Two Caribbean men representative of two generations of Caribbean people passed from our presence last week. The concern must be if they represent the last of their breed–strong willed, capable and inspirational men who wanted more for their societies and for the entire region.
ANR Robinson, politician and statesman, representative of the second generation of English-trained and inspired leaders whose job it was to achieve political independence and to demonstrate that we could produce leaders who had learnt their lessons well from British civilisation, constitutional law and practice to re-create societies in the region based upon Westminster.
Norman Girvan, economist, radical political thinker, a quintessential post-Independence Caribbean Man who felt sufficiently liberated to rethink the development paradigm, and to do so in the image and likeness of Caribbean people seeking to find themselves after the period of slavery, indentureship and colonial rule.
In reflecting very briefly on the work and contribution of Robinson he must be placed in the context of someone who while being of the Williams political generation, those who had to achieve political independence, fashion a Federation and at least stir a sense of West Indian consciousness, was sufficiently instigated to skip forward a generation to understand the pulse of the Black Power Movement's quest for achievement beyond the flag and the anthem.
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