Remarkable Woman – Rajkumari Singh MBE

(Member of the Order of the British Empire)

Like a Constant Tropical Breeze through the Demerara Louver Windows of Guyana!

This is a tribute to a confident woman – a force to be reckoned with. I knew her in my young life where my impressions were being formed. I didn’t realize her collective power because she was family. I later understood the length and breadth of her work.

Her vision, stalwart personality, creative nature, and literary skills were par excellence. She was a leader in every sense of the word. She was married and had eight children. Her journey was chuck full of surprises and adventures and she was admired by her country and even the queen of England.

Rajkumari Singh surmounted many challenges during her life. At the age of six, she contracted polio, but this did not confine her. She rose above this challenge and made significant contributions to Guyana's political and cultural environment.

She grew up in an activist home in Georgetown. Her mother, Alice Bhagwandai Singh (nee Persad), was born in Suriname (formally known as Dutch Guiana). Rajkumari's father was Dr Jung Bahadur Singh who was born at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, Guyana.

Her parents met on a ship that had transported indentured immigrants from India to the Caribbean.

They were both dispensers and got married on February 23, 1912. She followed her mother’s footsteps in theater, performing arts, Red Cross, YWCA, and more. They were active in their community and covered many milestones. Her father was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire.) for his work.

This environment influenced Rajkumari, who established a reputation as an innovative and multi- talented broadcaster, producer, director, playwright, poet, songwriter and cultural activist.

She was an announcer and presenter of Indian cultural programs on Radio Demerara. She was a member of the British Guiana Dramatic Society and is remembered for her play Gitangali. In 1960, she published six short stories in A Garland of Stories.

Rajkumari also participated in the political environment. In the 1960s, she was engaged by the People's Progressive Party and was appointed to serve on the Commission of Inquiry into the racial violence at Wismar, McKenzie, Guyana

In the 1970s, Rajkumari returned to the cultural sphere. She went back to broadcasting and literary activities and has been described as "one of the first Indo-Guyanese women writers to speak to both the ethnic and gender issues facing Indo-Caribbean women." (Peepal Tree release)

Visiting her landmark home known to everyone. During the early 1970s, you could find a cultural oasis peppered with all the activists of that time from all racial, religious and ethnic communities, energized with deep discussion and visualizing a new Guyana now that the "Days of the Sahib were over."

Rajkumari was very passionate about the place of the arts in the creation of post-independence Guyana society. She clearly understood that one of the challenges facing the new nation was the mutual ignorance of our collective histories. She held the view that the arts provided a vehicle to find the similarities and the opportunities to explore new possibilities. So, it was not surprising when she joined the Guyana National Service at its start in 1972. She had a vision, and it was a chance she took with racial tension in the country.

Under Rajkumari's leadership, the GNS (Guyana National Service) Culture Corps helped Guyanese of African ancestry to demystify the aesthetics of Guyanese of Indian ancestry. No longer were the dhantal, dolak, sitar and harmonium the instruments of the 'other.' Music spoke about aspiration and demonstrated fusion.

Amongst countless awards she received for her contribution to Guyanese cultural life, she was one of the first Guyanese to receive the Wordsworth MacAndrew Award when it was introduced in 2002. She received Guyana's Arrow of Achievement in 1970.

Rajkumari Singh was a major pioneering Indo- Guyanese poet, writer, political activist, educator, and distinguished cultural leader who presided over a movement by artists in Guyana to reclaim the slur "coolie." Even with the disability of polio she took command of the stage, podium or radio communication. She rose above this challenge and made significant contributions to Guyana's political and cultural life. She was respected and praised by her contemporaries for the quality of controversy, criticism and debate present in her works, for which she received many literary prizes and awards; she is revered by numerous younger poets, writers, scholars, artists and performers, to whom she was a patron and mentor.

She was the first published Indian woman from the Caribbean and although she never used the term "feminist," her life's work contributed to feminist literature of the Caribbean, in addition to her advancement of a national Guyanese culture of integration while still upholding Indian culture within this new construct.

Her work continues to be recognized for its beauty and depth. Her poetic legacy inspires younger generations of Indo-Caribbean writers, with festivals, workshops, and even a multi-arts center in Richmond Hill, New York City bearing her name.

She died while receiving treatment in New York City in 1979, at the age of 56. She did it all whilst raising her eight children, who carried on her artist legacy through dance, song, theater, and literature. Her children have expanded on her work, and today her legacy thrives through the Rajkumari Cultural Center in Richmond Hill, New York.

SHER SINGH

NFBPWC JDEI CHAIR