tidings
Sean Douglas
PROFESSOR Emeritus Gordon Rohlehr, 80, died on Sunday, provoking a flood of tributes from many sectors of society hailing his scholarship on West Indian folk culture, particularly calypso music.
Newsday editorial consultant Judy Raymond said in an online tribute: “RIP, Professor Gordon Rohlehr. Calypso scholar, critic, essayist, teacher, beautiful man.”
Gillian Moor, the singer, said: “Farewell to the beautiful Dr. Gordon Rohlehr. Thank you for your genius, your vision, your conversation, your laughter and your heart.
“Our deepest condolences to the Rohlehr family. Folks, we have lost a giant.”
Last September, when Rohlehr received a silver Chaconia medal for teaching West Indian Literature at UWI, the Office of the President of the TT Republic applauded his work.
“He pioneered the academic study of calypso and traced its historical development and social significance,” the President’s office said. “He has researched and authored many ground-breaking publications on the social, historical, linguistic and political undercurrents underpinning the Caribbean reality and is considered a leading authority on calypso and Caribbean culture.”
President Paula-Mae Weeks, as chancellor of UWI, offered her condolences on Monday, recalling his 2022 national award in the fields of Literature, Culture, History and Education.
Weeks, in her condolences, said Rohlehr had designed and taught the first UWI course in West Indian Literature.
She cited his national award.
“His conviction was that literature had a fundamental role to play in the development of adequate consciousness, without prejudice to the demands of the wider world. His publications demonstrate insight, critical awareness and an awareness of the integration of many social, historical, linguistic and currents policies that support the Caribbean reality.
“It traces the historical development and social significance of Calypso and explores issues such as masculinity and gender long before these terms gained value.”
UWI emeritus professor Kenneth Ramchand said in an online tribute: “Shocking and sad. I am shaking. We had a long and influential working relationship in the Department of English Literature.” Ramchand recalled their mutual respect and the combination of their different skills.
“He was delightful. In the English corridors we had epic conversations, well balancing humour, irony and despair, about life, literature, calypso, politics and cricket.
“Condolences to his family, his friends and colleagues and the thousands of students, teachers and professors who loved him and enjoyed his teaching and writing and were warmed by his embracing presence. I already miss you being on the other side Gordon I don’t it never occurred to any of us that we might lose our port.”
UWI Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, in a statement, noted that “Rohlehr’s legacy carries on in the students he nurtured on the St. Augustine campus through intensive conversation and research. His former students and those who filled his lecture rooms, as well as the many scholars and intellectuals who benefited from his pioneering, intensive and exhaustive research, share a deep sense of loss and gratitude.”
Veteran journalist Tony Fraser said Rohlehr was one of the best West Indian intellectuals whose study focused deeply on the creative literature of TT.
“It was he who put the calypso on the stage as one of the highest expressions of our stage art. He freely gave his intellectual work to the public.”
Fraser recalled a TTT studio discussion with Rohlehr and calypsonians Andrew “Brother Superior” Marcano and Samuel “Brigo” Abraham about the genius of Theophilus “Mighty Spoiler” Philip.
“The professor taught several generations of students how to fully appreciate the creations of calypsonians and other writers of literature.”
Fraser hailed Rohlehr’s insightful writings on West Indies cricket, including an essay on his Guyanese compatriot Rohan Kanhai.
“Prof has left behind his unparalleled work in Calypso and West Indian literature for generations to come. We celebrate your life and work Professor. Blessings to you.”
Veteran broadcaster Dominic Kalipersad hailed Rohlehr as a Caribbean literary scholar who pioneered the academic and intellectual study of calypso and calypso.
“He was noted for his study of popular culture in the Caribbean, including oral poetry, calypso and cricket.”
He said Rohlehr spent 40 years at the UWI, St Augustine, Department of English doing internationally recognized and ground-breaking work on Caribbean literature, calypso and culture.
His academic interest and research resulted in the production of an extensive written opus on West Indian literature, oral poetry, calypso and Caribbean folk culture.
Rohlehr’s publications include: Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad (1990), My Strangled City and Other Essays (1992), The Shape of That Hurt and Other Essays (1992), A Scuffling of Islands: Essays on Calypso (2004) , Perfect Tales Now: A Bookman Signs Off on Seven Decades (2019) and Musings, Mazes, Muses, Margins (2020).
Bocas Lit Fest was deeply shocked and saddened by the death of Rohlehr, a “literary scholar, cultural commentator, intellectual mentor and professor emeritus.”
“He was a beloved teacher and a public intellectual in the best sense, known for his deeply informed and insightful writings on calypso, on West Indian poetry and especially on the work of Kamau Brathwaite. Prof Rohlehr was a regular at Bocas Lit Fest scene over the years, and we were honored when he accepted the Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters in 2014.
“He was a towering presence both physically and intellectually, and the only consolation for his loss is the extraordinary archive of his scholarship, always elegantly written and accessible, that he has left us.
The paper-based bookshop in St Ann said its staff were deeply saddened to learn of Rohlehr’s death and saluted his “titanic brilliance”.
“For decades, we have been honored to stock his books on our shelves and hear directly from readers about the effect his generous and profound scholarship has had on their worldviews.
“Perhaps best of all, we have been delighted by Prof Rohlehr’s personal visits to provide copies of his self-published titles, which remain in high demand by academics and non-academics alike. “We appreciate them. interpersonal conversation, full of Gordon warmth, wit and infinite intelligence. We will miss them a lot.”
UNC PRO Dr Kirk Meighoo told Newsday Rohlehr had been his colleague at the university and his death was “a tremendous loss” to TT’s intellectual life.
“We shared so many concerns about the cultural integrity and the cultural life of TT and the way it had fallen – the politics and so on.”
“When I was working with Lloyd Best at the West Indies TT Institute, we had a lot of contacts there as well. He was very connected with the whole New World Group.
Meighoo said this large group included “a whole generation of intellectuals” including Rohlehr, Ramchand and Best.
“I have to say that I am sorry that their legacy has not been carried on in the same way.
“Prof Rohlehr made an extremely detailed and highly intellectual analysis of our situation – our music, art, culture, poetry – in a way that has unfortunately not been continued with the same level of quality, intellectual caliber, erudition, insight, commitment and He had all of these.
“I always found it so interesting that he was Guyanese and had this love and knowledge of Trinidadian culture. It was just incredible.”
PNM paid tribute in a Facebook post, citing a tribute from former UWI Professor of International Relations Mark Kirton.
“He was a true academic and professional, always ready to offer advice and guidance to young researchers and students.
“Unquestionably one of the best critics and thinkers of the Caribbean, his territory covers popular literature and culture, especially calypso.”
The tribute said Rohlehr gained a first-class honors degree in English Literature in 1964 from the University College of the West Indies, Jamaica, then wrote a doctoral dissertation, Alienation and Devotion in the Works of Joseph Conrad, at the University of Birmingham, England in 1967 .
His publications included: Pathfinder: Black Awakening in Arrivals of Edward Kamau Brathwaite; Cultural Resistance and the Guyanese State; A Clash of the Isles: Essays on Calypso; Transgression, Transition, Transformation: Essays in Caribbean Culture; and Ancestors: Readings of Kamau Brathwaite’s Ancestors and All My Life is Calypso: Essays on Sparrow.
The tribute concluded: “Thank you for the immeasurable effort you have invested in cataloging and documenting our culture.”
