Guyana is a parliamentary republic in which the President of Guyana is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President,advised by a cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the President and the National Assembly of Guyana. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Guyanese literature covers works including novels,poetry,plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana,British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana,which are done in English language and utilizing Guyanese Creole. Emigration has contributed to a large body of work relating the Guyanese diaspora experience.
The University of Guyana,in Georgetown,Guyana,is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission:"To discover,generate,disseminate,and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community,the nation,and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical enquiry."
Martin Wylde Carter was a Guyanese poet and political activist. Widely regarded as the greatest Guyanese poet,and one of the most important poets of the Caribbean region,Carter is best known for his poems of protest,resistance and revolution. He played an active role in Guyanese politics,particularly in the years leading up Independence in 1966 and those immediately following. He was famously imprisoned by the British government in Guyana in October 1953 under allegations of "spreading dissension",and again in June 1954 for taking part in a People's Progressive Party (PPP) procession. Shortly after being released from prison the first time,he published his best-known poetry collection,Poems of Resistance from British Guiana (1954).
Ian McDonald is a Caribbean-born poet and writer who describes himself as "Antiguan by ancestry,Trinidadian by birth,Guyanese by adoption,and West Indian by conviction." His ancestry on his father's side is Antiguan and Kittitian,and Trinidadian on his mother’s side. His only novel,The Humming-Bird Tree,first published in 1969,is considered a classic of Caribbean literature.
David Dabydeen FRSL is a Guyanese-born broadcaster,novelist,poet and academic. He was formerly Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO from 1997 to 2010,and was the youngest Member of the UNESCO Executive Board (1993–1997),elected by the General Council of all Member States of UNESCO. He was appointed Guyana's Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinaire to China,from 2010 to 2015. He is one of the longest serving diplomats in the history of Guyana,most of his work done in a voluntary unpaid capacity.
Lakshmi Persaud was a Trinidad-born,British-based writer who resided in London,England. She was the author of five novels:Butterfly in the Wind (1990),Sastra (1993),For the Love of My Name (2000),Raise the Lanterns High (2004) and Daughters of Empire (2012).
Stewart Brown is an English poet,university lecturer and scholar of African and Caribbean Literature.
Jan Rynveld Carew was a Guyana-born novelist,playwright,poet and educator,who lived at various times in The Netherlands,Mexico,the UK,France,Spain,Ghana,Jamaica,Canada and the United States.
Harischandra Khemraj is a writer from Guyana. He was born and grew up on a sugar estate in West Bank Demerara,where his parents were both sugar workers in the 1940s. He attended school in Guyana and Howard University in the United States. Upon his return to Guyana in the mid 70's,he worked as a payroll clerk,civil servant,bank statistician,a short order cook,a librarian,a telephone operator and a teacher in West Coast Demerara.
Michael Arthur Gilkes was a Caribbean literary critic,dramatist,poet,filmmaker and university lecturer. He was involved in theatre for more than 40 years,as a director,actor and playwright,winning the Guyana Prize for Drama in 1992 and 2006,as well as the Guyana Prize for Best Book of Poetry in 2002. He was also respected for his insight into and writings on the work of Wilson Harris.
Stanley Greaves is a Guyanese painter and writer who is one of the Caribbean's most distinguished artists. Writing in 1995 at the time of a retrospective exhibition to celebrate Greaves's 60th birthday,Rupert Roopnarine stated:"It may be that no major Caribbean artist of our time has been more fecund and versatile than Stanley Greaves of Guyana." Greaves himself has said of his own creativity:
I still don't talk about myself as making art! Other people do that. I am a maker of things. In the early days,I found empty matchboxes,cigarette boxes,bits of string,wire,empty boot-polish tins,whatever,and made things. Drawing was just another activity,and it still is. My favorite medium is still wood,of course. My hitherto secret preoccupation with writing poems,which has now come to light,is another form of making. Recently at the University of Birmingham,where I did a reading,I was asked if the paintings influenced the poetry,and I said,"No,they come from the same source."
Abdhur Rahman Slade Hopkinson was a Guyana-born poet,playwright,actor and teacher.
Marc Matthews is a Guyanese writer,actor,broadcaster and producer.
Donald Cuthbert Locke was a Guyanese artist who created drawings,paintings and sculptures in a variety of media. He studied in the United Kingdom,and worked in Guyana and the United Kingdom before moving to the United States in 1979. He spent his last twenty years,perhaps the most productive and innovative period of his life,in Atlanta,Georgia. His eldest son is British sculptor Hew Locke.
Edward Rupert Burrowes was a Guyanese artist and art teacher who founded the Working People's Art Class (WPAC),the first established art institution in Guyana. The E R Burrowes School of Art,an undergraduate institution accredited by the University of Guyana,is named after him.
Ranji Chandisingh was a political leader in Guyana. He was born on 5 January 1930 at San Fernando,Trinidad and Tobago,and died on 15 June 2009 at his home at Waterloo Street,Guyana. He was the son of Dr. Charles Washington Chandisingh and Amelia Chandisingh. Chandisingh is survived by his wife Veronica and son Yuri. He was among only a few that mastered the pragmatics of communist ideology in Guyana.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is a ministry of the government of Guyana,and is responsible for the education in Guyana. The current minister as of 2020 is Priya Manickchand.
Jane Bryce is a British writer,journalist,literary and cultural critic,as well as an academic. She was born and raised in Tanzania,has lived in Italy,the UK and Nigeria,and since 1992 has been based in Barbados. Her writing for a wide range of publications has focused on contemporary African and Caribbean fiction,postcolonial cinema and creative writing,and she is Professor Emerita of African Literature and Cinema at the University of the West Indies,Cave Hill.
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