Eusi Kwayana

He was born in Lusignan, British Guiana (now Guyana), and his family moved to Buxton when he was aged seven. He became a primary school teacher at the age of 15. In 1956, he founded and became principal of County High School, later renamed Republic Cooperative High School, in Buxton.David Hinds, [http://www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com/commentary/hinds_091208.html "Eusi Kwayana: A Biographical Sketch"], guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com.

During the 1940s he began to be politically active at the village level. Around 1947 (at that time known as Sydney King), he became a member of a small group of politicians, led by Cheddi Jagan, who formed the People's Progressive Party (PPP). After the PPP won in Guyana's first election under universal adult suffrage, Kwayana became Minister of Communication and Works.Michael Parris, [http://guyaneseonline.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/eusi-kwayana-toronto-visit-sept-27-oct-6/ "Eusi Kwayana – Brief Bio"], Guyanese Online. After the British government suspended the constitution and threw the PPP out of office, in October 1953, Kwayana and others were made political detainees for fear that they would cause civil unrest. He was an executive member of both the PPP and subsequently the People's National Congress (PNC).{{fact|date=September 2024}}

Kwayana met his wife Tchaiko Kwayana (formerly Ann Cook), a pan-Africanist, and civil rights activist from Georgia, in 1968, as she was travelling from Brazil back to the US. They married in 1971 in Georgetown with Yoruba rites and she was involved in Kwayana's organizational building.{{Cite web|date=15 May 2017|title=Elder, sister, mother, aunty, teacher, cultural ambassador: Three tributes for Tchaiko Kwayana, 24 June 1937 – 6 May 2017|url=https://www.stabroeknews.com/2017/05/15/features/elder-sister-mother-aunty-teacher-cultural-ambassador-three-tributes-tchaiko-kwayana-24-june-1937-6-may-2017/|access-date=16 February 2021|website=Stabroek News|first=Nigel|last=Westmaas|language=en-US}}

Kwayana co-founded the African Society for Racial Equality (ASRE), and later, the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA), which in 1974 became part of the Working People's Alliance (WPA). He was a member of the WPA's collective leadership and worked closely with the late Walter Rodney.

He is the author of several books, including Next Witness, The Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics, Scars of Bondage, Guyana: No Guilty Race, Buxton in Print and Memory, Morning After, Genesis of a Nation: The Indo-Guyanese Contribution to Social Change (in Guyana) and Walter Rodney: His Last Days and Campaigns. Kwayana also wrote the lyrics of the party songs of Guyana's three leading policial parties, the PPP, PNC and WPA.Editorial, [http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/07/29/passing-the-baton/ "Passing the baton"], Kaieteur News Online, 29 July 2012.

A production of his play The Promised Land, performed by a young cast from Buxton, won the "Best Play" Prize in the Youth Category at the British Guiana Drama Festival of 1965.{{cite web|url=https://guyanachronicle.com/2019/01/27/the-power-of-youth-and-the-changing-theatre-of-life/|title=The power of youth and the changing theatre of life|author=Francis Quamina Farrier|work=Guyana Chronicle|date=27 January 2019}}

In 2002, he retired from parliament and moved to California in the United States.{{cite web|url=https://guyaneseonline.net/2012/09/09/eusi-kwayana-toronto-visit-sept-27-oct-6/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211064639/http://guyaneseonline.net/2012/09/09/eusi-kwayana-toronto-visit-sept-27-oct-6/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=11 February 2021 |title=EUSI KWAYANA – Toronto visit – Sept 27 – Oct 6 |website=Guyanese Online|access-date=17 December 2021}} As of March 2021, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia.{{cite news |title=Eusi Kwayana: controversial and outspoken |url=https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2021/03/31/eusi-kwayana-controversial-and-outspoken/ |access-date=1 February 2022 |publisher=Kaieteur News |date=31 March 2021}}

• 2009: Walter Rodney: His Last Days and Campaigns. R. Ferdinand-Lalljie Publishers.
• 2014: The Bauxite Strike and Old Politics. Atlanta: On Our Own Authority! Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-990-6418-0-3}}
• 2016: A New Look At Jonestown: Dimensions from a Guyanese Perspective, Carib House. {{ISBN|978-0-936-3780-2-2}}

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==Further reading==

• Moses Bhagwan & Nigel Westmaas, [https://www.stabroeknews.com/2025/04/07/features/in-the-diaspora/eusi-kwayana-at-100-a-tribute/ "Eusi Kwayana At 100: A Tribute"], Stabroek News, 7 April 2025.

• [http://www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com/wpa/history.html Brief history of the Working People's Alliance]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050803073900/http://www.guyfolkfest.org/celebrating5.htm Eusi Kwayana's music]
• [http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news303/ns3072710.htm "Eusi Kwayana - the librettist of Guyana's political opera or the political musician"], Stabroek News, 27 July 2003.
• [http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/opinion/letters/03/22/ashton-chase-and-eusi-kwayana-contributed-greatly-to-the-freedom-struggle-in-this-country/ "Ashton Chase and Eusi Kwayana contributed greatly to the freedom struggle in this country"], Stabroek News, 22 March 2011.
• [http://guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com/?p=4625 Guyana will reconcile or recede] (2016 interview)

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Category:1925 births

Category:Guyanese men centenarians

Category:Guyanese people of African descent

Category:Guyanese dramatists and playwrights

Category:Guyanese non-fiction writers

Category:Guyanese pan-Africanists

Category:Living people

Category:People from Demerara-Mahaica

Category:People's Progressive Party (Guyana) politicians

Category:Working People's Alliance politicians