On becoming Sir Clive Lloyd

Jan 09, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

It is with great consternation that I read a letter in the Kaieteur News from Professor Kean Gibson. Now I have seen previous correspondence by the learned Professor exhibiting a vehement Pan-Africanism, some of which might even be construed as being somewhat controversial. But, alas I am not here to espouse on her former pronouncements.
However, what drew my ire was the Professor’s temerity to criticise the current Political leadership and Opposition for not congratulating “Sir Clive Lloyd” on his becoming a Member of The British Empire (MBE).
Now, I think some history would be in order here. Mr. Lloyd (I absolutely refuse to address him as “Sir” in the current context) was renowned for putting principle before personal enrichment on more than one occasion, and it really strikes me as being somewhat inconsistent when it comes to morality to even accept an Honour from the bastion and heart of perhaps the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.
The number of atrocities committed to expand, hold, and maintain are too numerous to mention and it is almost unthinkable that now London Bridge has fallen down, that a supposedly conscious man as Mr. Lloyd would willingly accept this condescending reminder of British superiority. He was principled when he led a strike against the WICBC for better player remuneration after which the whole team was fired.
Mr. Lloyd was in Australia engaging in a parallel tournament started by the Media magnate Kerry Packer, when he was summoned back to Guyana by none other than Forbes Burnham and subsequently reinstated as West Indies captain and as the saying goes, the rest is history. His pride and principle was patently obvious when he absolutely refused to yield to the temptation of untold riches being dangled by the pariah Apartheid Regime in South Africa.
Some of the less principled were part of a team led by the Jamaican Lawrence Rowe, and including our very own Alvin Kallicharran and Colin Croft, who were more than willing to put personal enrichment way, way ahead of such trivialities like pride and principle.
At that time, the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher regimes in America and Great Britain were loath to criticise the despicable Ian Smith Regime and even in the face of worldwide sport boycotts and widespread chastisement engaged in what was euphemistically called “constructive Engagement.”
In the spirit of consistency it would have seemed like the ideal thing for Mr. Lloyd to do, was to say “Thanks, but no Thanks”. He most definitely would have earned more respect for maintaining his principled position of not supporting an unjust, and even at some times, despotic status quo. Had he done so, it most definitely would not have established precedence, as some persons who would have been expected to show such initiative did so.
For example Liverpool football club’s first black player Howard Gayle refused the offer, saying that his ancestors “would be turning in their graves after the way empire and colonialism had enslaved them.”
Also the black British Poet and Actor Benjamin Zephaniah pointedly said “I get angry when I hear that word ‘empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.” Imagine (pun intended) even one of England’s greatest sons returned his honour to the Queen, along with a letter which supposedly stated “Your Majesty, I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, and against our support of America in Vietnam.’
I will therefore suggest that the Professor’s criticisms are not only unwarranted but most definitely misplaced. So, while I am not in any way or form blaming Mr. Lloyd for accepting his honour, because as we age we tend to lose our idealism and revolutionary fervour, I am sure that the great man Nelson Mandela (wherever he is) is sadly shaking his head and saying “ Clive boy, I am really disappointed in you, I really did expect better knowing the principled positions you took in the past. Then again, who am I to Judge; it is all between you and your God, whatever you perceive him/her to be.”
I know some folks might be tempted to think that now the British Empire these days is a very poor imitation of its former self, it has become somewhat benign and less malignant. But, rest assured that the classism, snobbery and innate disdain for people of colour is alive and well. Don’t take my word for it, do a Google search for “The Windrush Scandal” and find the series that The Guardian newspaper did exposing the unfair and unjust treatment meted out to our fellow West Indians (mostly Jamaicans) in the very recent past.
So I reiterate that any so called ‘honour’ conferred by your Majesty the Queen should be hastily rejected by any person of conscience. Think, just think if the late great Bob Marley were alive today and somehow they had foolishly dared to “honour him”, that he would have embraced this condescending and insulting remnant of the despicable and dastardly British Empire. Remember what the man said, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
Kenneth Frank,
Jacksonville, Florida

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