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A tribute to Clarence Ellis
Dear Editor,
Without doubt he was a warrior – first and foremost. Like Amilcar Cabral and Che Guevara he was humanity itself, and in danger, could share his last grain with a fellow warrior without a frown. (He and Patty gave me tea in London at 10pm when I simply dropped in and then out).
I had no problem arguing strategy with him….I knew he would never shoot me. That’s how I shall remember Clarence.
He was cultured and shaped a value that can be expressed as “no bow down”.
I attended “A Tribute to Rex Nettleford” at St Francais College NY where a poet recited Claude McKay’s famous poem: If We Must Die. I regard Nettleford as an Independence fighter using culture and particularly the Jamaica Dance Troupe as his weapon to reshape African culture in the Caribbean.
The recitation of McKay’s famous poem invoked in me Clarence Ellis again. Clarence Ellis should not be buried in a spot far from his native Guyana. He was a Guyana warrior and should be buried next to Damon’s statue in Anna Regina. Clarence and Cde. Damon were of the same Guyana warrior mold.
How many of you know the story of Damon and emancipation? Tommy Payne wrote a book about him.
Surely we will get books about Clarence Ellis. Clarence went to Queen’s in the 1940s, and he also ‘grounded’ with the youth of the 1950s (PNC’s Dalgety and the WPAs), the 1960s (Eric Phillips and Laurence Clarke), the 1970s (Kimani Nehusi), and maybe the 1980s…..a remarkable leader of the young.
Tom Dalgety
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