We’ll miss a fearless advocate of our heritage
Dear Editor,
Another spirit of Jamaica has taken flight from the din of this mortal world into Nirvana where the materialism of thought, the riot of emotions and man’s inhumanity to man are interred with the past life.
The Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) Limited and the Media Technology Institute (MTI) grieve at the passing of Professor Barry Chevannes, a curator of our culture and a fearless advocate of our heritage.
We will miss the sibling friendship which was rooted in a synonymous respect and faith in our culture and heritage as invaluable indices of social and economic development.
We will miss his instructive thoughts on the text and meaning of lives lived by our people as critical to understanding our context and destiny.
We will miss his sense of history and propositions of social engineering in stimulating a nation’s debate on its own identity, consciousness and properties which must be if we are to achieve that state of self-enlightenment.
We shall miss the statue of the man whose shadow may not linger but whose footprints will be founded in the communities and the causes he served well.
CPTC and MTI mark, with respect, his contribution to learning at the University of the West Indies, a cradle of thought of civil society, and his commitment to transform curricula of academia into working scripts for self-empowerment and actualisation.
A deep spiritualist, humanitarian and social activist, his work and legacy will be lauded not only for their relevance but more importantly for their character and repute.
Christopher Samuda
Chairman
The Creative Production and Training Centre Ltd &
The Media Technology Institute