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Reading Time 4 mins
February 2, 2023
“Throughout his life, Gordon Rohlehr has been overflowing with creativity… that flowed from his soul, mind, and pen as majestically and powerfully as the waters of Kaieteur Falls and as beautifully and far-reaching as the Ortoire River.”
The path of verbal virtuosity traveled by Gordon Rohlehr during his lifetime was never before traversed. Footsteps that followed a cosmic calling and creative compass guided by a mix of parental influences and fueled by passionate perseverance. His father was the superintendent of a boys’ reform school, and his mother was the principal of an Anglican primary school. Though she won a prestigious Bishop’s High School scholarship, she was denied a place there due to classism. However, the balance was somewhat restored when Mr. Hazelwood accepted her at his own private school. She went on to excel and placed 4th globally after writing the College Of Preceptors exam. Gordon’s father, who was as strict as he was serious about the importance of education, insisted on daily discipline and regimen to achieve excellence. So, it is no surprise that a seed pollinated through persistence and planted in such fertile soil would soon begin its own literal germination.Raised in a home with the luxury of a library and fueled by his family’s social shortcomings (as per status quo), young Gordon was determined to resurrect the brilliance of his mother and make his own mark through his own creativity, focus, and originality. Throughout primary, secondary, and even tertiary schooling, he masterfully maintained a balance between academics and cricket – wielding his pen with wizard-like wit akin to Everton Weekes’ batting brilliance. He attended UCWI (University College of West Indies, Mona, Jamaica) and graduated in 1964 with a first-class Honours Degree in English Literature.
Following his graduation from UCWI, he yearned to be amongst like-minded creatives and sojourned in London, where he attended the University of Birmingham. He was romanticized by the poetic allure of jazz and mingled with mental mammoths such as George Lamming, Aubrey Williams, CLR James, Althea McNish, and Kamau 
Braithwaite. The latter was one of the founders of CAM (Caribbean Artists’ Movement), along with Andrew Salkey and John LaRose. This creative climate encouraged critical thought, originality, and intrepidness. An intellectual incubator of sorts, CAM existed from circa 1966 to 1972 and was a space in which creatives from the Caribbean, Africa, the USA, and the Commonwealth who were residing in the UK united and mobilized to escape marginalism, eventually establishing themselves as influential creative contemporaries in a well respected global court. Gordon Rohlehr cites a verbal challenge by one of CAM’s founders to his rebuttal during a discussion at the second meeting as a catalyst for his now prolific career. Gordon’s actions as a result of that challenge created a tipping point in his journey that helped to define what is now heralded as one of the most uniquely transformative literary careers ever.
Braithwaite. The latter was one of the founders of CAM (Caribbean Artists’ Movement), along with Andrew Salkey and John LaRose. This creative climate encouraged critical thought, originality, and intrepidness. An intellectual incubator of sorts, CAM existed from circa 1966 to 1972 and was a space in which creatives from the Caribbean, Africa, the USA, and the Commonwealth who were residing in the UK united and mobilized to escape marginalism, eventually establishing themselves as influential creative contemporaries in a well respected global court. Gordon Rohlehr cites a verbal challenge by one of CAM’s founders to his rebuttal during a discussion at the second meeting as a catalyst for his now prolific career. Gordon’s actions as a result of that challenge created a tipping point in his journey that helped to define what is now heralded as one of the most uniquely transformative literary careers ever.Upon leaving the United Kingdom, he began his tenure at UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad as an assistant lecturer in 1968. This journey lasted four decades, during which he blazed his own trail via his intellectual ingenuity by pioneering courses in Caribbean culture and calypso, penning numerous essays, conducting interviews and broadcasts, rising to the rank of Personal Chair in 1985, and writing several books, including his seminal work “Calypso & Society In Pre-Independence Trinidad” in 1990. In addition to his phenomenal career at UWI, St. Augustine, he was a visiting professor at several prestigious universities, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and York University, Toronto.
Throughout his life, Gordon Rohlehr has been overflowing with creativity. The type of creativity that flowed from his soul, mind, and pen as majestically and powerfully as the waters of Kaieteur Falls and as beautifully and far-reaching as the Ortoire River. Most important is how this creative colossus generously used his gifts to elevate calypso: from part-time palavering to a moderated, proper panel discussion, from disposable dialect to an authentic, auspicious, admired art form. He understood the importance of the Caribbean creative contribution to poetry, literature, art, music, and dance that they were all connected. That, though different disciplines, there were recurring themes. Every art’s a dish; every artist’s a chef, yet they all used the same proverbial iron pot and similar base spices and stirred that pot with an innate Caribbean rhythm, which resulted in a unique sweetness. For this, every practitioner of this art form is indebted to him.
If you have ever been in his presence and privileged to listen to, converse with, or read one of his essays or books, understand that you didn’t cross paths with just a creative writer. You were in the presence of a magician moonlighting as a mere mortal. A stick fighter in a suit, with a fountain pen and notepad in his breast pocket, and barefooted – because as educated and elevated as he was, he remained grounded and relatable. Rohlehr’s remarkableness resonates… The ancestors are proud. GOD is smiling at a soul that had an exemplary existence and exceeded expectations.
Rise In Power and Write On, Brotha, Professor, and, as I’ve referred to him, The Guya-Dadian Giant!
Josh Tyson-Fermin is a freelance music enthusiast, writer, photographer, and TV/documentary producer & videographer. He researches, archives, and preserves music of the African, Caribbean, and Black American diasporas and shares this music on radio shows such as Finger Poppin’ Soul, based in Amsterdam, Holland.
A befitting tribute to a great man! Well done!