Ron Seales

Return of the Arawak Ron Seales

Adam Dunbar was descended from an indigenous Indian tribe in Guyana call Arawak. His grandfather was an American citizen. His grandmother was Arawak. They lived in Lethem, a cattle-farming town next to Brazil. For decades the Dunbars battled a raging, hostile environment to become masters of the Rupununi Cattle farming made them rich. They were a tough breed of adventures. No one defied them. Then Adam's father, James, goaded by his wealth and influence, wanted to separate the Rupununi area from the rest of Guyana. This was a challenge to Lancelot Brown, President of Guyana. For two weeks the forces of Guyana government engaged the insurgents, who broke and fled. Lethem, the Rupununi's capital, was retaken. Adam, only thirteen, escaped into Brazil. There he got news of his father's death and his mother's imprisonment. He cried aloud. His anguish and the passage of time hastened his maturity when he journeyed to Venezuela and the predatory streets of Ciudad Bolivar and Valencia. And after twelve years of self-exile, he returned to his native Guyana, sullen and unsmiling. The fires of battle that raged in Lethem still smoldered in his mind. Someone must be responsible for his father's death.