Two Great Foes of Apartheid pass on

[Letter to The Leader, weekly, Durban, 14 March 1997]

SIR - This has been a sad week with the passing away of two great Caribbean statesmen and stal­warts of the international campaign against apartheid.

Dr. Cheddi Jagan, in an extraordinary gesture, while Chief Minister of British Guiana, joined a demonstration in front of the British Parlia­ment after the Sharpeville Massacre and was arrested. A grandson of an indentured labourer, he symbolised that not only India but the entire Indian Diaspora was committed to the elimi­nation of apartheid.

Michael Manley, for­mer Prime Minister of Jamaica, was the initia­tor of the International Convention against Apartheid Sport which played a significant role in the struggle against apartheid. He, too, like Dr. Jagan, was subjected to “dirty tricks” by Western intelligence agencies for his opposition to imperialism and racism.

Their passing away should serve to remind us how the struggle against apartheid became a world-wide struggle rallying many of the noblest men and women of this century.

E. S. Reddy