel her; that eight-teen wheeler!
right here in my future I’m singing my song…we are cruising along
past Pott Falls! Yukuriba! Mabura! Linden and Timehri! –
me and my eight-teen wheeler on this completed highway –
A FREEWAY!
THAT’S BOUND FOR THE PORT OF GEORGETOWN!
…LUIZ THE BRAZILIAN
…BOUND FOR THE PORT OF GEORGETOWN!

And the Road To Brazil is here, not yet the 21st century highway, not too kind to travellers sometimes, but destined to leave a permanent imprint on the mind of the visitor – same question – big question – WUH GOING ON at Yukuriba?
Who owns these endless forest we see hugging this rugged road? My stop is YUKURIBA!
Next week… will share with you WUH GOING ON at Yukurika…Taking that journey again – it all starts with the launch of the Philip Moore Artists’ Retreat and Organic Farm at YUKURIBA HEIGHTS.