Veteran Caribbean Journalist Rickey Singh Has Died

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The veteran and respected Caribbean journalist, Rickey Ramotar Singh, died here on Saturday. He was 88 years old.

The Guyanese-born Singh, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guyana government in 2023, had been ailing for a long time.

The founding president of  the now defunct Caribbean Association of Media Workers (CAMWORK), Singh published his first story in 1957 at the Guiana Graphic and swiftly moved from covering general stories and beats to political reporting covering various issues in Guyana and across the Caribbean.

Singh, the third of four children, left school at the age of 17 and while at the Guiana Graphic he was sent for training in journalism at the University of Indiana.

In 1974 he was sent to England as a protective measure by Lord Thompson of the Thompson Fleet, which also owned the Guiana Graphic.  But he refused to stay saying that he would never raise his children in a society that made them feel less than who they are.

Singh identified strongly as Caribbean person and returned from London within a few months.

In Guyana, he dared and challenged Forbes Burnham, the country’s first executive president, with Singh later moving to Trinidad and Tobago with his family to work as editor of “Caribbean Contact”, the official newspaper of the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC).

But his stay in Trinidad and Tobago also brought him into confrontation with the People’s National Movement (PNM) government that did not tolerate his delving into matters they did not wish ventilated and withdrew his work permit, which had been issued on application by the church organization.

Singh moved to Barbados with his wife, Patricia “Dolly” Singh and their six children, and he “crossed swords” with then prime minister John “Tom” Adams over the United States invasion of Grenada in 1983 to topple the left-wing government of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

The Barbados administration withdrew Singh’s work permit, but generously ignored the fact that his wife and children remained resident on the island.  His strategy then was to visit Barbados as a tourist on numerous occasions so as to keep the family together.

“His moderate radicalism and expansive knowledge and warm personality attracted into his circle of friends and adherents bright and ambitious youngsters who were to flower into leadership positions in the Caribbean. They supped at the table of Rickey Singh’s enthusiasm, knowledge and political savvy, and some later ascended to prominence,” wrote his long time Guyanese friend, Hubert Williams, a former editor in chief at the Barbados-based Caribbean News Agency (CANA), now the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Singh maintained close relationships with writers and artists,  among them the Guyanese writer and poet, Martin Carter, the late Barbadian writer,  George Lamming, Wilson Harris, the late Nobel Prize winners for Literature, Derek Walcott of St.  Lucia and Vidya Naipaul of Trinidad and Tobago, Edgar Mittelholzer.

He was a close friend of the late Owen Baptiste and his wife, Rhona and it was Baptiste who was also responsible for him becoming a contributing writer for a number of  regional newspapers, including the Trinidad Express, the Trinidad Guardian, the Guyana Chronicle, the Jamaica Gleaner, the Barbados Nation as well with CANA/CMC  as a political commentator on regional issues.

Singh also contributed to now defunct BBC Caribbean Report as well as media outlets in North America and Britain.

He also struck up a good relationship with various Caribbean leaders and thinkers, including the late Sir Shridath Ramphal,  the former Commonwealth secretary general and a former Guyana attorney general, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the former St. Lucia prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, as well as the senior government minister in Guyana, Gail Teixeira

His father died when he was two months old and his mother remarried and had a son, who died as an infant and a daughter, Madhonah.

His mother died when he was eight or nine years old. She herself was still quite young and he remembered to run through the village shouting out her death so that the villagers would know.

Williams wrote that during his long career, Singh “has been buttressed by his faith, stoically endured much, but there have been occasions when he cried like a child–for family matters close to his heart, one of those being the death of his beloved wife on April 8, 2015. He was also very devastated when his great friend Dr Walter Rodney was murdered in Georgetown on June 13, 1980.

“But he continues to say he is blessed, prays at every meal, knows the myriad times that he barely escaped from tragedy, exults in the love of his children, the very many good friends he still has; and even …as he battles declining health, finds resuscitation in his church, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it is more than likely that he will find the energy to produce a masterpiece on the life and times of “Ramoutar” Rickey Singh, the celebrated Guyanese journalist of the 20th Century … All he needs to do is search his files and reproduce”.

In a brief statement, the Guyana Press Association(GPA) extended condolences to the family, friends and regional media colleagues of Singh.

The funeral  service for Singh will  be announced later.