Dear Editor,

Professor Rex Nettleford has taken his leave of us and has left a void that can never be filled. He walked among us, taught us and left us better for knowing him. He was an extraordinary Jamaican, a man of astounding intellect, compassion, and a man of great humility. I had the privilege of calling him a friend and colleague.

In 1990 he and I travelled together to Ghana, in West Africa, where he was invited by the Ghanaian Government to serve on the Advisory Committee of the Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust. This group of Africans were meeting this intellectual for the first time and after his first presentation they were visibly mesmerised by his eloquence and breadth of knowledge and wanted more. He would, eventually, serve on that committee for 10 years.

Professor Nettleford and I would later visit the Cape Coast Castle, which was the headquarters in Africa of the entire British involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, for 143 years. It was from those “gates of no return” that the slaves were transported in ships, never knowing where they were going or whether they would ever see their homeland again. Many eventually docked in Falmouth, Trelawny — the parish in which Nettleford was born — where they were dispersed to serve on the sugar plantations across Jamaica.

However, the real history lesson came when Professor Nettleford and I walked into and out of the dungeon at Cape Coast Castle. It was such a cathartic experience for us both that it took us a while to regain our composure. It was then that he explained to me the direct connection between the history of Ghana and Jamaica and the similarities that still exist in the Jamaican culture today. He made me understand that my being asked to work on this museum development project was no coincidence and that I should take the time to listen to the ancestors and to see my work, not just as a museum expert, but as a truth teller.

Prof. Nettleford has left a void in the lives of so many people because of the many gifts with which he was blessed, and because of his generosity of spirit. He did so much for so many people in ways that were never made public. To whom do we turn now for guidance and advice? He lived a distinguished life with dignity, but the Creator made the decision that his work here was finished, and so he was called home. He has, however, left behind a legacy that will live on in the historiography of Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and beyond. For this, we owe him a debt of gratitude.

Vera H Hyatt

vhyatt4@cfl.rr.com