IN KEEPING with UNESCO’s proclamation designating 2011 as ‘International Year of People of African Descent’, we now embark on a series of articles highlighting Guyanese Writers of African Descent who have made significant contribution to our literature. There are many pitfalls and shortcomings associated with listing, grouping and categorising; straightway I apologise for omissions or any other deficiencies.  Of course, I may stumble here, and, of course, I would depend on your support, supplying necessary information so we are all the wiser in the end.
In Part One of this series, we focused on Ivan Van Sertima and the book, ‘They Came Before Columbus’ — how the Africans came out from a glorious civilisation with the inherent characteristics of great thinkers, creators  and innovators.
They came and continued in the same vein, working, however, in a different age, within different constraints — they adapted; they evolved. This brings us to the book, ‘The Evolution of the Negro’ and N. E. Cameron.
Educationist, mathematician, historian, poet, dramatist, sportsman, cultural activist and social reformer, Norman Eustace Cameron was born in New Amsterdam, Berbice, on January 26, 1903, not far from the birthplaces of Edgar Mittleholzer and Wilson Harris.
Although Cameron was blessed with a “light but pleasant tenor voice,” he was a trailblazer, pioneer and pacesetter. All of this due in no small way to the fact that his father’s great thirst for knowledge rubbed off on him, and his mother’s wonderful organising ability grounded in religious tenets was foisted on him.
Cameron was a trailblazer, pioneer and pacesetter; he did what had to be done, filling the lacuna in many areas.  His magnum opus ‘The Evolution of the Negro’, a subject shunned by thinkers on the British colonial portion of the world, published while yet in his 20s, was one such significant feature of his contribution to society. Another was ‘Guianese Poetry’ a collection of a century of Guianese poetry from 1831 to 1931, making him the first Guyanese to do so.
Cameron was not satisfied with just talk; he acted — turning to drama to effect the empowerment of his people, producing a number of plays to induce pride of ancestry, and to elicit concerted action for a better future, because, as  he opined: “…those who are disloyal to their ancestry have less chance of creating something with a truly distinctive mark.”
In 1916, while at Christ Church Primary School, Cameron won the Government Junior Scholarship, paving the way for him to enter Queen’s College.
Cameron had a special affinity to Queen’s College, starting with memories of good fortune attending him as a student. In 1934, he returned as an Assistant Master, and in 1958 was appointed Deputy Principal.
Later, in 1963, when the University of Guyana started in the compound of Queen’s College, he was appointed Associate Professor of Mathematics. In 1964, he was made a full-time staff at the university, and elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He was even housed for a while in the compound. In 1951, he compiled ‘The History of Queen’s College’.
In 1921, he became a Guiana Scholar, and went on to the University of Cambridge. It was while at this institution of higher learning, with massive library and climate for research, that Cameron felt the need to write, going on to produce remarkable scholarships.
Back in Guyana (1926), more Guianese than when he left, an identity entrenched by discriminatory treatment in the ‘Mother Country’, and equipped with a ‘message’, an instrument to research, disseminate and justify, Cameron signalled his intention to stay home and mould a nation.
He started his own school, ‘The Guianese Academy’, which he headed from 1926 to 1934.
In 1929, he gained his M. A. and published ‘The Evolution of the Negro’. The following year, he founded the British Guiana Literary Society which staged workshops in short-story and poetry writing among other activities.
In 1953, he founded the Association of Masters and Mistresses. Although the above evidence made him out to be a social animal, he declared that “…cliquism in clubs has never agreed” with him. That declaration, supported by another statement, “mine has been a full life and complex with notable contradictions,” said that he was a no-nonsense individual.
Cameron travelled extensively abroad, opening the magic of his mind, translated into his literary output. Returning from a visit to the UK, France and the Pyramids of Egypt, he published ‘Additional Mathematics’, ‘Adoniya’, ‘Jamaica Joe’ and ‘Interlude’.
‘Interlude’ is a collection of his own poems — narrative and humorous verses — written to fill a “certain gap, especially with respect to subject-matter.” The poem, ‘Three Cricketing Resorts’ will cheer the heart of anyone who was entertained at the Bourda Cricket Ground, Georgetown.
Returning from visits to Trinidad and Jamaica, he published ‘Thoughts on Life and Literature’ (1950), and ‘History of Queen’s College’ (1951).
Returning from the U.K. and the U.S.A., he produced ‘Three Immortals’ (1953), ‘Guianese Music and Composers’ (1958), ‘150 years of Education in Guiana’ (1968) and ‘Adventures in the Field of Culture’ (1971), which he confessed took “some forty years of organised efforts.”
Many honours and awards lit up his life. In 1962, he was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE). Ten years later, he was awarded the Golden Arrow of Achievement (AA) by the Government of Guyana. In 1976, he gained the Sir Alfred Victor Crane Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to education. And a few days before he died in 1983, he received the country’s highest award: The Cacique Crown of Honour (CCH).

WHAT’S HAPPENING:
•    For 2011, my two television programmes on literature will be packaged for the greater good of all consumers, with assistance from UNESCO. Both programmes, Oral Tradition and Between the Lines, are aired on the National Communications Network Channel 11.
•    A UNESCO-sponsored creative writing workshop is set for August 2011; please contact me for more information.

(To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)