This announcement made on behalf of Sir Shridath’s family by his son-in-law,   Sir Ronald Sanders.

Sir Shridath Ramphal 1928-2024

Commonwealth secretary-general charmed the Queen, promoting Commonwealth cohesion.

Sir Shridath Ramphal, who died aged 95, was a short, chubby figure, easily given to laughter, with attractive eyes highlighting his intelligent visage. A British Indian, “Sonny” Ramphal wore his heart on his sleeve. His open emotionalism, facility for self-promotion and espousal of sanctions against apartheid South Africa angered Conservative leaders, who felt the Commonwealth secretary-general should be an impartial international civil servant. In her memoirs, Lady Thatcher pulled her punches, though there was little doubt of her irritation with the hypocrisy of Ramphal’s position.

In her account of the fraught 1985 Commonwealth heads meeting at Nassau, where she came under heavy pressure from Ramphal to “compromise” with Africans seeking sanctions, she recorded that “I began to tell my African critics some home truths… they were busy trading with South Africa .. as they were attacking me for refusing to apply sanctions. I reminded them of their own less than impressive record on human rights…”

It was one of the charges against Ramphal that he turned a deliberate blind eye to shortcomings of Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, imperfect practitioners of democracy and human rights.

Ramphal’s admirers in the organisation greatly outnumbered his detractors. Disagreement over South Africa might easily have demolished the Commonwealth and it was Ramphal’s passionate opposition to racism and his espousal of third-world causes which kept the “new” Commonwealth countries within the group at a difficult time. Under his stewardship, the Commonwealth expanded from 37 to 49. If the price for keeping the show on the road was the estrangement of its founder, Ramphal gambled on the fact that Mrs Thatcher was unlikely to risk a diplomatic rift by walking away.

It helped Ramphal that he got on famously well with the Queen, with whom he shared a conviction of the value of the Commonwealth. Despite views that it was “anachronistic” for a monarch to lead the organisation, he found that the Queen “transcended the barriers of race, colour and caste very easily and she was never lofty or remote. In all my 15 years, I never met a prime minister or a president – Marxists and republicans included – who did not set the greatest store by the 20 minutes she spent with each of them at our heads of government meetings. Even more astonishing, I never at any time felt that she aimed at promoting the British national interest.”

Ramphal enjoyed an access to the Queen that made him the envy of other diplomats and politicians. Their rapport undoubtedly added to the British government’s reluctance to criticise him too openly.

Shridath Surendranath Ramphal was born on October 3 1928 to Grace and James Ramphal in New Amsterdam, the old Dutch capital of British Guiana, now Guyana. His widowed great-grandmother took her son and left India an outcast, refusing to die on her husband’s funeral pyre. She moved abroad twice as an indentured British Indian, finally settling in the colony. There she worked on a sugar plantation owned by John Gladstone, father of William. The Canadian Presbyterian Mission built schools in rural Indian communities and converted his Hindu grandfather to Christianity. Ramphal’s father James was a schoolmaster in Presbyterian schools, a school founder and campaigner for education of Indian girls.

Educated in Georgetown, British Guiana, Ramphal won scholarships to study Law at King’s College London, boarding with a family at Carshalton. Called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1951, he later spent a year at Harvard Law School on a Guggenheim fellowship, launching his stellar career. His legal adventure advanced in 1953 in the post of Crown Counsel in the Attorney General’s office. In 1958 he became legal draftsman to the West Indies Federal government. He returned to British Guiana briefly, then worked as assistant attorney general to the Federation until it collapsed in 1962. Ramphal practised law in Jamaica, while strikes and violent riots created an emergency in British Guiana. In 1962-64 the CIA funded the People’s National Congress and the United Force which replaced the socialist People’s Progressive Party under Indian Cheddi Jagan amid violent civil unrest in 1963. African authoritarian Forbes Burnham became Premier and the CIA continued funding the coalition until the 1968 election In 1965, to the disgust of the persecuted Indian majority, bigoted Burnham lured the amiable Ramphal to join his racist regime, manipulating the African diaspora to back him to hold power indefinitely.

For over 10 years Ramphal served as attorney general and foreign minister until after the eccentric dictator became Prime Minister in 1966, playing the leading role in drafting the constitution for newly independent Guyana in 1966. As foreign minister, Ramphal led Guyana’s delegation to the United Nations every year from 1967 to 1974 and was elected vice- president of the General Assembly in 1968 and 1973. In 1966, he took Silk and was appointed CMG.

A corrupt PNC won the 1968 Guyana general election through blatant electoral fraud, skewing results in its favour with an inflated “overseas vote.” Black power created regional havoc and terrorists committed crimes, as the Guyana potentate declared a Cooperative Republic and Ramphal was knighted in 1970, avoiding the title to protect his credibility in third-world eyes.

Yet his first name Shridath, includes the honorific Shri, Sanskrit for grace, splendour, radiance, dignity, used to address royalty, nobles and venerated figures.

Knowing Indira Gandhi in the Non-Aligned Movement, he acknowledged the pivotal role of India, the largest nation in the Commonwealth, when he was elected secretary-general of the Commonwealth in 1975. It was a lucky escape from the heinous horrors of Guyana where the oppressive PNC grabbed indigenous land and pursued autarky, banning staple food, purging Indians and nationalising foreign companies. The strongman visited Africa and won a fraudulent 1973 election when Indians were murdered, sparking migration. Winning a 1978 referendum, the autocrat changed the constitution to delay election amid voter suppression, arson and murder of a British priest. Yet the grotesque tyrant was elected president in 1980 as Guyana was eviscerated. Now Guyana is a powerhouse and Ramphal remains the international role model for its youth.

Ramphal first experienced the UK Tory administration at the Lusaka Commonwealth Summit in 1979 and the subsequent Rhodesian independence talks at Lancaster House. Ramphal always claimed the credit on behalf of the Commonwealth for achieving a settlement .

Q

Relations with Britain improved when Ramphal was instrumental in throwing the weight of the Commonwealth behind Britain during the Falklands war with Argentina in 1982. Appreciation for his support during the crisis and recognition of his influential standing within the Commonwealth led Mrs Thatcher to support his appointment to an unprecedented third term at the 1983 Commonwealth Conference in New Delhi.

Amid rows over sanctions, under Ramphal’s sage stewardship, the Commonwealth made important progress improving north-south negotiating procedures and taking a common line on third-world debt and trade. Ramphal was credited with helping Africa, the West Indies and the Pacific to win trade concessions from the EEC in the negotiations for the first Lomé convention. During 15 years as Commonwealth secretary-general, Ramphal served on five independent international commissions : the Brandt Commission on International Development, the Palme Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development, the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues and the South Commission.

After retiring from the Commonwealth in 1990, Ramphal served as co-chairman of the Commission on Global Governance, as president of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and chairman of the International Steering Committee of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Leadership in Environmental and Development Programme. He was chairman of the West Indian Commission and a special adviser to the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief economic negotiator on External Economic Relations in the Caribbean region.

Pro-active and dynamic, he served as chancellor of the University of Guyana from 1990 to 1992, of the University of the West Indies from 1989 to 2003 and of the University of Warwick in Britain from 1989 to 2002.

Renowned as a monumental mediator, he had colossal roles in regional and international affairs. His Indian heritage made him an impartial, iconic buffer in explosive post -imperial Black-White conflicts. His cosmopolitan colonial upbringing were advantages for a heroic, pioneering moderator appeasing intransigent opponents and radical politicians. His genial, outgoing, disarming personality was allied to great intellectual capacity, and a genuine global vision.

Sir Shridath Ramphal was appointed GCMG and OM (Jamaica), both in 1990. He attended Energy Conferences after Guyana discovered vast oil deposits in 2015. He represented Guyana in the border dispute with Venezuela at the International Court of Justice in 2020.

He married, in 1951, Lois King, an English nurse who died in 2019. He is survived by their two sons and two daughters.

Guyana is in a better place economically since the US titan Exxonmobil began producing oil, boosting state coffers. The West Indies made progress, now stymied by atavistic activism and crime. The world, abounding in resources, is riven by war and disease, as population growth explodes.

 

Sir Shridath Ramphal, born October 3 1928 in British Guiana, died August 30 2024 in Barbados.

From Edward Greene, Chancellor of University of Guyana and Board Member of Diplomats without Borders

We mourn the profound loss of Sir Shridath Ramphal, a remarkable, leading international statesman. Sir Shridath’s expansive life’s work and impact are aptly captured in his memoirs, Glimpses of a Global Life which together with Time for Change: a Report of the Caribbean Commission should be compulsory reading for all, especially Caribbean scholars, students, and diplomats. His outstanding contributions at all stages of the regional movement in the Caribbean — from the short-lived West Indies Federation to CARIFTA and its blossoming into CARICOM now 50 years old, are all well documented. In addition, the seminal work of the West Indian Commission established by the CARICOM Heads of Government and which he chaired (1989) remains a prescient blueprint. Its recommendations to help the people of the West Indies prepare for the 21st century are still so relevant today.

As I reflect on Sir Shridath’s venerable life, his impact on me and my colleagues is enduring. I refer to those of us who witnessed at first-hand his mesmerizing attributes as
“Chairman of the Board”, his astuteness in fashioning cohesion out of divisiveness, his inspirational leadership, his commitment to success and his demonstration of humility even when the outcomes of his efforts called for a triumphant response. He was a trailblazer, a role model and a Renaissance figure whose legacy will remain undiminished.

The Council of the University of Guyana (UG) which I have the honour to chair, the Vice Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, the Senior Management Staff, Alumni and friends of UG join me in celebrating the life of this extraordinary man, our former Chancellor (1990-1992). We extend our deepest sympathy to his children, other members of his family and the extended global family whose lives he touched.

 

 

Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, October 3, 1928-August 30, 2024

By Suzanne Francis Brown (UWI Museum Founding Curator and Honorary Research Fellow)

At the University of the West Indies, Sir Shridath Ramphal is best remembered as the fourth Chancellor, a role he played to full effect for the maximum allowable period of two seven-year terms. For part of that time, he was simultaneously Chancellor of the University of Guyana and the University of Warwick in the UK. Many changes to the structure of the UWI emerged from his Chancellor’s Commission report on The Regional University in the 1990s and Beyond.

A former foreign minister of his native Guyana, he served as Commonwealth Secretary General from 1975-1990, when he was an important leader in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. He served as Chief Negotiator on External Economic Relations and as Chairman of the Caribbean Commission that wrote the seminal report, A Time for Action in 1992. He was President of the World Conservation Union and Special Adviser to the UN Conference on Environment and Development and mediated and facilitated across the world stage.

When he launched his memoir, A Global Life, at the UWI Mona, the University of the West Indies Museum highlighted elements of his story. Here, we reprise a panel on his role as Vice Chancellor.

UWI Statement on the passing of Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal
September 2nd, 2024

 

“Sonny contributed much to the development of Caribbean civilization and institutions. I am sorry for his passing, but I am proud of his contributions. In every sense he was one of our greatest leaders and impactful citizens.”

Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles responded to news of Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal’s passing. Sir Hilary expressed his condolences on behalf of the University, recognising Sonny’s stature as a distinguished scholar and statesman, whose contributions to the University, the region, and the world cannot be forgotten. Between 1989 and 2003, Sir Shridath served as Chancellor of The University of the West Indies. A tribute to his contribution to the University’s mission and vision is the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy, and Services. It was named after Sir Shridath in recognition of this distinguished Caribbean statesman’s critical role in shaping the region’s trade and economic development policies during the early days of independence. This Centre aims to develop trade capacity and develop innovative trade solutions for the Caribbean region.

Throughout Sir Shridath’s career, he played various exemplary and pioneering roles. Among them, serving as the Commonwealth’s Secretary General, Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, the British West Indies Federation’s Assistant Attorney General and the West Indian Commission’s Chairman. A former director general of CARICOM’s Office of Trade Negotiations, now known as the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, he served as the first Director General.

It was Sonny’s mission to promote both democracy and regionalism. In his role as a legal draftsman, he worked on the constitutions of the West Indies Federation and Guyanese Independence. As an architect of multi-racial democracy in the post-colonial period, he played a crucial part. He was instrumental in securing the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which has served to preserve and protect the regional character of The UWI. A first for the Commonwealth, he made history as its first Secretary General from a “third world” country. In his long service as Secretary General of the Commonwealth, he played an important diplomatic role in ending apartheid and freeing Nelson Mandela.

A heartfelt condolence is extended to Sir Shridath’s family, friends, colleagues, and those whose lives he touched. “We will honour his memory by upholding the values and principles he stood for,” said Vice-Chancellor Beckles. “May the soul of Sonny rest in peace.”

 

UWI tributes to Sir Shridath Ramphal

Monday | September 2, 2024

The Patterson Institute of Advocacy for the Caribbean and Africa and The University of the West Indies (UWI) added their voices to the tributes that have been pouring in after the death of Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, former secretary-general of the Commonwealth.

His death was greeted with “profound sadness and a deep sense of loss” and that he was “a true titan” of Caribbean diplomacy and global statesmanship.

“Sir Shridath’s departure at the age of 96 marks the end of an era, but his legacy will continue to inspire generations to come,” the Institute says in its statement over the name of its head, former Jamaican prime minister, P. J. Patterson.

“Sir Shridath’s life was a testament to the power of intellect, diplomacy, and an unwavering commitment to justice and equality. From his humble beginnings in British Guiana to his role as the second secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, he exemplified the best of Caribbean leadership on the world stage.”

ADVOCATE FOR SMALL NATIONS
Sir Shridath’s journey was tireless in his efforts in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and was an advocate for the rights of small nations in his visionary approach to international relations.

“Sir Shridath was not just a leader; he was a beacon of hope for the developing world, championing causes that ranged from decolonisation to economic development. His contributions to global initiatives, such as the Brandt Commission on international development issues, helped shape crucial discussions on North-South relations and the needs of developing countries. Sir Shridath’s diplomatic acumen and passion for social justice made him a respected voice in international forums, always advocating for a more equitable world order.

“Here in the Caribbean, we remember him not only as Guyana’s foreign minister, but as a regional unifier. His efforts to promote Caribbean unity and to assert our place in the global community have left an indelible mark on our collective consciousness.”

The UWI, quoted its vice-chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, stating, “Sonny contributed much to the development of Caribbean civilisation and institutions. I am sorry for his passing, but I am proud of his contributions. In every sense he was one of our greatest leaders and impactful citizens.”

The UWI noted that, between 1989 and 2003, Sir Shridath served as its chancellor and that a tribute to his contribution to the University’s mission and vision is the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy, and Services.

The centre was named after Sir Shridath in recognition of his critical role in shaping the region’s trade and economic development policies during the early days of Independence. The centre aims to develop trade capacity and develop innovative trade solutions for the Caribbean region.

Throughout Sir Shridath’s career, he played various exemplary and pioneering roles. Among them, serving as the Commonwealth’s secretary general, Guyana’s foreign affairs minister, the British West Indies Federation’s assistant attorney general and the West Indian Commission’s chairman. A former director general of CARICOM’s Office of Trade Negotiations, now known as the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, he served as the first director general.

“It was Sonny’s mission to promote both democracy and regionalism. In his role as a legal draftsman, he worked on the constitutions of the West Indies Federation and Guyanese Independence. As an architect of multi-racial democracy in the post-colonial period, he played a crucial part,” stated The UWI. “He was instrumental in securing the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which has served to preserve and protect the regional character of The UWI. A first for the Commonwealth, he made history as its first secretary general from a ‘third world’ country. In his long service as secretary general of the Commonwealth, he played an important diplomatic role in ending apartheid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…