Keeble, Burke add much to my knowledge of Dudley

Monday, February 06, 2012

Dear Editor,

I wish to thank Keeble McFarlane for a great, factual, punctuated look at Dudley Thompson's life, in his column of January 28, "Dudley was, above all, a superb advocate". The corners in which you shone your writer's light are significant milestones to both Dudley's life and Jamaica. He and Michael Burke have added much to my cursory knowledge of a man I admired and regard as a fine example of distinguished Jamaicans and international citizens.

His brilliant and brave foray in every part of Jamaican life holds out much in my own aspirations. I have personal memories of him, having worked as a clerk in the registry at the Ministry of Mining during the 70s. He was unassuming and accommodating to me, then a 17-year-old country boy with a curious mind. The minister allowed me unscheduled access and I benefited from unscripted moments of the astute, global mind that he was.

After discovering that I was born in Accra on the doorstep of Kwame Nkrumah - of Jamaican parents who had married in Lagos - we had a lot to exchange. My father, a churchman, teacher and preacher imparted to me an insider's knowledge of pre-independence Ghanaian history, his personal relationship with Nkrumah, and a cursory introduction of Ga and Twe languages (heavy precursors of Jamaican patois) before my third birthday.

There were few in my surroundings who appreciated this blessed inheritance afforded me. Talk about Africa at that time was just becoming positive. Dudley validated, with relish, my colourful upbringing.

I learned a little of Dudley's love of the law, people from Africa and the Caribbean, his pride in heritage, his confidence as a quality person in the midst of first-world detractors and his ability to travel new ground among the Goliaths.

I benefited from his snippets on Jomo Kenyatta's trials, unfair political imprisonment and national triumph. His intimate knowledge of Padmore and Nkrumah (who was unfairly imprisoned and won an election while still in jail - the shared fate of Jomo). He spoke a little of helping Pindling in his struggles with the British over The Bahamas Independence and Bay Street boys.

My stirring memory of this small frame of a man "who was too busy to grow", was this: I was a ministry gopher/aid at the International Bauxite Conference held in Jamaica in the late 70s. I worked under ministry technocrat, Dr Byer; Dr Davis, then of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute; and Mr Merrick Needham, in charge of support services, as we proudly hosted 20 countries, at the then Rose Hall Intercontinental, now HIlton Rose Hall Resort & Spa. It was Dudley who scored for Jamaica and negotiated to host this conference which was huge for a tiny island nation.

Dudley knew I was a coin collector and gave me coins from his travels. His PA, Ms O'Meally, the vivacious daughter of Reverend O'Meally of Mandeville, always wondered, along with Mel Spence, his personal security from Special Branch, how Dudley managed to give me the time he did, since he was so busy and in such demand.

I regret not recording his musings, not securing a signature, not getting more while I could have. However, I have his voice in my head, a picture of him sitting at his desk, on the north-west side of the third floor in the ICWI building where the Ministry of Mining was housed in New Kingston.

Carl Brown

Grand Cayman

zwissacb@gmail.com

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Keeble, Burke add much to my knowledge of Dudley