With keen interest I have followed the unbelievable dispute on whether Forbes Burnham should be granted an award for his contributions to the struggles against apartheid. That Forbes Burnham made enemies in his pursuit to change British Guiana/Guyana’s post-independence colonial society with its effective caste system, and heal the racial divide of the pre-independence period cannot be argued with. But the record of his commitment to the liberation of South Africa remains unblemished; the hesitation of the South Africans to bestow this honour is not Guyana’s shame.
The South Africans must consider that Burnham’s devotion to their struggle defied the prominent Cold War nations who politically supported the South Africa of the Afrikaners as a bulwark against the influence of communism in Africa. Nations with which we shared a closeness of language, cultural heritage and blood.
With curiosity and interest in a young lady I was drawn to the public rally where Mr Oliver Tambo spoke and was convinced that Forbes Burnham was morally doing the right thing.
Burnham allowed (as Aubrey Norton cited in Stabroek News on May 5, and Halim Majeed outlined in Kaieteur News on August 10, 2010) Cuban troop planes to be refuelled here on their way to shed blood for the liberation of South Africa, the GDF will one day state if our personnel were committed as many of us felt then. Burnham waged war against artistes and sportsmen who violated the South Africa boycott (Colin Croft and Jimmy Cliff) at a time when direct pressure from Venezuela raised the spectre of the border controversy causing an investor to back out from our hydro project which would have placed this country 50 years ahead, but which set us back twenty years. And then the hard times followed. We were told by confidantes in the ‘know’ that this was partly as a result of the folly of our heroic political stance in collaborating with Cuba. We grumbled, stood in the Guy-lines, lit our flambeaux, became suitcase traders and endured the blackouts when OPEC raised the price of oil. We knew and admired Burnham’s convictions while being angry at him for what we were enduring.
Now for the question of Walter Rodney’s untimely death and the questions about the guilt of the Burnham state raised by my brother Ogunseye on May 7, in Stabroek News. We have discussed Rodney’s death, myself and Ogunseye. I knew and admired Rodney; he would stop at Bourda Market where my late friend ‘Bone Dry’ Parker sold dry coconuts and chat with us. We were never in agreement; he felt Burnham was not going far enough with socialism, and by that time I was convinced that neither communism nor the Juche idea of North Korea was relevant to us, though I agreed with the socialist practices of free health care, etc. I bought a picture of Rodney at the mortuary from the late Wilfred Lee for twelve dollars; back then that was a lot of money. With what I understood then and learnt later, the WPA’s revolution was happening around us, with some GDF officers under Special Branch watch. Then there is the recent publication of Sergeant Gregory Smith’s book, which cannot be easily dismissed because it provides ample cross comparisons to his data.
I am convinced that Walter ventured out into uncharted territory and was the victim of a terrible miscalculation. Walter Rodney is a Guyanese hero but his death has been used long enough as a symbol to damn Burnham. The evidence is not conclusive and should not be used as it is currently flaunted. In his letter on May 4. 2013 in the Stabroek News, Rishee Thakur enlightened me that Cheddi Jagan also received this award.
I will not spend time on the pathological racism of Vishnu Bisram.
I conclude by stating that if Burnham’s overwhelming contributions to the struggle for South Africa’s well-being cannot be viewed by our South African brothers without passing swift misguided judgment prompted by Dr Horace Campbell and others on Burnham, then many of us whose dedication lies beyond mere intellectual speculation would rather our brothers keep that award.
Yours faithfully,
Barrington Braithwaite
