By Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

REMEMBER over 50 years ago in West Berbice, when our guitars rattled like a gun? We sung together songs of freedom for many years together. Our young, innocent voices punched through the darkness of the long nights, until we finally reached the bright new morning.

The teacher-revolutionist became a diplomat and I, a minister.
I remember those years Odeen, and many more years after. I remember the years before, when we survived the Stalinist purge; only to become victims of it after. But we continued to sing our songs of freedom.

I have your letters still, indicting those who mocked at ambition and hated intellect. But you rose above the wolf-pack, becoming an author and an authority. You became the custodian of the party’s purer history; and defender of its finest cause in the protection of Guyana’s territorial integrity. Wherever you went and whatever you became, nothing meant more than your songs of freedom that made you an exemplar of patriotism.
In saying farewell to a comrade, brother and friend, I am grateful that you have been silently there for me when it mattered; and that you understood what Martin Carter meant when he wrote, “death must not find us thinking that we die.”

Odeen, you bequeathed to your beloved Guyana a legacy as a trail of diplomacy interspersed with rich tales in Guyanese folklore that our children and grandchildren will relish long into the future.

Sita and I, and our children, join with his Evangeline son Safraz and daughter Nadeeza, and the rest of the family, in the celebration of the exemplary life of our dear, late Ambassador, Dr. Odeen Ishmael.