The Story of Umana Yana

A preliminary chronicle of Georgetown’s Umana Yanas

By Lennox J Hernandez

The Umana Yana, once an iconic and popular structure in Kingston, Georgetown, its Wai Wai name translated into English as “meeting place of the people”, was gutted by fire on Sept. 9, 2014.

This article is a preliminary chronicle of the factual history of the Umana Yana, and at this stage there is still much to learn of Guyana’s most famous indigenous attraction.

According to William McDowell, who has published possibly the most detailed story of the original Umana Yana, (Guyana Review, April 1995) “it reminded the world that it is natural for people to build with materials at hand, and that Amerindian culture is still vibrant.”

Indigenous buildings are known for their coolness in our tropical heat because of the natural materials used, especially the thatch roof. Here I deliberately say “thatch,” the generic term for a roof of dry vegetation such as leaves, reeds, etc., which are plaited, as there are different forms of thatching depending on the materials available and the tradition of the community.

In Guyana the major vegetation used by the indigenous peoples for thatched roofing includes the troolie palm, the cokerite palm and the dhalebanna leaf.

The original Umana Yana was destroyed in 1993 as a result of little attention being paid to the building (this writer remembers seeing images of the deteriorating structure in the newspapers of the day).

Though the thatched-roof building was always seen as a fire risk, fire did not destroy the first Umana Yana: it was perhaps a combination of the North-East trade winds and the building’s weakened, neglected structure.

This original Umana Yana was constructed to house the meetings of the first conference of Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement of Third World Nations scheduled for August 1972.

As is well known, the Guyana government, not having a suitable building for the occasion, came up with the idea of building a large version of an indigenous building (a benab), probably because of the short span of time available.

Sixty members of the Wai Wai community, under Chief Elka, were brought to Georgetown for the purpose of building a benab similar to, but larger than that then existing in their village of Konashen, in the deep south of Guyana.

The enormous task was completed in time for the opening of the conference on August 8, 1972. This first Umana Yana became quite popular and remained part of the cityscape until its collapse in 1993.

Details of the second Umana Yana are sketchy to the writer at the moment, but can be developed with research. From McDowell’s article for instance, we see a photograph of a benab strikingly similar to that which was destroyed by fire last year, though there was no caption to indicate this (or otherwise).

McDowell concluded his article with a tribute to the first building and its builders, ending with the words “its replacement, a smaller structure, should bear that torch proudly.” This last statement perhaps implies that by April 1995 (the date of the publication) a new Umana Yana (the second one) was already built and that it was smaller than the original.

We can also infer that very likely the image seen in that article is that of the then newly built benab and the one that existed until September 2014.

This second Umana Yana, from newspaper reports over the years, seems to have gone through a number of repairs, the latest being in August 2010, when it was rehabilitated by the Captain of Gunns Strip (a Wai Wai village) Paul Chekema and his team.

At this stage then, what can be surmised and questioned about our famous Umana Yana?

Firstly, we have had two Umana Yanas: the first from 1972 to 1993 (about 21 years) and the second from about 1994/1995 to 2014 (about 20/21 years).

Secondly, that the first Umana Yana was larger than the second.

Thirdly, in my opinion, from a study of the photographs available, the first was more in-keeping with the Wai Wai building tradition than the second.

Fourthly, the Wai Wai did build the first Umana Yana, but who built the second? Paul Chekema and his team only rehabilitated the building in 2010.

Fifthly, as stated by McDowell, troolie was used as roofing finish in 1972, but there seems to be some difficulty in identifying the specific roofing material of the structure that was burnt in 2014; some reports mention troolie, at least one other mention “allibanna” (more correctly, dhalibanna or dhalebanna).

Available photographs of the interior seem to indicate a dhalibanna thatched roof.

Let us strive to have a proper chronicle of this once famous landmark, and importantly, more accurately document its future replacement. (Photo courtesy of National Trust)