Commemorating Walter Rodne's 25 Anniversary.

I was told it was an exceptionally bright group and I looked forward to meeting them. At 15 years these boys had just entered what was termed ,with a pronounced British touch,. the "upper fourth classical" form. The year was 1957. I had been at Queen's College just 2 years, brimming with missionary zeal, acquired at the University College of the West Indies, to awaken young minds to the West Indian heritage.

The history syllabus for that form prescribed, with matter-of-fact briskness, three terms of British imperial history. Not my cup of tea, at all. With all the talk of self government and eventual independence in the air it seemed preposterous. Preposterous that these bright young minds would still have to be taught how the British acquired the empire on which the sun was obviously setting. So I decided to be audacious and approach the principal with an alternative plan. I was treading on tricky ground, I knew, but it was worth the try.

Mr. Sanger-Davies was most receptive. Yes, I could do two terms of West Indian history - provided in the last term I doffed my cap to imperial history with a cursory look at one of its themes. So to the upper forth classical I went with the good news. And the boys responded with predictable enthusiasm. I told them that we would be looking at two systems of domination, slavery and indenture in the British West Indies. And by way of comparison we would glance at Apartheid in South Africa as a modern derivative of those two earlier forms of racial subjugation.

I did notice one boy sitting near the back of the class, with strong eyes, a questioning face and a fine athletic figure. He was clearly assessing me to see if I had anything of value to offer. For the first three weeks he said almost nothing. But I was to hear a great deal from him later on. That was Walter Rodney. As I launched into describing the classic features of the slave system, the class began to pepper me with questions revealing minds that were both keen and quick. I knew I was in for an exciting ride.

That impression was confirmed when I set about marking the first set of essays I had assigned them. Practically all their efforts were good and an impressive number of them were a delight to read. Walter's contribution immediately established his credentials: it was lucid, beautifully structured, sparkling and succinct. Subsequent essays also demonstrated his knack of relating the past to the present, a feature which was to become his hall-mark as a historian and one of the reasons his writings appeal to such a wide variety of people. What was equally gratifying, he and a number of his class-mates often used the Guyanese history resources of Georgetown Public Library when preparing their assignments.

As the course proceeded, I made references to Apartheid in South Africa and loaned the class Naught for your Comfort, a book written by Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican priest who had been expelled from South Africa in 1956. He had blown the whistle on Apartheid, exposing its brutalites and its systematic denial of their human rights to Black South Africans. And the Afrikaner spin-doctors were hit where it rankled. Unbidden, Walter did a review of the book and asked me to read it. The writing was precocious and pointedly promising. Two things stood out in that review: "the African condition" concerned Walter deeply; and his style gave a foretaste of that incisive irony which was later to become a favourite weapon in his rhetorical armory. By the end of the first term, Walter was a member of a group from the class holding lively discussions on slavery, indenture, Apartheid and related issues in a mauby shop at the corner of Camp and Middle Streets!

Some of my colleagues on the staff, intrigued by the extraordinary dynamism of these fourth-formers, began providing them with clippings on Apartheid from British newspapers and alerting them to BBC programs focused on it. Dr. Elsa Goveia, the renowned West Indian historian at Mona, showed her delight in the whole venture by sending us papers on slavery and indenture authored by herself and her colleagues.

Not surprisingly, the boys were generating a momentum of their own. That came to fruition towards the end of the school-year when, with Walter as editor, they ambitiously produced a collection of essays on topics of West Indian and Guyanese history. With a refreshing touch of professionalism and some financial help from parents, they commissioned the Chronicle Printing Company to bind two typed copies of their work between cloth covers. The Principal was delighted enough with the production to show his copy to the then Minister of Education whose admiration of the contents was matched only to his incredulity about the age of its authors. In the 5th and 6th forms Walter continued to demonstrate the outstanding abilities that had become so evident in the upper fourth classical and in 1960 he won the expected Open Scholarship to the University College of the West Indies.

They were a remarkably articulate lot, this upper fourth classical contingent, and I realised that such articulateness must be directed to good purpose. Accordingly, with the agreement of my colleagues in the history department, one period every two weeks was devoted to the arts of public speaking and debating. The boys welcomed this departure from the norm, eager to add some formal training to their natural Guyanese facility with words. As for Walter, this was his metier and he flourished in it

Some of the boys wanted their skills honed for straight presentations. Others aimed for the cut and thrust of debate. Walter was at home in both modes. And in this he was stimulated by stout and vigorous competition from a cluster of his colleagues including Colin Moore ,Gordon Rohlehr, James Croal, Walter Ramsohoye and Vic Insanally. In time these fellows would become veritable masters at the podium. In time, too, Walter would become a maestro. As he went higher up in the school the stage of his performance widened. He became a luminary of the Queen's College Debating Society. This met every Friday night in term time when debates with teams from other schools would be the only business on the agenda.
By the time he had reached the 6th Form Walter's reputation as a stellar performer had reached far and wide. Audiences gathered with high expectations when the word got around that he was debating. He was as comfortable with them as they were with him. With his accustomed clarity and freshness of approach went his talent for couching complicated ideas in clear, lively language. He deployed a light-fingered approach to tough intellectual themes and his wit was ever ready to keep his listeners fully engaged. Also, he had the enviable knack of thinking brilliantly on his feet. Which meant that the surprise tactics of an opposing team could not stump him. On top of all this he was a gracious debater much liked by those who found themselves opposing him. It goes without saying that the Queen's College team he led won, in 1959, the Patrick Dargan Shield, Guyana's highest debating trophy.

In 1960, when Walter entered the University College of the West Indies his reputation as both an outstanding scholar and a superb debater had preceded him and his four years at Mona proved that the reputation was handsomely justified.

At school, Walter was popular with his peers and very much liked as a prefect. .Being a high achiever never went to his head He was, as the contemporary saying had it, a regular fellow with his feet firmly on the ground. Loving a good lime, he was at home in a good party and his wit was always ready to keep the fun flowing. He enjoyed life at Queen's. Its formal, rather British traditions and conventions did not offend him. He both observed them and made fun of them in the cleverly irreverent way of Queen's College students. And like most of his contemporaries, he was adept at caricaturing and mimicking the oddities, idiosyncrasies and eccentric mannerisms of his teachers. Slim and fit, Walter was active on the sports-field where he was an above -average athlete and high-jumping champion.

Walter's time at Queen's prefigured much of what he later became: a world -renowned scholar and a charismatic intellectual with a profoundly common touch. Whether he was lecturing on the African past or the Caribbean present he remains for me one the three most memorable speakers I have ever heard.