Who were they?

Little-known Indo Guyanese of pre-independent Guyana

Nesbit Chhangur “Guyana’s first singing cowboy”

Nesbit Chhangur was born in the early 1930s at Fyrish, Lower Corentyne, Berbice in British Guiana to a musical family – his father sang and played the sitar while his siblings (three brothers and four sisters) played the piano accordion, harmonium, and fiddle; Nesbit played the dantal and loved to sing.

He attended Fyrish and Albion primary schools, and by the time he was eight he was performing in school, accompanied by one of his brothers on the piano accordion. At ten, he received his first guitar lesson from an elder in the Fyrish village. He later attended Corentyne High School at Rosehall, and by 15, he began entering musical competitions. In the early 1940s, he won a local radio (ZFY) talent contest.

This win led to airtime on local radio alongside other local bands, while famed Guyanese broadcaster Olga Lopes Seale featured him on her weekly New Amsterdam produced radio programmes.

He became a weekly guest artiste on a talent show called “Berbice Calling” and her show, “Olga Lopes sings”. Nesbit is described as “Guyana first singing cowboy”; his love for American country music first began when his father bought “T is for Texas and T is for Tennessee” and “Blue Yodel”, a 78rpm Bluebird record by Jimmy Rogers.

As WWII left American records scarce commodities on the colony, Nesbit tuned into American radio stations to listen to cowboy music especially, and was a special fan of the “Grand Ole Opry” broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee in the U. S. The war also created a shortage of guitar strings, but Nesbit found a solution to the problem: Usually playing at Providence on the East Bank Demerara, which was near Everton where bauxite would be loaded onto boats bound for the U. S, Nesbit met American sailors who had heard his singing on local radio. Happy to hear their country music so far from home, they volunteered to bring back guitar strings along with a country-and-western music book for Nesbit.

Nesbit is credited with being the first person to record songs in the colony of British Guiana. The recording of his own composition in the 1950s, “Sunny Corentyne” was done by ACE Records, a local entity set up by local entrepreneur Vivian Lee. Nesbit would record several more records there, including his versions of “There’s no room in my heart for another”, “Starry Waltz” and “I’m so lonesome I could cry”.

The BBC would later use Nesbit’s version of “There’s no room in my heart for another” in their documentary “Roraima, the lost world”. For Guyanese, it would be his song, “Guianese Lament”, recorded in 1964 after the arrival of British troops on the colony to quell racial disturbances, which would resound. He also donated money raised from the sale of its records to the Red Cross Disaster Fund, and recorded another patriotic composition, “Call to Guiana”. But singing cowboy and patriotic songs was not a lucrative career for Nesbit.

He also became a well-known and respected teacher and administrator. He taught at the Albion, Albion Front and West Coast Bushlot primary schools, and was history teacher and choirmaster at the Berbice Educational Institute in New Amsterdam before becoming its vice principal.

Nesbit Chhangur also became British Guiana’s first local YMCA (Guyana) executive director and general secretary.

It was at the YMCA complex in Thomas Lands, where British troops were garrisoned in the 1960s, that he composed “Guianese Lament.” He would also be called upon to perform at many significant local events such as the Catholic Standard Diamond Jubilee in 1965, and at the 1961 inauguration of Cheddi Jagan as prime minister. In addition, he was invited to sing at one of the Miss Guyana competitions hosted by Lady Sarah Lou Carter.

Today Nesbit Chhangur lives in Canada with his family after emigrating in 1967, but still enjoys teaching music. A qualified Canadian teacher, he continues to play and record his music, content to share his love of music and teaching with others.

He has received numerous honours and awards, including the Wordsworth McAndrew Award at Folk Festival 2002 in Brooklyn, New York, and, in November 2004, he received a special award from the Berbice Educational Institute.

Ram S. Singh Assistant curator, chief taxidermist at B.G Museum

Ram S. Singh was born March 26, 1912 in Alexander Village to indentured parents who had arrived in the colony of British Guiana in 1894. His father died in 1938 and his mother 10 years later.

Singh began his career with the British Guiana Museum of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society as a “washer or museum assistant” in 1924 at just age 12, after completing his basic education at the Ruimveldt Anglican School on what was then considered the East Bank of Demerara.

The then museum curator Walter E. Roth, along with P. S Perberdy, who was to succeed Water Roth as curator, further mentored the young Singh.

In 1939, Singh was awarded a Diploma in Taxidermy of the North-Western School of Taxidermy in Omaha, Nebraska; then in July 1946, Singh was sent to the U. S under a special scholarship, to take a course in modern, scientific and educational techniques of taxidermy and exhibition arrangement at the Chicago Museum of National History.

By courtesy of the director of the museum Colonel Clifford Gregg, Singh also received an eight-month practical course in Taxidermy, Botany, Anthropology and Zoology, and went on to study the preparation of school exhibits. Upon completion, Singh was invited to study at the Colorado Museum in Denver for two months, in which time he visited the premier museums in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Iowa, Milwaukee; the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

During his time in the U. S, Ram Singh received a diploma in zoology, and was highly praised by both staff and students for the quality of his work. He became a member of the American Ornithological Union (MAOU) and the British Ornithological Union (MBOU). He returned to British Guiana June 11, 1947 to continue his work for the BG museum, when he was appointed assistant curator.

Ram Singh was also an expedition pioneer.

Before his studies in the U. S, he accompanied both Walter Roth and Perberdy on interior scientific expeditions; going with Perberdy on the Pinkus-Perberdy Mount Roraima Expedition of 1938-1940. In 1939, Singh accompanied Dr E. Davis of Harvard University on a field expedition up the Mazaruni River.

After the Feb. 23, 1945 Great Fire of Georgetown destroyed the museum and many of its exhibits, Singh would lead at least 11 special expeditions into Guyana’s interior to collect new material for the museum. He first travelled to the Abary region Feb. 4, 1946; two years later, he reached the upper Abary, the Demerara River, through the north- west regions and the Rupununi district, collecting specimens.

He also travelled extensively along the coastlands from Essequibo to Berbice.

The specimens were stuffed in the field before being brought to Georgetown; something, it was said, that had never been done before in the colony. With his extensive knowledge gained from travels in the US, British Guiana and Brazil, Singh was able to collect, preserve and exhibit museum specimens.