Tribute to Rovin — Gokarran David Sukhdeo — Opinion

Tribute to Rovin

September 13, 2026·3 min read

Published in

Guyana Chronicle ·Sep 13, 2026

Dear Sir,

I remember Rovin Deodat from school days at the Wales CM (later Wales Gov’t). He lived three houses away from me at Patentia and was two classes ahead of me at school. (I can’t help recalling that boyhood prank between him and Selall Baijnath when we would all stand to say morning prayers, and your friend would hold a pencil upright for you to sit on.
Boy, there was a lot of blood!) Even in primary school, Rovvy (as all Wales knew him) had a penchant for and an objective to become a radio personality. He would take a milk can and nail it onto a wooden tripod pretending it to be a microphone, and he would be practising speech, voice, grammar and pronunciation, emulating such then radio personalities as Ayube Hamid, Rafiq Khan, Pat Cameron, Olga Lopes-Seale and Carlton James. Rovin admired the linguistic talents of such men as Forbes Burnham, Shakoor Manraj, Lionel Luckhoo and Fred Wills. Those were the days when correct English was demanded if anyone was getting anywhere; even Forbes Burnham would call you and correct you publicly if you did not use the right pronunciation.

I recall hearing Forbes messing up someone on radio who said “Falkland” instead of pronouncing it like “Faukland.” During our times, Wales and the neighbouring villages were producing some of Guyana’s very talented writers – Frank and Nills Campbell, their cousin Anthony Calder, Rickey Singh, John and Kennard Ramphal, Frank Birbalsingh, Brenda DoHarris, Dolly Hassan, Krish Nand Prasad and a dozen others I cannot name offhand right now, and, of course, at the sacrifice of modesty, yours truly.

While still a teenager teaching at Wales, Rovvy got a break reading the 6.00 am news at Radio Demerara. It was tough leaving home in the darkest hour to go catch the 5.30 launch to cross the river, and then after reading the news he had to rush home to go to teach school. We all started UG in 1969 at the brand new sparkling Turkeyen Campus, and of course, he did English (I did Economics); later he went on to Canada and obtained his Masters and PhD in mass communication. Immediately upon returning home, Prime Minister Burnham appointed him his Adviser to the Government on Mass Communication.

Rovvy stayed all his life in radio in Guyana. Rovin Deodat was Radio Demerara.

His eldest brother, Bertram (Buddy) Deodat was also a great English and Literature teacher who taught me for the College of Preceptors exam. I liked him so much that I featured him as one of the main mentors of the protagonist of my novel, THE SILVER LINING, which was awarded the Guyana Literature Prize in 1998^[1] and is now being implemented as a Literature reading in all Guyana’s schools.

Rovin trained his voice to be resonantly clear, and uniquely Guyanese, (like Forbes Burnham, and terribly unlike all those Jamaican-sounding accents we hear today). He carried several radio programmes that encouraged and trained a multitude of journalists and communications personalities in Guyana emphasising proper pronunciation, grammar and even etymology (the scientific and accurate origin of words). He stayed in Guyana and in radio all his life so that Radio (Demerara) became at one time synonymous with Rovin Deodat. He was well loved by all Guyanese.

I would strongly suggest that the UG English and Linguistics Department starts implementing a programme in speech training in his honour. Many places that have issues with dialects difficult to decipher, especially by their over-pronunciation of “r” and not pronouncing the “g” in words ending in “ing”, have done so. RIP Rovin would smile at such venture. May his soul rest in peace.

Yours faithfully,
Gokarran David Sukhdeo

References

The Silver Lining: Awarded Guyana Prize for Literature — www.amazon.com ↩

The Silver Lining: Awarded Guyana Prize for Literature

www.amazon.com

# The Silver Lining: Awarded Guyana Prize for Literature ... Brand: Gokarran David Sukhdeo ... Synopsis of NovelThe Silver Lining is the story of every youth who struggles against the humiliating social stigmas imposed by poverty, and against prevailing political systems that expediently facilitate such poverty, to eventually rise and redeem themselves with high honors. Billy Deen and his sister, Betty are poor, fatherless high school teens, struggling to gain good grades and academic recognition to compensate for their poverty, Billy doubling as a fisherman/ breadwinner of the family, and Betty, home-keeper and caretaker of their ailing mother, Emily. Their father, Rohan, disappeared mysteriously soon after the world war had ended. Despite their circumstances, a bright and solid future is assured on account of their diligence, upright upbringing, and academic brilliance.That is, until the princess Diane appears. Diane, who, “must have done some wonderful favor to the gods, and in return, was bestowed with the loveliness of an angel amongst mortals,” takes a transfer to their school, is placed in Billy’s class, and even occupies Billy’s own seat. Diane’s father, a good friend of Billy’s father during the war, had also suddenly and mysteriously become one of the richest men in the country.Love germinates. And even though Billy, tumultuously ambivalent, considers her the enemy, their love blossoms passionately. But only briefly. Jealousy and treachery quickly incubate, finding fertile grounds in the Deen’s poverty and Billy’s precocious and anti-establishment disposition which had always troubled the plantation administration. Eventually, a humble family, already once broken, again faces destruction. A conspiracy of community leaders with plantation politics scapegoats Billy, expels him from school, and banishes him from Wales. As he departs in exile, his mother cries, running behind the bus, but his sister stands stoic and tearless.Thus, the fortunes of a young man who later found his father’s body in the pursuits of his profession, plays out against the historical background of cruel colonial control by sugar of every aspect of life on the plantation.Awarded the Guyana Prize for Literature, and for its striking literary devices, high morals, and lessons of life, the book was recommended as reading material for all secondary students.

Published in

Guyana Chronicle ·Sep 13, 2026