Dear Editor,
Most of the letters to the editor concerning the late Guyanese historian, Dr Walter Rodney, are centered on who was responsible for his assassination. As an artist I am not going causation hunting, rather I want to focus on Walter Rodney’s contribution as a freedom fighter.To mark the 33rd anniversary since his assassination I have mounted an exhibition at the Moray House Trust from June 13 in remembrance of Walter Rodney’s contribution to the dynamics of the Guyanese working class struggle, and the upsurge in the national liberation movements in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. In Guyana the Walter Rodney annual commemoration activity is becoming more and more remote and the gathering keeps getting smaller. It is unfortunate that many of our young people do not know of the contribution Walter Rodney made in the struggle for social justice and the unification of Guyanese of all classes, races and creeds. As a historian Rodney interpreted the class nature of Guyanese society in such a way that the ordinary Guyanese could easily understand it. Walter Rodney has become a symbol of resistance all over the world. In Latin America he is immortalized alongside other revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Fabrico Ojeda, Camillo Torres, Nelson Suarez, Benito Suarez and others. Every time people cry out for bread and justice and defiantly stand up for what is right – Walter Rodney lives!
Yours faithfully,
Desmond Alli