ONE of the most psychologically piercing novels I ever read is Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at noon.” I was first introduced to the book because it was on the reading list for a compulsory course for my Master degree at MacMaster University. The course was entitled: “Culture and civilization in the 20th century.”

Darkness at Noon is now regarded as one of history’s greatest novels. I became enthralled with Koestler after reading his fantastic novel and I can say most definitely, he was one of the philosophers who influenced me (he did not formally study for a philosophy degree). He was an existentialist. When I returned home and began to teach philosophy to first year UG students majoring in politics, I put him on my reading list. He was on my reading list for the 26 years I taught at UG.

There are two philosophers who had a profound effect on the way I see life and death – Koestler and Martin Heidegger. But both did terrible things and I wonder if within the womb of philosophy there are compulsory destructive instincts. Koestler raped the wife of UK’s opposition leader, Michael Foot, in 1951. Heidegger was a supporter of the Nazi party and wrote in favour of the Nazi government.
Darkness at Noon captures the inherent instability of unelected power and for those who never experienced the sadism of unelected power under President Forbes Burnham and shamelessly stood silent between March and July in 2020 in this country, then, they ought to be compelled to read Darkness at Noon.

I saw how darkness enveloped a sunny bright day in July, just around this time in 1979. The sun on July 14 in 1979 turned to complete darkness for me inside a moldy, smelling, empty room in what is now an abandoned high-rise building at the junction of Manget Place and Croal Street which still carries the name First Federation Insurance Company. First Federation is Guyana’s first commercial high-rise and it is inside that building that I came face to face with darkness noon (by the way, who owns First Federation?).

It was on July 14, 1979, that a large crowd gathered outside the Magistrates’ Court to demonstrate against the trial of Dr. Walter Rodney and other WPA leaders charged with arson on the Ministry of National Development. The accused were granted bail but the police took them away in a van and the demonstrators ran behind the van. I was among the runners.
When we reached Brickdam by Saint Stanislaus School, a large school of state-sponsored goons attacked the demonstrators. Everyone ran because these men had some frightening pieces of wood with them and other dangerous weapons in their hands. A small group of thugs recognised me and began to chase me. I was with WPA member, Dennis Canterbury. We ran into Manget Place and into First Federation. We ran upstairs and dashed into an open room and locked the door.

We heard voices of the thugs as they searched for us room by room. Denis Canterbury kept whispering in my eyes not to breathe so loudly because they will hear and identify which room we were in. At noon that day (July 14, 1979), I came close to losing my life. I did not know that Father Darke was stabbed and killed outside Saint Stanislaus until late that night because I went home straight away to my wife because it was only a few months ago I got married.

The front cover of Father Morrison’s magnum opus, “Justice: The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana, 1952-1992, has a photograph of the thugs attacking Father Darke. In that photo, you can see the main attacker with a bayonet in his hand. For an account of how Father Darke met his death at noon on Brickdam on July 14, 1979, right outside the school he taught at, please consult the Father Morrison’s book – pages 139-146.
I became close to Dennis years after when we both turned up as lecturers at the University of Guyana. But I have lost contact with him for decades now because he has migrated. I will look at one more political murder during the reign of Forbes Burnham – Vincent Teekah, who died in October of the same year as Father Darke and the attempted assassination of Dr. Josh Ramsammy in October 1971.

When you look at the date of Ramsammy’s attack to the date of Walter Rodney’s assassination in June 1980, then one can classify the decade of 1970 to 1980 as one of the most frightening moments of unelected power. Yet in 2020, there were Guyanese willing to usher in another era of permanent power by the same party that was in power – 1970-1980.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.