Tony Best
“Articulate scholar, fearless and erudite lawyer and Queens counsel.”
Add such descriptions as a passionate parliamentarian, a sensitive cabinet minister and a diplomat par excellence to the tribute paid to Dudley Thompson by the Jamaican Chamber of Commerce and you get a measure of the man considered, quite appropriately, as one of Jamaica’s most distinguished sons.
Thompson, often described as a self-assured, controversial public figure died in the United States a few days ago, about 24 hours after he had celebrated his 95th birthday. Never one to sidestep issues of importance to him, the people of Jamaica, the Caribbean and the African Diaspora he leaves a rich legacy that ranges far and wide, from his advocacy for the poor in Jamaica’s courtrooms, his eloquent commitment to Pan Africanism and his unswerving belief that the less fortunate in any society should have a voice to which governments, institutions and civil society must listen to a passionate understanding of the vital role of diplomacy in the building of partnerships between countries, regardless of the distance or the wealth that separates them.
Take diplomacy and his commitment to Pan Africanism. An intellectual pillar of the movement to forge closer and irrevocable links between peoples of African descent wherever they live, Thompson, who was his country’s ambassador to Nigeria, Namibia, Senegal and Ghana, earned the nickname “Burning Spear” because of his effective defense of Jomo Kenyatta during the Mau Mau treason trials in the 1950s. Kenyatta later became Kenya’s first President.
Thompson had an unobstructed vision of a united Africa, one which unfortunately never materialized during his life time but he routinely spoke about the need to keep the “African-ness” of people “who happen to be residing abroad” as a guidepost.
The Jamaican lived for the day, perhaps by 2017, he once said, when a federation or confederation of African states would emerge with “one government of a whole Africa” that would provide a place for the Diaspora.
He framed his vision in a way that would make you shed a tear because he didn’t live long enough to see it come to fruition. Consider how he put it:
“We have been so far cut from Africa that I have been trying my very best to rejoin,” he said. “We have neglected Africa and we are African, no matter how you take it. We must consider ourselves non-resident Africans – Africans residing or naturalizing abroad, whatever your citizenship, whatever your residence, whatever your domicile, our ancestors did not give up their citizenship, they didn’t have passports. They were wrenched from the heart of Africa, taken by force and dispersed throughout the world.”
He didn’t stop there with the heartfelt and deeply moving reflection of the journey of Blacks have taken and where he wants them to travel.
“We, who descended from them, have always kept up that African-ness. Why is it that we feel good when we hear of Black success? A Michael Jackson, for example? Why is it that we feel good when we see Muhammad Ali on top? It’s because we feel something with them. There is an ethnic relationship. We have never lost our African-ness and so we are Africans who happen to be residing abroad,” he went on.
It’s that kind of eloquence that made him an electrifying figure and added to his stature as a sincere voice admired in and out of the Caribbean and Africa.
But that’s not all about the man whose passing has left us with a feeling that we were cheated by not being able to have him five more years when he would have joined the ranks of the centenarians. Like George Headley, the legendary West Indies test cricketer of the 1930s and 1940s, Thompson was born in Panama of West Indian parents but was raised in the English-speaking Caribbean island. He studied law and graduated from Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, the first student of Mico College to achieve that distinction and went to Tanzania and Kenya in the 1950s where he practiced law, returning later to Jamaica.
Given his passion for public service it didn’t come as a surprise to many when he set his sights on making an important a contribution to Jamaica’s political life while practicing law. Serving first as a member of the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament, representing the People’s National Party in 1962 after he had lost a general election battle to Edward Seaga of the Jamaica Labor Party for the seat in West Kingston, Thompson moved to the House of Representatives when the voters in St. Andrew West sent him there in a by-election in 1978. He soon became a minister in the PNP government and used his enormous talent in the Ministry of Mining and Natural resources as well in the ministries of national security and justice. Earlier he had a stint in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Minister of State, serving between 1972 and 1975.
Wherever he went on the stage of life, law or politics, Thompson made a distinct mark, so much so that when word came that the multifaceted man had taken his final bow, P.J. Patterson, a former Prime Minister, aptly called him “an advocate extraordinaire, an intellectual, (Second World) war hero, a statesman and raconteur of the highest order.”
We couldn’t agree more with Paterson when he said that “Thompson was simply the best in whatever field he chose to serve. His contribution to the building of Jamaica as a nation – to its constitution, its jurisprudence, its diplomacy, its political system, global reputation and its international standing – is unparalleled.”
What a pity that the icon didn’t live long enough to participate in the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence later this year. In any case, though, we are grateful we knew him and say thanks for the distinctive part in he played in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.
