Outstanding Carib journalists a monument to Professor Aggrey Brown

Friday, November 25, 2011

There are not many recent graduates of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (Carimac) who did not have the benefit of engagement with Professor Aggrey Brown.

We dare say that those who were not so fortunate are the poorer for it, because it is arguable that one of Professor Brown's most distinguishing characteristics was his zeal to instil in his students a culture of analysis, the discipline to apply deep, rational thought to all matters worthy of discussion.

A measure of his dedication to journalism and the moulding of young talent in the craft was his 22 years as head of Carimac, the unit of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies that has produced some of the Caribbean's finest media practitioners and wordsmiths. They, in effect, will remain a monument to this great Jamaican and Caribbean man.

It was obvious from his early days in the job that Professor Brown had a clear vision for Carimac as, over the years, he guided the unit from offering only a diploma programme to the current PhD in journalism.

We recall well his contribution as one of the alternating moderators of the ground-breaking talk show The Public Eye which aired on the now defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation radio and against which all subsequent talk shows came be judged.

Through sharp, concise and intellectual discourse, Dr Brown was able to communicate effectively with his audience while meeting The Public Eye's mandate of giving voice to the voiceless and challenging the status quo in the country.

Indeed, Professor Brown was impatient with those of his former students who, having been imbued with fine journalistic skills, failed to make an impact on the societies in which they practised their craft.

"We have people who have gone out there and have made it at the highest levels of media in the world. But there are students who come through and get their degrees and they really don't make a difference. They just go back and work; make a living without seriously challenging the status quo," he told an Observer reporter and Carimac student in an interview last year.

While he spent his last years outside of the classroom, it was clear that Professor Brown's thirst for scholarship remained unquenchable and he maintained his zeal for sharing newly acquired knowledge from the material that came into his hands.

But even if he had tried, he couldn't help but pass on all that he had learnt, for that, simply, was his nature.

We recall his unstinting support for distinguished fellow scribe, John Maxwell, throughout his battle with cancer, remaining by his side to the very end.

Jamaica and indeed the journalistic community, have lost an accomplished educator, first-class journalist and citizen. We extend our condolence to his widow, Suzanne Francis-Brown, an accomplished journalist herself, as well as his family which extended to the network of Cornwall College old boys who honoured him recently and followed his illness closely.

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Outstanding Carib journalists a monument to Professor Aggrey Brown