Denis Williams (1 February 1923 – 28 June 1998)Petamber Persaud
"The Life and Work of Denis Williams (1923–1998), The Shaping of Guyanese Literature"
''Guyana Times International'', 23 November 2012. was a Guyanese painter, author and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Biography

Dr. Denis Joseph Ivan Williams, C.C.H., Hon. D. Lit., M.A., called by his friends "Sonny" Williams, was born on 1 February 1923 in Georgetown, Guyana (formerly British Guiana), where he received his early education; he was granted a Cambridge Junior School Certificate in 1940 and a Cambridge Senior School Certificate in 1941. His promise as a painter won him a two-year

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

Scholarship to the Camberwell School of Art in London in 1946.Author information
at Peepal Tree Press. He lived in London for the next 10 years, during which he taught fine art as a lecturer at the Central School of Art and visiting tutor at the Slade School of Art. He also held several one-man shows of his work, and produced the artwork for Bajan novelist George Lamming's first book '' In the Castle of my Skin''. From 1957 to 1962 he lectured on fine art at Khartoum Technical Institute. He later became a researcher at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ife. In 1980 he began intensive archaeological and paleoclimatic investigations of the

shell midden A midden is an old landfill, dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bone, bones, feces, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, Lithic flake, lithics (especially debitage), and other Artifact (archaeology), ...

s on the northwest coast of Guyana. From the beginning of his studies, he was aware of potential disturbance of stratigraphy, errors in radiocarbon dates, and other pitfalls, and some of his efforts to detect them were detailed in ''Early Pottery on the Amazon: A Correction''. Evidence for a correlation between the declining productivity of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

resources and changes in artefacts and settlement behaviour was summarised in ''Some Subsistence Implications of Holocene Climatic Change in Northwestern Guyana''. His observation that the methods employed by the Warao for processing palm starch are preadapted for eliminating the poison from bitter

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

offers a reasonable explanation for the origin of this remarkable technology. A monograph detailing his evidence and interpretations of the interaction between environmental change and Guyana prehistory was in press at the time of his death. He recognised the importance of publication and in 1978 founded ''Archaeology and Anthropology'', the journal of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown. Among other journals Williams edited were ''Odu'' (the University of Ife Journal of African studies) and ''Lagos Notes and Records'', and he contributed numerous essays on art to books and journals. His skill as a writer is documented not only in his scientific papers, but in two novels and numerous short stories. In 1986, Williams and his assistant, Jennifer Wishart, initiated a programme for junior archaeologists in Guyanese secondary schools. Williams died from cancer, aged 75, on 28 June 1998 at his home in Georgetown. ''The Art of Denis Williams'', a book by his daughter Evelyn A. Williams about his life and work, was published inn 2012.

Awards and recognition

His accomplishments were recognised in several national awards, including the Golden Arrow of Achievement Award from the government of Guyana in 1973, and the Cacique Crown of Honour in 1989, the same year that he received an honorary doctorate from the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

Selected works

Fiction

* ''Other Leopards''. London: New Authors Ltd, 1963. Reprinted Peepal Tree Press, 2009. * ''The Third Temptation''. London: Calder and Boyars, 1968. Reprinted Peepal Tree Press, 2010.

Non-fiction

* ''Image and Idea in the Arts of Guyana'' (1969) * ''Giglioli in Guyana, 1922–1972'' (1973) * ''Icon and Image: A Study of Sacred and Secular Forms of African Classical Art'' (1974) * ''Contemporary Art in Guyana'' (1976) * ''Guyana, Colonial Art to Revolutionary Art, 1966–1976'' * ''Habitat and Culture in Ancient Guyana'' (1984) * ''Pages in Guyanese Prehistory'' (1995) * ''Prehistoric Guyana'' (2003)

References

External links

* Akima McPherson
"Recollections, Cuffy, and Denis Williams"
''Stabroek News'', 25 June 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Denis 1923 births 1998 deaths 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century Guyanese painters 20th-century Guyanese writers Academic staff of Makerere University Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Academic staff of the University of Lagos Deaths from cancer in Guyana Guyanese archaeologists Guyanese expatriates in Nigeria Guyanese expatriates in the United Kingdom Guyanese scientists Guyanese writers People from Georgetown, Guyana University of Guyana alumni