(Trinidad Express) Brinsley Samaroo, “The Boy From Ecclesville, Rio Claro”, came in for glowing tributes on Friday as an intellectual, ace lecturer, knowledge seeker, brilliant interpreter, critical thinker, scholar, walking encyclopaedia, nation builder and indefatigable custodian of Trinidad and Tobago’s heritage and history, including Indo-Trinidadian history, and labour and First Peoples history.
Samaroo, 83, who achieved national and international acclaim, was born on April 14, 1940 and died on July 9, after a brief illness.
His memorial was held at Daaga Auditorium, at The St Augustine campus of The University of The West Indies (The UWI), on Friday.
He was hailed as a gentleman, mentor, humanitarian, The UWI library fixture, doting father and devoted husband.
Samaroo, affectionately known as “Brinz”, or “Brother Samaroo”, was lauded for virtues, including patience, generosity, magnanimity towards his colleagues and students, “mean” (delicious) fish broth and superb teaching and storytelling skills.
Several prominent personalities, including politicians, academics, the History Department and people from all walks of life, paid their respects to a man “who could walk with kings and not lose the common touch”.
Samaroo was the member of parliament for Nariva in the 1986-1991 National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government and minister of food production and later of decentralisation. He also served as an opposition senator.
He was renowned for his work in academia as he was former head of The UWI’s History Department and published several works on local history.
As the memorial unfurled, like a beautiful banner, Prof Ken Ramchand issued a special appeal to the State, and said: “We should honour his love, life and work by returning to his model project. I appeal to the Government of all the peoples of Trinidad and Tobago to make a priority of finishing what he started by moving to establish a Brinsley Samaroo Sugar Museum.”
University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) professor Prakash Persad said there should be a bi-annual history conference in Samaroo’s honour.
His wife Joan Samaroo described him as a “family man”. Samaroo was the father of two daughters, Naila and Kavita.
Cocooned in her father’s love, his late daughter Naila lived beyond the expectant five to 33. Joan Samaroo boasted, “Brinsley would never hide her (health challenges). He took her to his beach house in Mayaro. When she was a child and she cried, he would hug her and sing ‘Three Little Kittens’.
“Somehow when he got to ‘Meow’ the crying ceased,” she said.
She added that Shirley Dookeran (wife of family friend, former finance minister Winston Dookeran) would simply pop over and pick up Naila and babysit till she got home.
“He also loved his other daughter Kavita dearly,” she said.
During an intimate birthday luncheon at Mt St Benedict, St Augustine, she recounted how he had translated a Latin phrase indicating “she and Kavita (were the force behind his success”.
She learned that politicians would canvass vast swathes of land for “one vote” and return home at ungodly hours.
She related how she “almost got a heart attack” after venturing upon a sleeping man in one of her spare bedrooms—none other than the late minister of food production Lincoln Myers.
While thanking everyone, daughter Kavita said he upheld the belief “it takes a village to raise a child”.
She thanked Dr Paul Teelucksingh and his team for their yeoman service before Samaroo went to God’s acre. She thanked The UWI staff, who had always been so accommodating to him. She urged everyone to pay homage to Samaroo by “Shining our light in our own little spaces.”
The family shared a note found written in Brinsley’s diary, which was etched on the programme and life-sized portrait. Plucked from St Francis of Assisi, it read: “When you leave this Earth, you can take nothing that you have received…but only what you have given, a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”
