By Wendella Davidson

OVID Williams, was a first form student at the prestigious premier secondary school, Queen’s College, having been granted a government scholarship, when, on his first visit back to the Indigenous community of Paramakatoi, in the North Pakaraimas in Region Eight, he had a first-hand experience of the traumatic `Rupununi Uprising’ that occurred on January 2, 1969, in the Rupununi.
And, as a result of all aircraft being prohibited to fly to Georgetown and there being no other mode of transport, Williams lost about quarter of the term’s class work, as he was unable to return to school until March 2, 1969..

He recalled having a disquieting experience when he returned to school, as he was asked to recount the entire episode to his class, something he described as “very intimidating”.
Also, it is as a result of “Hey Jude”, a song made popular by the Beatles, that was being played on the aircraft that eventually flew him out of the Rupununi, that he had come to realise that “a person can relive their own life through music, from childhood to present,” said Williams, who later became a pilot with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Friday.

The song `Hey Jude’ was a ballad written by Paul McCartney, to comfort John Lennon’s son, Julian, during the divorce of his parents. It was written in June 1968, as Mc Cartney drove his Aston Martin to Weybridge to visit Cynthia Lennon and his son.
Williams also spoke of being “overwhelmed by the aura of authority” of the late President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham in 1976, as he (Williams) was being interviewed by the esteemed gentleman for an aviation scholarship.

Williams is the last son but second to last of nine children, born to Toshao Francis Eric Williams and Agnes Williams, both deceased, of Paramakatoi Village in the North Pakaraimas, Region Eight, and of the Patamona nation.
Williams who started attending school late, at the age of seven, explained that in the 1940s, when Pilgrim Holiness (now known as Wesleyan) missionaries, Reverend Burgh and company, had visited the Paramakatoi community, they had difficulty in communicating with the residents of the community who only spoke the Patamona language and did not understand the English language.

His mom, who grew as an orphan with one Mr Hazzard, at Tumatumari, a community in the Potaro-Siparuni Region and had learnt a bit of English, became an automatic translator for the missionaries and the communities. So, when they (missionaries) started going from village to village to spread the Gospel, it was his mom and dad who used to escort them.
And, when he was born, his parents not wanting to leave him behind and unattended, would take him wherever they went, and up to the age of seven he could not understand or speak English. The missionaries realising that young Williams was of school age, suggested that he be sent to school at Paramakatoi Primary.

At the age of 10-plus, when he became eligible to write the Common Entrance Examination, the missionaries, who owned a plane, flew him to Lethem and enrolled him at the St Ignatius Primary School, to enable him to write the examination.
With Patamona being his first language, Williams said he had a constraint and challenge, a language barrier in his learning process due to his limitation and the subjects were taught in English. He said that he had to learn the English Language very quickly, to be able to write the examination around April 1968.
With a chuckle, he remarked, “until now I still cannot speak the language fluently.”
Despite the challenge with the language, Williams said he was successful at the exam but unfortunately, he only knew of his success when he received a notice from the Ministry of Education around October or November.

Not only was Williams successful but also topped the Region Nine District and for his achievement was awarded a government scholarship, known as the Amerindian Scholarship, to attend the prestigious Queens College.
With the school term already started since early September, Williams said he was flown to the airport at Atkinson Field, now renamed Timehri, where he was met by Mr Dindial, who introduced himself as a Welfare Officer at the Ministry of Regional Development and took him to a house in Adelaide Street, Charlestown, that was to be his new home.
Williams, who was 11 years, said that day marked a lot of firsts for him- his first visit to the capital city of Guyana; his first ride in a car; and even though he was sleepy saw for the first time houses on stilts, and too, realised that the car in which he travelled had its engine at the back.

He said he later learnt that the car was a Volkswagen brand.
At the Charlestown home, William was greeted by his guardians, Mr Herbert Joseph and his wife, Mildred, a renowned seamstress, whom he later observed outfitting several brides and had numerous clients.
It was the woman who communicated with him more, but he remembered Mr Joseph and Mr Dindial escorting him to Queen’s College to be enrolled.
Williams said that while in the hinterland he had lived a`sheltered life’ as the Toshao’s son. Everything changed at the home of his guardians, who were also the custodians of five school-aged females.

According to him, he was tasked with a set of chores he had to get done daily before leaving for school, like sweeping the yard, attending to Jack and Jill their pet dogs, work that definitely taught him humility in life. Once a month he had to polish and shine the floor using wax, for which he was rewarded with 25 cents, then called a `bob’. By then, having adapted to city life, his guardian used to allow him to accompany one of his school friends, whom they had vetted, to visit the cinema on a monthly basis. “The money was enough to get me into the cinema, also called `matanee’, in pit and buy a pop-corn, “, he added.
Williams recalled Mr Joseph had told him in no uncertain terms that the kitchen was out of bounds for males, as it was the domain of only women. The girls he said were allowed to go to the market.

At Queen’s College, he befriended Sieyh Shabadeen whose father was an attorney general; the late President Arthur Chung’s son, Raymond; David Pollard and Peter Gonsalves, who used to live on Sussex Street and rode a bicycle.
Williams said his mode of transport to and from school was the yellow bus, that travelled the route — Stabroek Market/Sussex Street/Russel Street and to the Seawall. As a government scholar he was supplied with tickets for the bus to last a month. At times, though, he would hitch a ride on his friend’s bicycle until he eventually was given his own cycle.
Williams told the Chronicle that in 1962, his sister, Kathleen Williams, became the first awardee of an Amerindian scholarship. Now residing in Canada, she was also the first Indigenous female Karate champion in Guyana.

He spent five years at Queen College, where he wrote the General Certificate of Education examination, and during the time when he was lonely he found solace in strumming the guitar. He recalled that it was a beggar who used to sit outside of the Sue-A-Quan Winery on Robb Street, who offered to tune the guitar for him and from then he got a passion for playing the musical instrument.
At QC, he and four of his classmates formed a band and would entertain during speech night, and subsequently the government established a youth band comprising students from The Bishops’ High, QC, St Rose’s High and St Joseph’s High, with him being the lead guitarist.
Music, he said, helped him tremendously to come out of his inhibition and he was able to make numerous friends.

Returning to Lethem, Williams said he landed his first job as an assistant dispenser, working alongside Dr Persaud and Buxtonian Michael Holder, the dispenser, and learnt to dispense ointment and suspension and read prescriptions.
In 1975, Williams along with Chuck Gerard, originally from New Amsterdam, and three others, formed the Harpy Band and used to entertain in Bon Finn and Boa Vista, in neighbouring Brazil.

Williams said it was in 1975, while he was still in Lethem and had attended a `political’ conference, that he learnt a search was on for an Indigenous person from the area to study aviation. With encouragement from his brother, Ian Griffith Williams, he applied and was accepted. In 1976, he was interviewed by President Burnham, who made him feel comfortable by telling him that he had attended the same school (QC) as he Williams. At the conclusion of the interview, Williams said he was informed by the President Burnham of his success and on May 26, 1976 he and 19 others, travelled to Cuba to begin studies. He was one of two Amerindians but the only one to complete the course.
Williams said that even though he passed Spanish at QC, it was upon his arrival in Cuba that he realised that he wasn’t conversant enough.
After spending almost four years in Cuba, upon his return, he, in 1980, enlisted into the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) where he participated in a six-week Standard Military Officers’ Course (SMOC) at the army’s Tacama training base and was subsequently sent to the GDF Air Corps, at Timehri. In 1982, he enrolled in the Standard Officers’ Corps (SOC) Course, graduating one year later as a Second Lieutenant.

Williams who resigned from the GDF in 1985, remembers flying the Skyvan and Islander aircrafts, while in the army to ferry troops and supplies to military bases, and also conducting medevacs.

It was as a result of an encounter in 1984 while conducting a medevac from an interior location that he was prompted to learn four Indigenous languages. He also established a translation agency that gives service to the judiciary and the medical field.
He is presently in the employ of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, as the Coordinator for activities for the International Year of Indigenous Languages.