Dear Editor,
I JOIN others in the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) to pay tribute to the late Pan-Africanist Tchaiko Kwayana. Guyanese should take a page from her book when it comes to cultural advocacy, nationalist identity, volunteerism, and championing democracy. I first met Sister Tchaiko at City College. She visited several times to give lectures, one in a class (Prof Samad Mathias) I was taking in the Black Studies Department on Caribbean politics. During her appearances at CCNY and other talks in NY, Tchaiko gave updates of the socio-politico and economic conditions in Guyana and implored others to join the struggle against the dictatorship.
Tchaiko, like her husband Eusi Kwayana, was an indefatigable campaigner for free and fair elections and promoting Africanist culture. Guyanese should express gratitude and appreciation for her work. Initially, she and Eusi supported and encouraged a nationalist agenda, including the state control of the economy and the education system. They turned against Burnham after Walter Rodney was denied a professorial job at UG. They then opposed the electoral riggings.
Tchaiko was not born Guyanese, but migrated to Guyana in 1968, marrying Eusi Kwayana (alias Sydney King) and joined the Black nationalist and Pan-Africanist movement started by Eusi. Like Mr King, Ann changed her (English) name to an Africanist one. More than many others, she cared for Guyana and she showed her love for her people through her pan-Africanist teachings in various Black villages around the country. They were held in high esteem by Buxtonians and by Pan-Africanists and Black nationalists in Guyana and the USA.
I learned about Sister Tchaiko (nee Ann F Cook born in Georgia) during my years as a student activist and in student governments at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Requests came in to the student governments from the Black Studies Club and the Black Studies Department (CCNY) for funding for lectures by her and other Africanists. I was an elected senator (representing the natural Sciences) and later got elected as Vice-President for Educational Affairs in Undergraduate Student Government and subsequently as councillor (representing Social Sciences) in the Graduate Student Council and after that as president of that graduate students body. Discussions often came up for these requests for funding (from the student governments) for lectures by Ms Tchaiko and other Black nationalists hosted by the Black Studies Department. Dr Jagan and later Joey Jagan, as well as other Caribbean personalities (including Michael Manley, Maurice Bishop and Ralph Gonsalves), were also hosted there. The student governments of which I served consistently co-sponsored these lectures and/or other related activities.
I admired Sister Tchaiko for her African (Black) nationalism – the way she dressed and her passionate expressions of pride in the classroom of students of diverse nationalities about her identity and in people of Black descent and of her African roots. She was a proud Black nationalist and internationalist, her American nationality notwithstanding, and she was never ashamed of displaying or speaking about it or her roots. She encouraged students (almost all of whom were Blacks or Hispanics with me being the only Indian) to be proud of their identities and roots. There are hardly any comparisons in the Indian community in Guyana or the U.S. I should note that on the issue of Black pride and nationalism, the marriage of Tchaiko to Eusi Kwayana took place in Guyana under traditional Yoruba (African) rites and was perhaps the first such marriage on Guyanese soil in modern, post-independence Guyana. The couple was/is very proud of their ‘Africaness’ and exemplified it in their marriage, their lifestyle, and in their everyday garb and advocacy (ethno nationalism). Her funeral was under Yoruba rites in Georgia.
Sister Tchaiko was a role model for cultural and ethnic nationalism, and one cannot help but admire her and her husband Eusi. Also, her activism, advocacy and humanitarian activities should be emulated. May God grant her soul eternal rest and may her husband and other family members be comforted by the fact that she lived a productive life, making enormous contributions during the struggle for a democratic and better Guyana.
Regards
Dr Vishnu Bisram