Eusi Kwayana, Sage of Buxton, dies at 101

(Kaieteur News) – Eusi Kwayana, the veteran Guyanese political activist, educator, historian and founding member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), died on Saturday at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, aged 101.

He has left behind a political and intellectual legacy that spans the struggle against colonial rule, the fight for social change and decades of political activism in independent Guyana, his party said. “Our elder, teacher, mentor, leader and inspiration has left us to go back to his ancestors. The Sage of Buxton has left this side of the river to return to the source of his spirit. His earthly duty is over. To the very end he kept the faith, cradled the civilization, protected the vulnerable, and empowered the powerless. His loss leaves an empty chair in the gallery of our Guyanese humanity. “It is with deep sadness that the WPA joins with the Kwayana family in announcing the death of Brother Eusi Kwayana. Although we know death is inevitable and that Bro Eusi would eventually leave us, we thought this day would never come. But it is finally here. We give thanks for his life, his wisdom, his guidance and above all, his example. Guyana has lost the last of its original independence visionaries—one of Guyana’s priceless gifts to itself,” the party said in a statement.

According to the WPA, for 101 years and six months this rare and special spirit walked among us with a deliberate purpose that touched the core of Guyana. The Guyana of the last eight decades is incomplete without the fingerprints and footprints of Eusi Kwayana. Along with others and sometimes alone, he lived the Guyanese decolonization and independence narrative of freedom. WPA declares with certainty that our Eusi was a Founder-Pioneer of our post-colonial order. In him, shone the light of the full flowering of the Guyanese, Caribbean and African fusion.