If you dare to venture past the scattered mounds of garbage, the broken bridges and the bush that may hide brazen bandits or buzzing bees, a painted wooden sign with a single red arrow points to the final resting place of Dr. Walter Rodney, in Guyana’s decrepit Le Repentir Cemetery.
When it rains, the overgrown area floods into a morass, even as vehicles and the brave pedestrian and cyclist, traverse the dangerous road cutting through the vast burial ground, with the ironic French name and vandalised vaults.
Once lined with rows of graceful century palms, the cemetery has been allowed to deteriorate into a disgraceful state over decades of duelling city and State administrations, with occasional bursts of critical financing and goodwill not enough to keep the national site regularly maintained, dignified and clean.