South African President Jacob Zuma’s decision to confer the Order of the Companion of O.R Tambo on late president Forbes Burnham has been met with objection over the PNC government’s possible involvement in the murder of political activist Walter Rodney in 1980.
At least one academic has urged that approaches be made to the ANC government for the withdrawal of the award, which Zuma was expected to hand over to Burnham’s daughter, Roxane Van West Charles, at a ceremony on Saturday. There have been reports that this has been postponed, but attempts to contact Dr Richard Van West Charles, Roxane’s husband, on this proved futile.
Rodney, a historian and co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), was killed under mysterious circumstances on June 13, 1980. The then Burnham-led administration has long been accused of assassinating Rodney, who was seen as a threat to the PNC’s rule.
Horace Campbell, Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, writing on the website for Amandla magazine, has questioned the decision to award Burnham posthumously, citing Rodney’s death.
Campbell, in his article—“Is the ANC rewarding Forbes Burnham for the assassination of Walter Rodney?”—also suggests that there have been attempts to discredit Rodney’s life and legacy, including by followers of Burnham.
During the 1970s and 1980s, under Burnham’s leadership, Guyana played a leading role among third world countries in opposing apartheid in South Africa and helping liberation movements in southern Africa. And in announcing the award in Gold on Burnham, South Africa’s Chancellor of the National Orders, Dr Cassius Lubisi said it was being conferred for his dedication to the liberation of Guyana, as well as the African continent. “He established diplomatic relations with many African countries and expressed solidarity with the liberation movement and freedom fighters in South Africa. This solidarity with the leaders of the ANC strengthened relations between Guyana and South Africa,” he noted.
But Campbell challenged this view, casting doubt on the sincerity of Burnham’s anti-colonial stance. He charged that while Burnham was publicly praising anti-colonialism in Africa, he was collaborating with French colonialism in the Caribbean, which allowed his government to find refuge for Rodney’s alleged killer Gregory Smith in the French colonial territory of Cayenne. How Smith left the country and the army’s role in Rodney’s death still remain unclear.
“If there are still progressive forces within the ANC they should rescind this award so that this ceremony of April 27 will instead be one that honours the memories of Walter Rodney and Bernard Magubane,” he wrote.
WPA Co-leader Dr Rupert Roopnaraine told Stabroek News yesterday that he was aware that there has been “considerable epistolary agitation” urging the withdrawal of the award. “The WPA is due to meet on the issue and I prefer not to pre-empt their conclusion at this time,” he added.
The governing PPP/C has repeatedly criticised the WPA for its electoral alliance with the PNCR as part of the APNU coalition, in which Roopnaraine is Deputy-Chairman.
Meanwhile, PNCR and APNU leader David Granger suggested that a withdrawal of the award would be disrespectful to Burnham’s legacy. “…It could be a grave insult to the memory of a national leader who contributed materially and measurably to South Africa’s democratisation,” he said.
Smith died in French Guiana in 2002 after a prolonged illness. In 1987, in interviews with Stabroek News and CANA Radio, he had said Rodney’s death was the result of an accident but he did not offer any evidence in support of the claim.
Smith was charged, in absentia, with Rodney’s murder in 1996, however the Guyana government never succeeded in extraditing him from French Guiana to stand trial since there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. The French government had, however, indicated that it would be prepared to return Smith if it were satisfied that the information on which the murder charge had been based, met the criteria of France’s judicial system.
Meanwhile, in May 2005, the PNCR said it would support an international probe of Rodney’s death, giving the party’s first commitment to an international investigation.
