He traced mankind's journey across time and continents
THERE are some individuals whose talents and intellectual gifts are so many that they seem to live several lifetimes in their allotted span of years on earth. Such a person was the late Dr Denis Williams, one of the most brilliant sons of Guyana and a man whose literary, artistic and archaeological pursuits ensured his renown on three continents over a 40-year career. His work and the impact of his literary and archaeological scholarship will also secure his immortality in the country of his birth as well as in the countries of Africa and Europe where he lectured, painted, and lived. It is impossible for any writer to pay adequate homage to the prodigious talents and accomplishments of Denis Williams in a single article, and perhaps, even now, his relatives, close friends and colleagues must be engaging their minds in the preparation of a biography which will seek to document for posterity, the essential soul of the man. The artist, whose early painting, "Human World" established him as no ordinary talent, Denis Williams was also an accomplished writer. His book of fiction "Other Leopards" stands out as one of the classics by West Indian writers, while his scholarly writings established his place in the firmament of archaeological and anthropological sciences. Dr Williams' work in excavating skeletons and examining the remains of burial mounds in Barabina, North West, Guyana, and in other locations was authenticated by the Smithsonian. The findings of those "digs" proved that not only were Guyana's original inhabitants pre-Columbian, but that they pre-dated the birth of Jesus Christ by 5,000 years and placed this country in the category with Peru, where native mummies were dazzling scientists with evidence of a civilisation more advanced than one of hunter-gatherers. When Denis Williams spoke of those peoples of antiquity, he would roll back layers of time and show his listener with the mind's eye how the Guyana landscape became dotted with hamlets of human activity, the rituals of birth and death, and the technologies the people devised to make their primitive existence less burdensome. So informed was Denis Williams about the life of the ancient peoples, that in 1988 when the Smithsonian launched its five-year anniversary programme in observance of Christopher Columbus, Dr Williams was one of several scholars invited from around the world to Washington DC to present a keynote lecture. And, understandably, his address dealt with the Americas before Columbus, and the advances being made at the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in reconstructing the ancient history of coastal Guyana. Denis Williams also possessed an abiding interest in preserving the material aspects of his nation's culture, and this interest found expression in enhancing the exhibits at the National Museum and the Walter Roth Museum as well as in the establishment of a Museum of African Art. The latter was inaugurated by former First Lady Mrs Janet Jagan at the Nicholson Building, Barima Avenue, Bel Air Park, to highlight the August 1994 celebration of African Emancipation. With the intuition that bespoke his vision of humankind's journey across millennia and over continents, Dr Denis Williams expressed the hope, that in time, the Museum of African Art would develop into a museum of mankind, where students, scholars and ordinary members of the public would visit for information, enlightenment and pleasure. 
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