A straight 'A' student and an excellent dancer
Walter Rodney and I started at Queen's College in September of 1953. We were two of several others (Walter Ramsahoye included) who were lucky to get free places in the second form of this prestigious school. It was the year of Queen Elizabeth's coronation and this, together with the historic PPP victory at the polls, allowed the new Minister of Education, L.F.S. Burnham, to increase the number of scholarships. We both came from relatively large and poor families, so that the princely sum of $14.33 that was given to every scholarship student each term, was very welcome. We had an early rivalry in the second and third forms, winning form prizes in our different streams. But once we got together in the then Lower Fourth Classical, it became clear that Walter was in another gear altogether. We were among the first group of students allowed to write GCE 'O' Levels a year earlier - so that, with Latin already passed, we moved on to what was a very novel thing then - starting Spanish, one year later passing at the Ordinary Level and writing it as one of three subjects at the Advanced Level. Along with `Piggy' Agrippa, Walter and I were the first three students to offer Spanish at the Advanced Level in 1960. It was however in History and English Language and Literature that Walter Rodney excelled. Bobby Moore had just returned from being fired up by Elsa Gouveia at UWI, and made History a living and stimulating study. He was a straight `A' student and I got a good pass simply by reading and cramming his essays. E.P. Clayton, a teacher from the United Kingdom, would have been the one who coached him into getting a distinction in English. Rodney easily won the UWI Open Arts Scholarship - in a year when the Guyana Scholarship went to Thomas and Ramsahoye from the Sixth Science. It meant a lot of other `hot shots' like the well-known Gordon Rohlehr had to repeat in order to win a scholarship. Like every other student and master at Queen's he was better known by his nickname 'Cha'. Others of our time who moved around with him outside of the schoolroom, like GT&T's Terry Holder will tell you he was so named for his excellent dancing even at that early stage. He was easily the best debater of our time. He was awarded the school colours for debating and won every competition around, inter-house and national. I remember once, he got up for his rebuttal and remained silent for the full minute. It was his way of telling the judges there was nothing worthy of rebuttal. He was equally outstanding on the sports field. He played a good game of football as Pryor Jonas can attest. And he held the high jump record for years. Yet the memory that stays with me of Walter is how he was always immaculately dressed. Stiffly starched and dressed white shirts and khaki pants that fitted well and that always gave him a confident and self-assured look. Just before he left for UWI, and I had already started as an Announcer for GBS in 1960, I invited him to be the first person I would interview for a current affairs programme called Panorama. When concluding the session, I asked if he intended to be another Burnham or Jagan. I remember his answer. That while they were good role models, it was his desire to educate himself to become an able spokesman for the underprivileged and oppressed in the world. He did just that.
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