Books: Review - Time to Tell: The Grenada Massacre and after… By Gus John

Gus John (right) with academic  Dr Lez Henry, who
chaired the London book launch

Published: 24 February, 2011
by ANGELA COBBINAH

Educationist Gus John’s diary may help reveal the truth about Grenada’s tragic events of 1983 

IT was a scene reminiscent of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, recalls Gus John. Thousands of people had advanced on the prime minister’s home and released him from house arrest. But as they waited to hear Maurice Bishop address them, he was seized by the army and executed by firing squad along with 10 of his loyalists. 

His killers were the very comrades with whom he had seized power to form a radical government in Grenada four years earlier. Hundreds lost their lives in the chaos that preceded and followed the executions, including John’s father who had been unable to get to hospital because of a military curfew.  

Then, a few days later on October 25 1983, the US embarked on its first major military operation since Vietnam by invad­ing the tiny Caribbean nation, making the most of the anarchy to remove the regime that had been supported by Cuba and, by extension, the Soviet bloc. It was to be one of the final episodes of Cold War brinkmanship. 

When the grief-stricken John managed to return to Grenada from London a few weeks later, he kept a diary detailing the pain and confusion his compat­riots felt over the horrific end of the “Revo” – not the US invasion but the betrayal of those who had decided to end their political differences by the gun. 

The release last year of the last of the 17 people convicted of involvement in Bishop’s murder prompted John, a former education director of Hackney Council, to publish his diary. In it he calls on them to “cleanse their souls” by explaining their role in the execu­tions and why unarmed civilians were gunned down, including children. 

Time to Tell: the Grenada Massacre and after… has prompted an island-wide debate on the events of 1983, which remain an open wound on the national psyche. “We want closure to this catastrophic episode in Grenada’s history,” he says. “To this day, many people don’t know where the bodies of loved ones [killed during the mass­acre] have been buried.”  

Grenada’s “man-made hurricane” began after Bishop was placed under house arrest following ideological differences with his deputy Bernard Coard. “When 60 per cent of the population went to release Maurice, it was a scene not unlike what we have seen in Tunisia and Egypt,” said John at the book’s UK launch last Friday. But the bloodshed that followed was unprecedented in the Caribbean. Among those shot dead with Bishop was his pregnant wife, the education minister Jacqueline Creft. As the crowds tried to flee the horrific executions, up to 200 were killed.  

Two things strike you as you read the book. First, that the People’s Revolutionary Govern­ment that seized power in a bloodless coup in 1979 had enjoyed widespread support among Grena­dians, who whole­hearted­ly embraced the opportun­ity of being active partici­pants in the running of their country. 

Second, contrary to the condemnation of the US invasion adopted by pro­gressives everywhere, the majority of Grenadians welcomed it as rescuing them from the terror that had engulfed them, in a country no bigger than the Isle of Wight.

John describes Coard and Bishop as “school mates” whom he later worked with in London during anti-racist campaigns the 1960s. He had every reason to be optimistic about the future of a government led by them and the health, housing and education reforms that followed seemed to confirm his instincts. It remains a mystery as to why it all went so horribly wrong. 

When Coard and his 16 associates were handed down lengthy prison sentences, they were regarded as victims of an improper trial and a campaign sprang up to free them. Judging from John’s book, they would have attracted little sympathy from Grenadians themselves. 

• Time to Tell: The Grenada Massacre and after… By Gus John. Published by Gus John Books £7.95. 
ISBN: 9 780954 784355. Distributed by New Beacon Books Ltd,  76 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EN. 
020 7272 4889

SOURCE: Camden New Journal