By News Americas Now Staff Writer
News Americas Now, NY, NY, Mon. Oct. 19, 2026: A celebration of the life of Guyanese Pan-Africanist and co-founder of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Baba Eusi Kwayana will continue tonight, October 19th with a Nine Night celebration, a Guyanese mourning tradition marking nine days since a death while a legacy website, EusiKwayanaLegacy.com, is set to launch tomorrow, October 20.
The family and admirers of Baba Kwayana, who died October 10 at his Atlanta home at age 101, released a multi-city, multi-week program of commemoration stretching from Georgia to Guyana over the coming weeks Sunday.
Born Sydney Evanson King in Lusignan in 1925, Kwayana helped found the People’s Progressive Party with Dr. Cheddi Jagan in the late 1940s, served as Minister of Communication and Works in the short-lived 1953 PPP government, and later co-founded the WPA in 1974 alongside historian and activist Dr. Walter Rodney. He was elected to Guyana’s National Assembly in 1985 and remained active in the WPA until his death — 52 years of service, by the party’s own count. He was also an educator, playwright and author whose works include Guyana: No Guilty Race and Walter Rodney: His Last Days and Campaigns.
Publisher of News Americas Now, Felicia J. Persaud, said she first came to know Brother Eusi Kwayana in 1995, when she worked as a parliamentary assistant to the WPA Member of Parliament at Rodney House in Georgetown, Guyana.
“What I remember most was his extraordinary gentleness,” she said. “Brother Eusi was always gracious. I cannot remember him ever raising his voice. He was unfailingly polite and always addressed me as ‘Sister Felicia.’ And whenever I saw him, he seemed to be doing what he had spent so much of his life doing – reading, researching, thinking, typing, and writing. A quiet discipline about him stayed with me.”
She also revealed that one thing she found especially peculiar at the time was his diet. “By 1995, Brother Eusi had stopped eating cooked food altogether and ate only raw foods – long before raw food diets, clean eating, and all the wellness language we hear today had become fashionable. I remember thinking even then how remarkable his discipline was.”
“Perhaps there was something to it after all. Living to 102 is an extraordinary innings,” added Persaud. “But longevity alone does not define a life. Brother Eusi lived with purpose. He thought deeply. He wrote. He researched. He questioned. He served. And through more than a century of Guyanese history, he remained engaged with the ideas, struggles, and possibilities of the country he loved. For me, however, I will also remember the gentleman behind the public figure – the soft-spoken man at Rodney House who never failed to greet me as ‘Sister Felicia.’”
Atlanta, Georgia – Oct. 30-Nov. 1
A public viewing and wake will be held Friday, October 30, from 3 to 8 p.m. at Murray Brothers Funeral Home, 1199 Utoy Springs Rd SW. A life celebration service follows Saturday, October 31, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hillside International Truth Center. A memorial sweat lodge and grounding ceremony is planned for Sunday, November 1, in South Fulton, with RSVP details to be announced.
Guyana, South America – Nov. 13-15
Kwayana’s body will lie in state in Guyana on November 13, alongside a completion-of-walk wake that evening at 6 p.m. A homegoing service and interment are set for November 14 at 1 p.m., followed by a Congosaw – a traditional African-Guyanese wake and life celebration – on November 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Culture, Continuity and Legacy
A 41-Day Celebration follows on November 20, and organizers plan to launch a foundation in Baba Kwayana’s name on April 4, 2027, on what would have been his 102nd birthday. News Americas Now will continue to follow the commemorations for Baba Kwayana, whose seven-decade political and cultural legacy spanned Guyana’s independence movement, its post-independence politics, and its diaspora.
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