The C.L.R. James Institute: Tribute to Tim Hector from the Center for Caribbean Thought

The C.L.R. James Institute presents:

Tribute to Tim Hector
from the Center for Caribbean Thought

When the Grenadian Revolution imploded, a phase in the political life and experiences of the Caribbean Left came to an end. The tremendous efforts of a generation of Caribbean thinkers and political figures to shape a new dawn for the post-independence period had collapsed, leaving many disillusioned and others beginning the search for a set of new understandings rooted in the complex local knowledges of the region. This search for local political knowledges, of attempting to build from the ground of the Caribbean space, ideas that would transform the neo-colonies of the region, was a practice that for a long time had animated the political and cultural ideas of Tim Hector. His work as political leader for the Antiguan Caribbean Liberation Movement, as labour leader, opposition senator, cricket administrator, all flowed from his affirmation that the Caribbean was a unique civilization in the modern world and had tremendous possibilities, which were of utmost importance to human life.

Beginning with the group of Caribbean students in the 1960’s in Canada at McGill University, Hector became one of the leading Caribbean theorists about Caribbean politics and life. Like Walter Rodney, he attempted to re-position the relationship between theory and practice. If Rodney attempted to do this by engaging in a political practice we can call "groundings", Hector’s efforts were in the field of developing a form of political journalism that we can call " political and cultural reasonings." This journalism was a political practice, a way of intervening, of suggesting responses to the mess that the neo-colonial political leadership of the region had created. In his writings published over many years in the Outlet, Hector critiqued, informed, reported on, analyzed and contributed to Caribbean life and thought in a manner in which there is simply no other parallel in the region. With consistency, and a dramatic flair, Hector’s sharp pen made his readers reflect on the nature of the Caribbean, not with gestures of melancholy about size but with strokes of affirmation and possibilities. His passing will leave a void, which frankly cannot be easily replaced.

The Center for Caribbean Thought was involved with Tim Hector and others in the process of attempting to develop a progressive regional intellectual agenda. We valued Hector’s vast political experiences and saw him as a generational link between us and the likes of Walter Rodney and of course C. L. R. James. For us, Hector was not just a Jamesian but someone who used the ideas of James to carve out an independent intellectual and political outlook on Caribbean and world society. As such his efforts marked a new space for how the critical political intellectual in the Caribbean should function.

We send our deepest condolences to his family, but we want to remember his strength, both moral and intellectual, his sharp mind and tongue, his generosity of spirit and penchant for warm friendship and his passion for making a contribution to the new Caribbean.

Anthony Bogues
Brian Meeks
Rupert Lewis

For The Center for Caribbean Thought (University of the West Indies, Mona)

November 2002

Jim Murray, Director (make inquiries here)
Ralph Dumain, Librarian/Archivist & Webmaster

Uploaded 19 December 2002