Bernard Coard
A Tribute
Winston Bernard Coard, born 10 August 1944, is a leading Grenadian politician who was one of the founder members of the New Jewel Movement of Grenada; a leading figure in the Grenada Revolution of 13th March 1979; and Minister of Finance & Trade as well as Deputy Prime Minister in the People’s Revolutionary Government.
Below is a birthday tribute from world renowned journalist Earl Bosquet, Editor of The Voice of Saint Lucia that was released on the 10th August 2024.
Today marks a milestone in the life of a Caribbean man who’s made several signal contributions to the history of West Indian education and progressive Caribbean political agitation and change at home and abroad and still quietly but as-profusely-as-ever, quietly contributing to the continuing development and evolution of Caribbean politics and theories of revolution.
He’s honoured continuously in the UK for opening the eyes and opening the way for liberation of children of West Indian parentage in the UK from the bondage of colonial miseducation and everywhere else for planting some of the seeds that have nurtured the likes of the movement for protection of the Windrush Generation — and their descendants.
His contribution to how the Caribbean mass movement adopted and adapted Socialism as part of its modern vocabulary and platform went and still reaches far-beyond the shores of his island homes, his published and unpublished chronicles over the past five decades representing an accumulated compilation of how the blood freely flowed through the veins of modern Caribbean revolutionaries during the second half of the 20th Century.
He paid the ultimate price of every living political legend, in the process turning incarceration into a teaching and writing discipline while proving fatherly and comradely leadership to kith-and-kin in sharing the same endless night in a rudderless boat without sails.
As with every living mortal of his intellectual stature, he’s chalked-up unparalleled academic accomplishments; and his organisational leadership helped create and preserve a movement that rewrote Caribbean history in tablets of stone ahead of the IT revolution.
As with ever great man or woman who’s achieved what he did at home and abroad, he’s also been nailed into a coffin while still alive for things he did and didn’t do, but all to do with using one part of his long history to erase him from the history he’s still writing.
His contributions to his home struggle is still much-more than most know or many will admit, his leadership once spoken of in messianic terms by many who understood and shared his ideas that advanced the struggle and the movement.
He remains confined in castle of his skin, his mind still clicking like clockwork in his small private bubble in his other island home, aging gracefully and continuing to chronicle lessons for Caribbean revolutionaries (almost) like no-other like chronicler of progressive Caribbean history.
In several books chronicling his part in the region’s most-celebrated revolutionary island struggle, he more-than-once offers words of penance for where he may have gone wrong, but even after paying the punitory penitence he still remains imprisoned for life in the minds of usual suspects who forever choose to be selectively anaemic and engage 40+ year-old automated kneejerk responses anytime his name is mentioned.
But he continues to focus throwing his necessary share of bricks and mortar into the mixer that concretizes theory from practice, in ways that will matter long beyond us all.
His name is Bernard Coard and he turns 80 today!
By Earl Bousquet
Copies of Bernard Coard’s widely influential work How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Sub-normal… as well as the post incarceration publications can be found in progressive bookshops. Alternatively, these can be sourced via Amazon at https://bit.ly/3M4b6Bu.
A Young Man From Grenada
All the way in Grenada,
There lived an intelligent young man.
With dreams as vast as the sea,
His destiny was far from home, a distant plan.
Across the ocean under foreign land,
He sought a life both rich and grand.
In pursuit of knowledge, truth, and light,
A journey begun, into the night.
Who was this young man, with a spirit so rare?
A voyager, a dreamer, with stories to share.
In the annals of time, his tale would unfold,
A journey of valor, of warmth in the cold.
By the mighty hands of the Holy Divine,
A path was carved from the celestial design.
In the midst of a maze with a sign so clear,
Only he could see the truth, devoid of fear.
With the mind and the eyes to discern,
Through the twisted paths, he began to learn.
And with each step, his spirit did burn,
To wave a flag of great concern.
He declared ‘a deceitful foul-play,’
With a voice firm and convictions that sway,
“Who is this man?” we ask in dismay,
The truth-seeker who won’t be led astray.
He revealed the plight of the West Indian child,
In a land so cold, their dreams defiled,
Recorded their struggles, miles compiled,
In dustbin schools, their fates exiled.
A truth so harsh, it couldn’t be condoned.
How the black child was being groomed alone,
In silent echoes, their plight softly moaned.
Labelled as being backward, dull, and inferior,
A narrative unjust, cruel, and ulterior.
Destined to spend the rest of their days,
As a mere labourer, in the harshest of ways.
Yet, amidst the harshness, their spirits soared,
For he who speaks truth opens every door,
And though they were made educationally subnormal,
Their brilliance, like stars, impossible to ignore.
The thundering skies, they roar your name,
As clouds whisper, Bernard Coard, your fame,
A legacy that time cannot mar,
For you shine on us, a guiding star.
In the realm where wisdom’s seeds are sowed,
God sanctify you, Bernard Coard,
With you, no child may ever perish,
For in your gaze, their hopes flourish.
Children of all hues, a vibrant arc,
Rainbows in your sky, a divine mark,
A great man, who educates with grace,
Lifting young minds to find their place.
A great man, whose hands save, not take,
In your presence, souls awake,
Words falter to capture your essence,
A great man, beyond mere presence.
Bewildered, floored by your charms,
A great man, with open arms,
Outstanding, pure, good vibes you send,
In your memory, our hearts mend.
Your spirit, a beacon that guides through the storm,
A great man, in whose presence new hopes are born.
With every child’s success, your legacy thrives,
A great man, whose influence forever survives.
So let this stanza be a tribute, a song,
To a great man, who’s been righteous and strong.
May your memory be a light that never fades,
A great man, whose impact time never degrades.
Maisie Barrett
A personal tribute and expression of gratitude to the Honourable Bernard Coard through my poem.
Maisie Barrett is a writer & researcher, a published author and a campaigner for justice to those subjected to the Educationally Subnormal School system. She was also a contributor to the acclaimed BBC documentary Subnormal: A British Scandal, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w81h.
Copies of Bernard Coard’s widely influential work How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Sub-normal… as well as the post incarceration publications can be found in progressive bookshops. Alternatively, these can be sourced via Amazon at https://bit.ly/3M4b6Bu.