Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 01, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column
History is often not what is really recorded. What is often recorded is a story told by someone or a group of people as seen through their eyes. Sometimes there has to be a modification because someone recalled the same incident and provided verification of what he recalled.
In Guyana another chapter of history is being recorded and the records will be based on the perception of a few. It is an indisputable fact that Walter Rodney died in a blast in the vicinity of the Georgetown Prisons. This cannot be disputed because everyone who was there saw the wrecked car, Rodney’s body, and saw his brother running from the scene.
Later, people saw the brother, Donald, with scars from the blast. They heard his story. Those who first saw him heard the story he had to tell. Then there were those who knew what Walter Rodney was doing in the period leading up to his death. They knew about his confrontation with the then President Forbes Burnham.
Many heard his speeches at the political meetings he held. They saw the attacks by members of the House of Israel, saw the police trying their best to arrest Rodney at these meetings and they saw Rodney run. In fact, during Mashramani 1980, there was the steel band competition and the Police steel band played a tune, ‘Run Rodney Run’ much to the disgust of some of those who attended the competition.
These are indisputable facts and when the history of Rodney would be told, these would be facts that students would encounter.
However, the history would be clouded by the perception of some who were extremely close to Rodney; it would be clouded by the facts that some people would refuse to disclose, choosing instead to paint a different picture.
A commission of inquiry is underway, and when it is all over, what comes out of the commission would form a significant part of the history. Distortions would be contained in that report, and if left unchallenged, then the account as published by the commission of inquiry would go down in history as the facts surrounding Walter Rodney’s death.
I knew Walter Rodney; I heard him speak at the political meetings. I remember him being arrested and tried for arson. He was accused of burning down the headquarters of the then ruling People’s National Congress.
So here I am following the happenings of the commission of inquiry and reading some of the statements that are being made by people testifying before the commission. I am not the only person. There are people who are disputing some of the facts. One man said to me that unless these facts are challenged and corrected then history would be severely distorted.
Eusi Kwayana, a man who knew Rodney better than most, testified that Walter Rodney did not have an inherent dislike of Forbes Burnham. This caused raised eyebrows. Then Kwayana said that the armed guards who were placed in the vicinity of the prisons were removed the night Rodney died. He suggested that the removal came through the orders of the Burnham administration.
That comment was published and immediately I got a call from someone in Brooklyn. The caller said that he was calling because he did not want history to be distorted. He told me that there seems to be a concerted effort to tarnish the People’s National Congress and that he would not sit down and see the untruths going unchallenged.
I asked him whether he was prepared to come to Guyana to testify, but there are those who do not want to attract undue attention. However, he told me that there were armed guards outside the prisons and that he was one. He gave me his name. He was a member of the Tactical Services Unit that was assigned to guard the outer perimeter of the prisons.
He said that on February 20, 1980, the day Mass Games were held that year, a known criminal, Lloyd Kerr, jumped the prisons fence and escaped. Of course he was caught some time later and from then, the Guyana Police Force stationed armed guards outside the prisons. This former policeman told me that some time later another criminal called ‘Texy’ or ‘Sexy’ jumped the prisons walls and into Bent Street.
This former policeman described the criminal as a ‘fair-complexioned Black man’. He was shot and killed by the very armed guards stationed outside the prisons.
On the night Rodney was blown up, this policeman said that he and another whom he identified as ‘Lawrence’ were standing at the corner of D’Urban and John Streets. He said that when they heard the explosion, they ran to the scene. They were the first to reach.
The scene that he described to me was described by so many others some time later. This policeman also could not say for sure that the person was a man who had died in the blast. Kwayana was wrong. There were armed guards and this could be verified from the police and prison records. The policeman said that he is prepared to face Kwayana on this issue.
Then I got a call from a person who was close to Rodney. This man said that Rodney often visited his house. He too is challenging some of the statements that are being made at the commission of inquiry. He told me that Rodney knew what he had in his possession.
Immediately I asked him about coming to testify before the commission and to my relief, he said that he would. I am not going to say too much about this individual except to say that he has spoken with the people conducting the commission. He has made arrangements to come and he is going to be accommodated.
And there are others. All I can do is hope that they will come forward. It would suit some to paint the People’s National Congress as a party of ogres who did bad things to every Guyanese. But then again, there are those who are only interested in accuracy.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
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