Sir James ‘Son’ Mitchell was Guyana’s friend in deed and a man of sincerity

Caribbean citizens are uncommonly proud of nurturing remarkable statesmen, harbouring unusual political conundrums and throwing up more than their fair share of idiosyncratic political leaders. ‘Son’ Mitchell stands out among the crowd even in this special region. Sir James ‘Son’ Mitchell’ is undoubtedly one of the remarkable characters of the English Caribbean. He is notable for his success as national politician, as a regional leader with extra-regional influence and for the energy he demonstrated in the pursuit of his and his region’s goals. Like many Caribbean leaders, James Mitchell was charismatic and that latter characteristic as well as his humour were partly attributable, I suppose, to a range of experiences – agronomist, school-teacher, researcher etc which fed his story-telling penchant. All of this meant that he was very entertaining – around a table, on the podium, or at the hustings. He first came to office as premier of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in political circumstances which at that time were rather unusual – attaining the Premiership as an independent MP with a single seat and no Party and its MPs in tow - but are not now unfamiliar in the region.

One of my early notable experiences with ‘Son’ Mitchell took place in Caracas prior to a regional meeting in 1984/5. On arriving at the hotel hosting the meeting, I encountered him and PM Eugenia Charles in conference, a huddle actually, in the lobby. I approached and greeted them and they in turn said hello and the Dominica PM asked why I had not attended the recent CDB meeting at which an exercise I initiated a few weeks prior was to have been followed up. I explained that I had been committed to attending a meeting of Regional Planning Agencies scheduled for the same period. In response to my question about how the meeting went, Mitchell‘s retort was, “who was that man you sent with all those fancy words and stilted language? Imagine that man tell us, ‘we are estopped from servicing or re-paying