Colin Williams might as well be a blood relative of Dr Eric Williams. He is not though. But no father can ask for more devotion from a child. Colin Williams has shown that much, and more. Republic Day's gala event to mark the centennial anniversary of Dr Eric Williams' birth was a culmination of Colin Williams' detailed study of the life of a man widely known as the Father of the Nation. The event was Williams' crowning achievement-really to crown a man who he called "an international hero." The thirst to honour Dr Williams was born out of what Williams called the incredulous disrespect for the T&T national anthem he experienced at a football game in Trinidad.
"I couldn't believe that even a police officer was not standing at attention," he told me days before the event. A later encounter with a relative convinced him that a nationalistic fervor had evaporated from the Trinbagonian. "I went into his room and I saw pictures of Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey but not one of Dr Williams. In fact, my nephew couldn't tell me who Dr Eric Williams was. I was devastated." His crusade you could say began there. It was a learning process, for Williams needed to learn more, and quickly, if he were to enlighten others to support his view that Dr Williams needed to be celebrated. The journey took him to the Trinidad Consulate where he was asked, "Why are you doing this?" and to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
"It is about time that we recognise the worth of Dr Williams," he said. "You don't associate Abraham Lincoln or George Washington with the Democratic or Republican Party. You look at their contribution to American history and the ideals they advanced." As Williams planned the centennial event he was wary of it being deemed a PNM backed function. "This was never a PNM thing. Dr Williams is bigger than a single party, bigger than the country...even the region. He was really an international figure." He cautioned against "misinterpretation." "I am well aware that Dr Williams had his faults. He was a man, but after exploring his life-the good, bad, and indifferent, I must say that he trumps all comers. I mean what he has accomplished is phenomenal. He has raised the bar so high in terms of achievements that the people we refer today as our heroes are a distant second."
And of these many "firsts," Williams cited the transparency of the democratic process in T&T from 1956 to 1981 when Dr Williams was at the helm. He also recalled Dr Williams' ability to "rid the country of an American base without a single shot being fired." September 24, the day of marking Dr Eric Williams' centennial anniversary has arrived. The Brooklyn Children's Museum is turned into a dome of political reflection that transcends partisanship of every kind. I am amid restored and enlarged photos of Dr Williams' engagements with political luminaries-Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Indira Gandhi, Gamal Nasser, William Tubman, Chou En Lia, and U Thant. Colin Williams' views on Dr Williams are also well endorsed throughout the spacious and trendy setting. "We tend to forget our values and our struggle but in learning more about Dr Williams, I have a renewed interest in my country," remarks Dana Lezama.
Renee Collymore views Dr Williams as a "great philosopher and magnificent contributor to the world, and more than a Trinidadian." Desmond Chase calls him, "an astute politician," with the "maturity and savvy that could have tempered the current political divide in Washington." And attorney Frank Wharton reflects on Dr Williams' vision for a West Indian Federation. "At this point, the real test has to do with his vision for the Federation as a way forward economically and politically." It is a subject that resurfaces when Wharton addresses the audience.
A slew of distinguished speakers then follow, including the Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador to the United States and Mexico, Dr Neil Parsan, and George Lamming. It is an evening punctuated with a video address by Erica Williams-Connell, film excerpts, discussions, and musical selections. An evening précised by the evocative words of Dr Parsan: "We are here to pay tribute to one of the most robust figures to ever grace Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean....A gentleman who is the invisible conductor of an orchestra, and a presence that we still feel today...."