The Grenada government on Tuesday announced plans to observe the 40th anniversary of the murder of Maurice Bishop, the country’s first left-wing prime minister, who was killed during a palace coup orchestrated by his deputy, Bernard Coard, on October 19, 1983.
Head of the 50th Independence Anniversary Committee, Dr Wendy Crawford, told a news conference that the activity will form part of the island’s 50th anniversary of political independence that will be launched on October 19 this year.
“Since independence is such an historic event for us, a period when we are given a time to tell our history, what better time could we ask for, when the nation will be attentive to not only the celebration of our independence…and October 19th is a story that everybody has told, has written about, spoken about, established the narrative; and all of that came externally.
“So in the essence of independence and self-determination, we think this is a very good opportunity to tell our stories ourselves, and so there is no better fitting than…when the entire nation is attentive to that period, October 19-25, that it should signify for us that level of independence and self-determination (so) here is our story,” she said, adding, “we are ready to embrace it, it may not be the prettiest or kindest of stories, but we have to at some point, and I think this is the time when we should do it”.
Last October, the government said it was moving ahead with plans to have October 19 declared a public holiday to commemorate the 1983 killings of Bishop and several members of his Cabinet that led to the collapse of the leftwing People’s Revolutionary Government.
In addition to Bishop and his Cabinet colleagues who were killed in the palace coup orchestrated by his deputy, Bernard Coard, several civilians died at Fort Rupert now renamed Fort George.
