Dear Editor,
It is not without a considerable degree of uncertainty and trepidation that the associates, colleagues and family of the late Prof Perry Mars gathered to bid him farewell on the day preceding the 50th Independence Anniversary. In fact one could assert that his funeral coincided with the 50th year of Independence.
There were several tributes. One that will be long remembered was the jazz rendition comprising a medley of swing era compositions. This was in a way staking out the late academic’s cultural portfolio, though almost certainly his interests would have been much more varied than what could be conveyed combo-style in an acoustically challenged environment.
Mars deserves a national honour. Possibly he would have enjoyed the kind of pioneer status associated with Harold Lutchman, Bobby Moore and Paul Singh. And as the hymn ‘How Great Thou Art’ resonated in St George’s Cathedral, there would have been many who had no clue as to what this remarkable Guyanese represented in their lives as well as in terms of their children’s future, because in the final analysis he was a political scientist not a wayside disciple of Jesus Christ.
Mars in life and at the point of his death presents Guyanese, including the younger members of the populace, with a dynamic – one must seek the truth or, as Jah Ru would say, you must “overstand”.
Amongst the mourners were several villagers from the Lichfield, West Coast Berbice, community and for these folks the loss must be heavy.
Yours faithfully,
Eddi Rodney
