THE first fortnight in June is now henceforth enshrined with the memory of two giant Caribbean intellectuals, Dr Walter Rodney and George Lamming (OC).
Lamming died on June 4, four days short of his 95th birthday. June 13 will mark the 42nd anniversary of Rodney’s assassination in 1980.
This year, Rodney will continue to be remembered and revered at home and abroad. Better light has been shone on his legacy from the continuing efforts of succeeding PPP/Civic administrations which cleanse the muddied aspects of how he met his untimely end.
Between 1992 and 2000, the Cheddi and Janet Jagan administrations sought but failed to secure the co-operation of France in returning then-alleged killer, GDF Sergeant Gregory Smith from neighbouring French Guiana to facilitate a proper enquiry.
Between 2001 and 2010, succeeding Bharrat Jagdeo administrations continued the effort to kick-start a proper investigation, but failed to get the support of Rodney’s political associates in the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).
And between 2011 and 2015, the Donald Ramotar administration acceded to the family’s request for a Commission of Inquiry to bring certainty and closure to the decades-old unbelievable and disbelieved accounts of how Rodney died.
Attorney General, Anil Nandlall and former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, worked with the family to eventually get the inquiry under way. The process, however, was temporarily delayed during the 2015-2020 reign of the APNU-AFC alliance, bizarrely supported by Rodney’s WPA colleagues.
The unholy alliance of Rodney’s friends and enemies was eventually forced by the then-opposition PPP/Civic to table the Commission of Inquiry Report in the National Assembly – findings that clearly ascribed conspiratorial involvement to the PNC.
In 2022, the Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali administration took the process of cleansing Rodney’s legacy much further by enshrining his grave at Le Repentir Cemetery and his monument at Hadfield Street, Georgetown with the state-recognition and responsibility they so richly deserve.
Dr Ali’s administration has also corrected the officially-declared ‘Employment’ status at time of Rodney’s death from ‘Unemployed’ to ‘University Professor’; and likewise correcting the officially-stated ‘Cause of Death’ from ‘Misadventure’ to ‘Assassination’.
Rodney’s Family cannot but be quite pleased with the efforts by successive PPP/C administrations since 1992 to correct the grave injustices that robbed Guyana, the Caribbean and the world of the body and mind of one of its greatest intellectual sons.
This year also marks the 53rd anniversary of Rodney’s publication of Groundings with My Brothers, the first work published by London-based Bogle-Louverture independent black publishing house.
This year, 2022, is also the 50th Anniversary of Rodney’s launch of his seminal work How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Importantly, 42 years after his assassination is a fitting time to acknowledge the 30 years of consistent and unyielding PPP/C efforts to ensure the world remembers Rodney for who he always was and to correct the false official accounts of how he died – and who killed him.
George Lamming, a recipient of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OC), was described in one of many regional and international tributes as “an erudite essayist and poet and an important figure in Caribbean literature and social commentary.”
His premiere novel, In the Castle of My Skin, was followed by others like The Pleasures of Exile, The Emigrants, Of Age and Innocence, Natives of My Person, Season of Adventure, Coming, Coming Home — and his last work 12 years ago, Sovereignty of the Imagination.
Rodney and Lamming travelled the world, lecturing at universities in Africa and Europe, North America and the Caribbean. Their teachings were always rooted in Caribbean and African history, opening closed eyes to the commonalities of global struggles for justice and against oppression, and underlining the importance of all Caribbean people understanding their origins and making their respective contributions to forever defending and promoting the Caribbean reality in words beyond comparison.
These two giants of Caribbean and world literature have transitioned 52 years between, but those five decades have seen Rodney’s legacy finally cleaned of falsities, and Lamming’s legacy is already being compiled for online global access and sharing.
As indicated in one penned tribute, may they both eternally ‘Rest in Peace and Rise in Paradise!’