Granger Should Lay the Rodney Commission Report in Parliament Immediately

February 20, 2016 @ 2:07

Dear Editor of Stabroek,

President Granger should do the right thing and immediately lay the Dr Walter Rodney Commission of Enquiry Report before Parliament, and/or make the contents public, and further ensure that the Commission’s recommendations, whatever they are, are fully implemented. The Rodney family and the Guyanese people deserve closure to this protracted almost thirty-six year old odyssey for justice.

Dr Walter Rodney not only dedicated his short life to promoting racial unity and democracy in Guyana, but he was also academically brilliant having earned a PhD in African History in 1966 from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, at the tender age of twenty-four. His dissertation, which focused on the slave trade on the Upper Guinea Coast, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1970 under the title A History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545-1800 and was widely acclaimed for its originality in challenging the conventional wisdom on the topic. His most publicly known work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, has a global readership, and has been published in many languages. His analysis of history was based on a solid class perspective.

In this fiftieth year of Independence, let us ensure that justice is done and also be seen to be done for this most illustrious son of Guyana.

Yours faithfully,

Lalu Hanuman

Attorney-at-Law

Barbados