Assassins of conversation
“Our (Caribbean) governments are terrified by the voice of the people, when that voice speaks a message of its ownâ. That is the verdict of ROUND TABLE, 6th June, 2014. Political elites want to hear the people’s voice echoing their thoughts their words, their deeds, like an unsubstantial shadow at their feet. A people’s voice that stands on its own two feet is a nightmare that politicians must erase. That is why the poet from Guyana wrote about “Assassins of Conversation, they bury the voice they assassinate, in the beloved grave of the voice never to be silent.{{more}}â It was in 1980, and the event of Walter Rodney’s execution that drew this verdict from the heart of Martin Canter. Today, ROUND TABLE evokes the movement and the memory of that revelation, revealing the direction and destiny of a politics as far as our citizen’s voice is concerned.
THE DANGEROUS TIME
“Therefore I told (Walter), Beware of assassination, because Burnham will kill youâ¦â C.L.R. James at a memorial in 1981. A release from Walter Rodney party, the WPA, on Saturday, 14th June, so Walter Rodney assassinated.
Our valiant, inspiring, committed and much beloved brother, Walter Rodney died last night at the hands of the PNC regime.
â¦At about 8 o’clock last night, Brother Rodney was traveling in a car driven by his brother, Donald Rodney. The car was moving in a northerly direction along John Street. Shortly after 8 o’clock when the car was between Bent and Hadfield streets there was a loud explosion. The roof of the car was blown off and landed several feet behind. The entire side of the car in which Walter Rodney had been sitting, was mangled. A torso could be seen lying on the left front floor of the car, face downwardsâ¦
News bulletin, Guyana Broadcasting Station, the police are still trying to identify the headless corpse of a man that was found close to Georgetown Prison, after a loud explosion rocked that neighborhood around 8 o’clock tonight. Detectives are working on the theory that the man, whose face has been blasted beyond recognition, was in possession of an explosive device â a device with which he had intended to blast a hole in the wall of Georgetown Prison, and that the device blew up, prematurely, and killed him.
Texts of news bulletin read repeatedly from 8:30- midnight 13.06.1980
RODNEY INQUEST February 1988
Witness Father Malcom Rodrigues, led in his evidence by the DPP.
DPP: Did you know the deceased, Dr Walter Rodney?
Rodrigues: Yes, I was a personal friend of Dr Rodney.
DPP: Do you remember the night of Friday, June 13th 1980?
Rodrigues: On the night of Friday June 13, I was listening to the radio when I heard on special news bulletin that the police were still trying to identify a body whose face had been blasted beyond recognitionâ¦
DPP: Did you identify the body?
Rodrigues: In the dim light of the mortuary, expecting to see a body beyond recognition, to my surprise, I recognised Walter immediately. I was able to identify Walter’s face, which was perfectly intact. I identified the body to Dr Leslie Mootooâ¦
RODNEY INQUEST 03-02-1988
Witness Dr Leslie Mootoo, Government Pathologist
DPP: On June 15th 1980 at 10 am, did you conduct a post-mortem examination on the dead body of Dr. Walter Rodney?
Mootoo: Yes, at the Georgetown Hospital Morgue.
DPP: Can you tell us your findings?
Mootoo: My findings make very sad and tragic reading…. The following were seen your worship: There were first-degree burns on the left aspect of the forehead, around the eye and the left aspect of the face including the frontal bone⦠compound comminuted fractures of the pelvic bones.. Genitalia missingâ¦entire abdominal wall missing, with protruding loops of intestines. The muscles of the anterior abdominal wall were missing exposing the pelvic and abdominal contentsâ¦.and bits of wood, metal, grass, mud and plastic were collected from the surface of the intestines and in the depth of abdominal cavityâ¦
Observation and Opinions:
1) Deceased was alive at the time when the explosive device exploded
2) The explosive device was in his lap at the time of the explosion. I am ninety per cent sure that he had his legs crossed.
3) The explosive device was not held by the hands of the deceased as more severe mutilating injuries to the hands would have been seenâ¦
The extracts taken from Gabriehu’s Dangerous Times: The Assassination of Dr Walter Rodney
TRIBUTES IN POETRY
Right now a car explodes
Sprinkling blood all over the world,
Yet, from each drop a new flame uncurls,
In death you live forever.
Tony Kellman
Sorrow has come with all its classmen
Grief has arrived with its cousins and aunts
They spit in our doleful faces
As we re echo the battle cry
Power to the people!!
The struggle continues
Victory is certain.
Wole Olaoye
More that at any
Other time before
Your death leaves me
Fearful for the future
Of every righteous man
Now that the meander
That’s of greed appear
To hold the whip hand.
Cecil Rayan
Destroying Walter’s body
Only removed him physicallyâ¦
His spirit is twice as strong
He lives in me, and in all
Freedom fightersâ¦
“This act in itself will
Not delay your day of
Judgment, imperialism.
Earlene Horne
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