Dear Editor
The widow of Walter Rodney and his brother, Donald, have commented on the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report at a forum held in Jamaica last week. Patricia Rodney thanked the Commission for an excellent job while the brother though satisfied with the report felt that it was not sufficiently or at all castigatory of the magistrate who presided over his case/the Coroner’s Inquest.
The event, which was hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor of the UWI in collaboration with the Institute for Gender and Development Studies and the Department of Government, UWI Mona, was attended by hundreds. The speakers included Richard Small QC and Rodney Scholar, Professor Emeritus Rupert Lewis, Horace Campbell, who heads a Walter Rodney Foundation in the US, Wazir Mohammed and Andrew Pilgrim.
Campbell expressed concern that the report does not expose foreign involvement in Rodney’s death. Mohammed spoke of his association with the distinguished historian who united the ethnic groups in Guyana.
The participants discussed the life and work of Rodney, renowned Pan African scholar and activist. They also reviewed the CoI report which might have significant implications for all countries in the region.
Meanwhile, a petition is being circulated in the region and the wider world to have its recommendations acted upon. The report concluded that his death was an act of violence for political purposes – an act of terrorism. The petition is calling for a change of the manner of death on the death certificate from “death by misadventure” to “murder”, a change in the description of the profession of Walter Rodney from “unemployed” to “Historian/ Professor”, the overturning of Donald Rodney’s conviction and the expunging of any related criminal history.
Rodney was killed on the night of June 13, 1980 when a bomb in the form of a walkie-talkie exploded in his car.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
