A great man is gone. Barbados, the Caribbean Community and the Pan African world have suffered the tremendous loss of a rare intellectual giant and creative force. Dr. Ikael Tafari, christened Michael Hutchinson by his parents and more recently initiated and given the name of chief “Aramide” by the Oba of Ilaro in Nigeria, transitioned to the realm of the ancestors on Friday 30th May, 2008 while in Trinidad.
Ikael’s battles for freedom and justice for all oppressed peoples, including women and black people were fierce, fearless and countless. He taught thousands both in and out of the classroom at the university, through his films, plays, books and lectures with inimitable humour and sagacity. His inestimable contribution and lessons on these many battlefields, as he loved to call them, are yet to be fully measured and absorbed but will be felt for generations to come. His loss is a blow for anyone who loved freedom and justice.
The Commission for Pan African Affairs and the Pan African community in Barbados and around the world extends condolences to his family and friends as we together endure the pain of losing our icon of liberty even as we celebrate his life.
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