UWI Professor Gordon Rohlehr has died

Professor Gordon Rohlehr has died.

The Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus passed away on Sunday. The cause of death has not been disclosed.

 Rohler, 80, was an acclaimed essayist, author, cultural analyst, and calypso expert.

He was awarded the Chaconia Medal Silver in the Spheres of Literature, Culture, History and Education at the National Awards last year.

Born in Guyana, Rohlehr was known for his prolific writings, His list of works included books such as His publications include:  Cultural Resistance and the Guyana State (Casa de las Américas, 1984); Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad (Port of Spain, 1990);  A Scuffling of Islands: Essays on Calypso (Lexicon Trinidad Ltd, 2004); Transgression, Transition, Transformation: Essays in Caribbean Culture (Lexicon, 2007); and Ancestories: Readings of Kamau Brathwaite’s “Ancestors” (Trinidad: Lexicon, 2010) and My Whole Life is Calypso: Essays on Sparrow (2015).

Tributes have been flowing since the news of his passing.

The Office of the President posted the citation from his investiture. It read:

“Professor Emeritus Rohlehr designed, piloted and taught the first course in West Indian Literature. He later became active in the expansion and development of the course offerings in English and was central to the introduction and teaching of American Literature and Post Colonial Literature. His conviction was that literature had a fundamental role to play in developing adequate self-awareness without prejudice to the requirements of the wider world. His publications demonstrate insight, critical awareness and consciousness of the integration of the many social, historical, linguistic and political currents undergirding Caribbean reality. His most significant contribution to raise national consciousness has been his phenomenal work on calypso. He has traced calypso's historical development and social relevance and has explored issues such as masculinity and gender long before these terms gained currency.”

The People’s National Movement posted reflections from former UWI International Relations Professor, Mark Kirton who said Rohlehr was an authority on West Indian literature and the calypso.

“He was a true academic and professional, always willing to offer advice and guidance to young scholars and students.” Unquestionably one of the Caribbean’s finest critics and thinkers, his territory covers both literature and popular culture, particularly Calypso. He graduated in 1964 from the University College of the West Indies, Jamaica, with a First Class Honours degree in English Literature, after which he wrote a doctoral dissertation titled Alienation and Commitment in the Works of Joseph Conrad at Birmingham University, England (1964-1967)”

Former politician Bhoendradatt Tewarie described Rohlehr as a giant of an academic, a vital intellectual, full of creative insight on literature, culture and the arts across the Caribbean.

He said: “He gave a lot to his students, to teaching and research, to the University of the West Indies, to Trinidad and Tobago and to Caribbean society and thought during the course of a distinguished career and a life of passionate work and service. He was a good and decent man. My sincere condolences to his wife, family, loved ones.”