Honore’s painful school memories shaped him

THE EDITOR: I was a bit disappointed when Brian Honore’s son, Fedon, told me in a telephone conversation shortly after his death that Brian never spoke much about his school experiences and more particularly his days at St Mary’s College. He mentioned that his father only remembered fondly Mr McLeod and that was probably due to the fact that both of them shared the experiences of having been taught by him. Speaking to another school friend in the church after the funeral service we recounted how difficult the St Mary’s years had been for Brian and why he had found them difficult to discuss. It is my view, however, that they were an important period in Brian’s development which helped shape his perspective in later life and his “groundings with the people.”

In the late 60s, Brian played the role of the typical College student. He was his usual jovial self and participated in the school choir. That was probably where I met him. If I recall correctly he was also in the Legion of Mary. In a sense, he was like a bigger brother since, being one form higher, he knew “the ropes” and he gave guidance during our many walks around the Savannah on our way home to Belmont and Cascade respectively. Brian’s change in perspective occurred soon after the Black Power uprising of the 1970s and the black boys’ perennial conflict with a priest whose name was synonymous with a number. Feeling comfortable was always difficult for students who came from an environment different from the private grammar school middle-class students and the events of the 1970s only sharpened our perspective on the divide.

It did not take Brian long to shift the perspective away from race/colour and to do the readings which brought a class perspective to the issue. We were soon debating the relevance of Marx and his interpretation of history. He got a lot more serious about the politics in Form Six when we all met up, Brian having to repeat Form Five even with acceptable grades in those days. Some people attributed this to the ongoing conflict. However, whatever his political views, it was at this period that Brian’s interest in the Arts took shape through his participation in the school’s drama festival and ongoing devotion to propagating the works of Cypher in our lighter discussions on culture/calypso.

Brian had an ongoing love/hate relationship with our colleague of Form Six Modern, Louis Nurse. He was the Marxist protagonist and Louis was the arch-conservative/capitalist. As much as they argued on the merits of the different systems they shared a common love for the culture and, as we participated in the various school activities eg Geography Club etc, Louis and his cuatro gave musical accompaniment to our singing of picong “Sans Humanite.” One of the highlights of this period was Louis winning the calypso contest with the song “Lai Fook throw Callendar out of Soccer,” a song which recounted the previous terms’s drama when an avowed “communist” (at the time) was removed from being the captain of the college intercol squad.

While many of his colleagues went on to tertiary education at UWI, Brian rejected being part of the bourgeoisie/intelligentsia and also rejected intellectualism to be part of the workers’ movement by securing a job at the Port. He still kept in touch and collaborated with me when he heard that I was participating in the UWI calypso contest. He asked me to sing a song he had composed on the anti-colonial struggles in Africa at the time “Angola belongs to Angolans,” which reflected his views on the many schools or camps in the Marxist movement at the time. He was neither pro-Russian nor pro-Chinese.  He felt at the time that the various powers should stay out of the liberation struggles and let the indigenous peoples determine their own models.

Of course, the song was not well received on the night of the competition, partly due to the fact that my strong chorus had abandoned me but moreso due to the fact that the audience made no connection with the topic. Where was Angola? What had that to do with Carnival? Brian was, however, there to give his support and commiserate with me afterwards on my low placing. Rest in Peace my brother. Your friends from Form Six Modern 1972/1974 salute your achievements and your trailblazing contribution to “D’ Culture.”

KEITH GELLINEAU
Crescent Gardens, D’Abadie