I CRINGED when I listened to Nigel Hughes giving the eulogy on behalf of the AFC at Nigel Ralph’s funeral last Friday. Hughes made Ralph out to be a valuable asset in the AFC when the AFC held state power between 2015 and 2020. In fact, he was unemployed during those years and was suffering financially.

Leonard Craig repeated on the Freddie Kissoon Show what he wrote about Ralph in his last Monday Chronicle column. He noted that in order to make a living, Ralph had to resort to holding bingo games. On the Show I brought up the cruel things WPA did to its wonderful, patriotic, working-class cadres when the WPA was in power after 2015. This mistreatment remains a sordid chapter in Guyana’s political history.
I am asking Black people of Guyana to read this column, reflect on man’s inhumanity to man, and on the most uncivilised mistreatment of African Guyanese by certain African politicians in the WPA and AFC and never let your soul forgive these people.

I start with Mobutu. He changed his name due to the influence of Eusi Kwayana. Mobutu was one of the most committed African youths I met in the WPA and we became close. He was a frequent visitor to my home in the terrible days of the anti-dictatorship struggle.
One day, in 2017, he came to my home. We had lost contact over the years. He needed financial help, and I positively responded. I asked about his contacts with the WPA people in government and he said he cannot see them. Mobutu came to me another day in pain. The Georgetown Hospital had put his surgery three months ahead. I went to the CEO, Mike Khan, and the operation was done the next day.
Mobutu died in financial drought. I was a mere university lecturer and couldn’t sustain him. The WPA leadership never knew about the suffering of Mobutu because he was unable to see Clive Thomas, Rupert Roopnarine, Tacuma Ogunseye, Desmond Trotman, Joycelyn Dow, Maurice Odle. He was not allowed in when he went to see them.

Next there was Godfrey Sage who served three years in jail for the WPA during the Burnham dictatorship. It was the same old story. I tried my best, but my funds were simply limited. Mobutu is not alive, but Sage is, and he can tell the story of his neglect by the WPA, 2015-2020. Godfrey Sage was going blind and couldn’t see any WPA big wig to arrange a flight to Cuba.

Next was Ronald Todd, a sugar worker who was one of the most dedicated souls the WPA ever had. I did not know how Todd lived until I ran into him because, as with most of the WPA cadres that I worked closely with in the 1970s, I had lost contact with them. Todd lived in a squatter’s shack that even a squatter would frown on. When he died, only three of us from the glorious days of Walter Rodney turned up at the funeral, the others being Tacuma Ogunseye and Desmond Trotman.
Next was Ali Majeed. He is still alive. I doubt whether he was ever to have the state of mind to contradict what I will write about him. Victimised by the bauxite management in 1980, Majeed was as committed to the WPA as any WPA stalwart. He told me more than four times during the reign of the WPA in power that his fellow Linden stalwart, Stanley Humphrey, could not find employment with the government.

In one conversation with Majid, I asked if he ever tried to see Thomas or Roopnaraine. I am not going to publish his response. Much to my surprise, shock and consternation, Majeed turned up as a WPA election candidate for APNU in the 2020 election. I spoke to him yesterday (Wednesday) on the phone when I was preparing this column and it seems he has left politics behind him.

Finally, there was Ozase from Wortmanville that would visit me more than any WPA cadre in the 1970s because we lived a block away from each other. He died in poverty. There is a big chasm in this column. It is improper for me to describe what I did for these wonderful patriotic souls while I was a mere underpaid UG lecturer. I would urge African Guyanese do not listen to even one word by Ogunseye, David Hinds, Clive Thomas, Rupert Roopnarine. They betrayed Guyana and the world. I end with a few lines from one of my favourite pop songs – Sarah Broghtman’s, “Winter in July.”
“We may not know the reason why we’re born into this world where a man only lives to die. His story left untold.”
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.