The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) is to meet today on the removal of the name of its slain leader Dr Walter Rodney from the National Archives building.
Rechristened in 2008 under the then PPP/C administration, the removal of the name under the APNU+AFC government could exacerbate tensions between it and the WPA which is a member of senior governing coalition partner A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). The key member of APNU is the PNCR which had been accused of direct involvement in the killing of Dr Rodney. The government has not said anything about the effacing of Rodney’s name from the archives.
The WPA is already at odds with the government over its failure to release the 2015 findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Rodney’s killing. Critics of the WPA have meanwhile accused it of abandoning the quest for justice for Rodney and his family in return for Cabinet and government positions in the current administration.
Rodney’s widow, Dr Patricia Rodney during a presentation at a Guyana SPEAKS event on Sunday, 27th October 2019 in London, lamented the fact that three years after the report was submitted to the APNU+AFC government it has not been officially released.
“What has been distressing for me is that very decent people have remained silent and that is how we come to the position we are in,” she noted, adding that there must be strong resistance to those who would attach themselves to Rodney’s legacy in order to reap narrow political dividends in the present that have nothing to do with healing, reconciliation and social and economic transformation.
Meanwhile, former PPP/C Minister of Culture Dr. Frank Anthony has criticized the removal of the name saying it is political one geared to diminish Rodney’s works.
While it has apparently been over one year now since the National Archives was renamed from the Walter Rodney Archives to the Guyana National Archives, it was only last week that the party he founded registered concern.
In a letter published in Saturday’s edition of the Stabroek News, WPA executive Eusi Kwayana, stated that he had been informed “that a big stick has removed the name of the celebrated scholar and that the name is now, once again, The National Archives.”
“I think it is a travesty that Dr. Rodney’s name is removed from the National Archives…it is just malicious and I don’t know what it would gain in trying to erase some people out of our history,” Anthony told Stabroek News yesterday.
This newspaper visited the Homestretch Avenue building and confirmed that the signboard, which previously identified the facility as the Walter Rodney Archives, had indeed been replaced.
Calls to Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for culture, Dr. George Norton, by this newspaper over the past two days, have been futile.
Anthony said that he could not understand the reason behind the name removal but thinks that the government wants to erase Rodney’s legacy. He added that removing Rodney’s name from the building will not change the historical contribution he made to this country, as he is respected, remembered, heralded and used as a reference globally.
Books written by the historian, political activist and academic, who was assassinated in 1980, are still used in schools in parts of Africa, such as Tanzania where he taught for a part of his life and Ghana and Zimbabwe where he did much research on slavery and the slave trade. The historian himself had a PhD in African History and was a strong activist for equality.
Anthony pointed to the fact that Rodney did much research and writings on Guyana’s history also and although some of those works were destroyed, many original pieces can still be found at the Archives.
He said that it was because of Rodney’s contribution to the history of this country, that his government, and while he was Minister of Culture back in 2008, sought to have the building named in Rodney’s honour.
National heroes
“Whether we think he is good or bad, it was wrong to remove it because he is a part of our national history. One way we remember our national heroes is by naming things after them, so that generations know of their works. I would urge that whoever did that to put back the name,” Anthony said.
“As we all know Dr. Rodney is not just any historian… but achieved prominence because of the work he has done. We felt that it was fitting to name the Archives in his honour. As you can remember, the Archives, then located on Main Street [Georgetown] was in a terrible state. We did a lot of work to get it where it is today; the records were in such a bad state that we had to invest much to preserve much of the work. Out of honour of this great historian, we felt it most fitting to have it named after him as a young nation, we want to name things after people who would have made a tremendous impact and he did, not just here but regionally and internationally,” Anthony said.
“We did not look at Rodney the politician but the academic and historian who made significant contributions to help in the preservation of this country’s history. The archival holdings has some records going back to slavery, indentureship and some of Rodney’s works were on that. We have a good newspaper collection there also and all of this he would have used in his own works,” he added.
And even as he deemed the renaming political on the APNU+AFC’s part, Anthony said that he believes if an across-the-country poll is conducted on the naming of the building, he is certain that the populace will unanimously call for Rodney’s name to be on the building.
He said that while some have argued that a room at the Archives be named for Rodney, he feels that would not do justice to the national contributions of the historian.
“I still think it is fitting to name the building after him. I don’t think a room in a building should be the only thing. This is a national historian,” Anthony stressed.
For two years the WPA’s sole Cabinet member Dr Rupert Roopnaraine held the portfolio of culture as part of the larger Ministry of Education. Stabroek News on Saturday had asked WPA Executive Dr David Hinds if Roopnaraine should not have therefore been the person to address the issue.
“I am not sure if Dr. Roopnaraine and the government were aware of the omission, so I am hesitant to apportion blame or responsibility. If they were aware and did not correct it, that would be reprehensible, another blow to Rodney’s legacy. If they were not aware then it should be corrected now that it is known. It would be the responsibility of the WPA to pilot such an initiative,” he said in response.
Hinds said that the WPA will be hold a meeting today to discuss the issue and how it will be addressed.
Rodney, a historian and political activist, died in 1980 when a walkie talkie he was holding exploded.
His death has long been labelled an assassination and the then ruling People’s National Congress has been repeatedly fingered as being involved. The party has always maintained that it had no role.
Anthony said that as Culture Minister, he and his government had also felt that Rodney’s gravesite be maintained and it was why the country’s National Trust was entrusted with the duty of doing so.
“The National Trust did some work to maintain his grave site as they did for deceased President [Forbes] Burnham as well, because again you have here national and important people. If the state can maintain President Burnham’s gravesite why is it that we can’t Walter Rodney? After all he was a known a prominent political and historical figure. Some may argue Burnham was a president and all of that, but there is provision for paying tribute and Rodney will fall in that category,” he explained.
