Nettleford 'soars like an eagle', says former UWI head

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Former University of the West Indies (UWI) Chancellor, Sir Shridath Ramphal, Wednesday described the late Caribbean academic and cultural icon, Professor Rex Nettleford as an “incandescent eagle’ who will “still soar in the hearts and minds of all West Indians”.

Nettleford died at a United States hospital yesterday night, a few hours before celebrating his 77th birthday. He suffered a massive heart attack last week while in the United States and according to a medical report signed by Dr Christopher Junker of George Washington University, the life support system was terminated in keeping with his wishes.

Sir Shridath, a former Commonwealth secretary general, said that  all humanity, “and within it Jamaica, the Caribbean, the non-white world, the world of dance and culture, academe in our region and beyond have all lost in Rex Nettleford a rare ‘incandescent eagle’.

“For the many who had the good fortune to know him even a little - for few knew him entire - a light has gone out in our lives.”

Sir Shridath said that Nettleford embodied and epitomised UWI.

“… what was best about it; what was noble in its mission, what it symbolised for all West Indians. And, of course, I shared with Rex five wonderful years when we were Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor together.”

He said that Nettleford brilliance was known universally and when Oxford University honoured him on the Rhodes Centenary in 2003, he was one of only four Rhodes Scholars worldwide so honoured.

“It was a global tribute. May our ‘incandescent eagle’ still soar in the hearts and minds of all West Indians,” he added.

Meanwhile, the regional integration movement, Caricom, which honoured Nettleford with the Caribbean’s highest award in 2008, paid tribute to the Jamaican-born academic and cultural figure by reproducing the citation it used when bestowing the Order of the Caribbean Community”.

“The Region has shaped this extraordinary person. In turn he has helped to shape and project the Region so profoundly, as a professor, a dancer, a writer, a manager, an orator, a mentor, a critic, a household name, an international icon, a true Ambassador of the Caribbean, a quintessential Caribbean Man,” the citation read in part.

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