Remembering Wordsworth McAndrew: Friends pay tribute

From Claire A. Goring:

WORDSWORTH McANDREW...
a national treasure, a man who for the past five decades dedicated his life to creating, collecting, preserving, and celebrating Guyanese folk life, died today,  Friday April 25, 2008 at seventy two at the East Orange General Hospital, East Orange, New Jersey after a short illness.

THE ELDER STATESMAN OF GUYANESE FOLK CULTURE, THE PILOT INTO OUR FOLK, IS NO LONGER WITH US.

Wordsworth McAndrew was born in 1936 to Winslow Alexander McAndrew and Ivy McAndrew and grew up in Cummingsburg and Newtown, Kitty. He attended Christ Church Primary School and Queen's College.

A Broadcaster, Folklorist and poet, Wordsworth has been one of the most influential folklorists in Guyanese history and has been an unyielding advocate for the collection, preservation and celebration of Guyanese folk life.

"There are some Guyanese when you think about them, you have to think in special terms. Wordsworth McAndrew is one of them!
A Mighty, mighty movement
An unforgettable, indelible movement
An essential Guyanese movement.

From Vibert Cambridge (2002 Guyana Folk Magazine):
Mac started me off on a journey that has been fascinating and refreshing! In this journey, I have met with our majestic myth figures - Old Higue and Moongazer, Dutch Jumbie and Coolie Jumbie, Massacuraman and Kainaima, Firebun and Bacco. Mac opened up Guyana's mythscape and helped us to understand that our myths carry many levels of meaning. They tell about our fears and gives us a snap shot into life in past times. Mac helped us to see our common humanity in the "rago" and the "ustaf." He gave us a vocabulary that has helped to make clear the difference between "typee" and "totelotipo."
The thing about Mac is that he has done it with deliberate simplicity!
The Mac movement continues - a uniting impulse for the future.
Thanks "Scouta Mac!"

From Ken Corsbie (2002 Guyana Folk Magazine):
"One of the enduring stories about Mac is that he towed his bride-to-be to church for the wedding ritual. True or false, it doesn't matter, it's a great Mac story and now entrenched in Guyana folklore.
There should be a street or a tree or even a rumshop named for him. His very name WORDS WORTH describes him well. His words were well worth the listening.

From Ian McDonald (eCaroh Caribbean Emporium):
"One thing is sure: a few of his poems will always find a place in any Guyanese or West Indian anthology of poems."

From Eusi Kwayana (eCaroh Caribbean Emporium):
In Gang Gang, Eusi Kwayana identified McAndrew as one of the Guyanese who helped to give Guyanese creolese respectability on the air.

From Muriel Glasgow (eCaroh Caribbean Emporium):
Over the years, McAndrew has meant many things to many people.
"He was a fiercely independent, proud, absolutely brilliant man," said Muriel Glasgow. He is also remembered as a fierce  defender of Guyanese cuisine.

From Ronald Lammy: (eCaroh Caribbean Emporium):
A singular distinction of Mr. McAndrew is his daring identification and celebration of Guyanese cultural attributes. 

When Guyanese meet in the diaspora we generate many ideas about how we should celebrate our heroes. There is no shortage of ideas about what to do for McAndrew.
"I would love to have him immortalized."
- "What of the Wordsworth McAndrew Pavilion at cricket/football?
- Wordsworth McAndrew Library in the University of Guyana?
- Wordsworth McAndrew way (near Bourda or Big Market)?
- Wordsworth McAndrew Cultural Centre? Or Wordsworth McAndrew Auditorium in the Cultural Centre?
- We could also establish a website which would be an online tribute to the works of great men like Wordsworth, those before him, and those yet to be born."

From Derrick Jeffrey:
Mc is and will always be in the hearts and minds of those who know him and enjoyed his works. In so stating, he is the recipient of the "Living Heart Award," from all his well wishers. Such award can't be given by any government regulated body but must be transmitted through the positive thought processes of the peoples' wishes.

From Roy Brummell:

I became Scouta Mc's friend since 1974-1975 when he was the editor and presenter of the Guyana Marketing Corporation Short Story Series for radio. He loved my stories and urged me to give him at least one per month. We spoke constantly in person or by telephone before he recorded any of my stories for broadcast, since he was meticulous about reading my Dartmouth (where I grew up) creole correctly. Mc read one of my stories, "De Great Jackass Race" so brilliantly that the story had several rebroadcasts, and I was invited to the radio station for a live interview. The interviewer was a female whom I don't remember, but the reason for the interview was that Scouta had read my story with such gusto that the public wanted to know more about me. Needless to say,  the more Scouta read my stories, the more people thought that they were his.

Some people have also thought that Scouta schooled me in folklore. That's very flattering, but we just happened to be two men who loved the oral tradition. Before Scouta migrated from Guyana to the US in 1979 or early 1980, we spoke a lot at his home in Kitty, mine in Festival City or a beer shop about peculiar Dartmouth creole words that he was unfamiliar with. In turn, I learnt lots of proverbs from him. In fact, before he left for the US, he gave me over a thousand. I later used several of those proverbs on my radio show "Ganga Time". Unfortunately, Scouta never heard any of my broadcasts but, when we reconnected in the US, he had me give him the details of what "Ganga Time" was  about. Scouta was a stickler for details. When his sight began leaving him, he dictated  a few things by telephone for me to write. After the dictations, I had to read what I had written. He listened to every word and also to note whether I had omitted dashes, commas, colons, semicolons or fullstops.

Aside from folklore, Scouta and I talked sports. He loved talking about all sports, but his favourites were cricket, swimming and boxing in that order. He could talk for hours about the West Indies batsman Chanderpaul whose reliability he loved. (I do as well.) If I told Scouta the West Indies played a game against any team, one of his first questions was: "How we baai do?" If Chanderpaul hadn't performed very well, Scouta would be unhappy.

Scouta did not quite like the US culture, and was often critical of American Standard English. In addition to him not fitting in here, he was often suspicious of even Guyanese people who tried to help him. His last years brought him near blindness, broken hands and much emotional stress. BUT SCOUTA REMAINED MENTALLY ALERT AND INDEPENDENT TO THE VERY END! MAY THE SCOUTA REST IN PEACE!

Roy
04-24-08

From George Rickford:

For my part I knew him in his little-known role as a Scout leader when I first joined the Scouts at the grand old age of 14.  Didn't see a lot of him but he did surface at one or two camps when he came into his own as a storyteller around the campfire!  Also knew his Dad who was just as much of a legend in the Scout movement - great at telling stories and jokes (particularly risque ones!)  You could tell from whom Mac Jnr. inherited his talent.

FUNERAL & MEMORIAL ARRANGEMENTS
TO BE ANNOUNCED
All of us at the Guyana Cultural Association are saddened by Wordsworth's passing. Over the years he has been the inspiration for our discussions on the mission of the Guyana Folk Festival. We pledge to uphold his virtues and continue his work to propagate and promote Guyanese folk heritage through the Guyana Folk Festivals.

[Read "Old Higue" here]

Comments

[The Parris Family (first cousins)]

Wordsworth McAndrew - A Life of Folk -

Wordsworth McAndrew's diminutive stature belied the depth of his literary and poetic fancy. In this tribute, folklore is humanized and treated as his protege. His penchant for promoting and defending things cultural of his native land was beyond equal. His search for appropriate words to describe things around him was thorough and complete. As the great thinker and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge stated in his quote for the definition of poetry, namely, ".... the best words in the best order" aptly summarizes the incumbent's stories of ordinary people and unusual happenings in the society.
From an early working life in Guyana, this local champion of creole displayed an independence of mind and actions which left many of his detractors dumbfounded. Examples of these were (1) his insistence on wearing rubber slippers and dashikis when reporting at work and (2) because of his convictions of certain beliefs and practices, he disagreed with the terms 'Comrade' and 'the small man will be a real man' which were introduced by L.F.S. Burnham,President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, for common usage by citizens. As far as he was concerned, they were just palliatives to pull wool over the eyes of the people about the deteriorating political and economic state of affairs in the country at the time.
In the era when radio was the dominant form of electronic media, 'Scouta Mac', the sobriquet, he came to be known by, being a former scout, dominated the airways with his programmes of folk, culture, embracing all the major race groups in Guyana. As the pattern of life in the political and economic spheres took on a gloomy outlook, this cultural icon was forced to migrate to the USA many years ago.
Wordsworth lived amongst us, he moved amongst us, he developed a spirit of pride in our creole culture. Goodbye, brother of the tribe. Terra es terram ibis - dust thou art, unto dust shalt thou return.

Parris Family (Guyana) 5/1/08

[Roy Brummell]

I'm collecting stories from people who have known Scouta, with the aim of publishing the stories. Your stories may be based on one or two specific adventures with the Scouta or be summations of all the years that you've known him. By publishing the stories, I'll be playing my little part to help prevent "Maan dead graass grow a' he do'."
Sincerely,
Roy

[Jagdish R.Singh]

It pleases me to read the comments, and to see the names of so many distinguished authors from Guyana. I must say that the collective efforts of those who maintain the Signifyin'Guyana website are greatly appreciated.

Guyanese author: Jagdish R. Singh (Roy)