He died in June of last year but Odinga Lumumba will endure as a nationalist icon, a rebel with a cause, and a tireless freedom fighter. Tonight a panel will invoke his spirit for an event called the Odinga Lumumba Memorial Symposium, the state of the nation at the 25th anniversary of the Heads of Agreement uprising. The event will build from Lumumba's central role in the 1981 uprising and bring discussants including Godwin Hulse, Bert Tucker, Paul Rodriguez and Michael Young, Arifah Lightburn and others to examine the 25 years between today and those days. Organizer Adele Ramos told us that it's an important reconciliation of history.
Adele Ramos,
"What the panelists are going to do is that they are going to deliver presentations from their perspective on the state of the Belizean nation. We've asked some of them to cover very specific topics for example the issue of the Belize-Guatemala question, that's a topic that will never go away, its very timely, we know that right now we are in renewed talks with Guatemala and so that is one of the hot items on the agenda for tonight. We are looking at the state of the Belizean nation as a way of honoring him and his cause, his life's worth, not just in the 80s but before and after that.
A lot of people would say why we are going sit down and discuss the problems. We know what the problems are. Why discuss it, its being discussed every day so why do we do have to go the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall to discuss the problems, let's hear about solutions. And so I also want to emphasize we'll be more solution oriented in the discussion that we have tonight."
Tonight's event begins at 7:30 and it will be held at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall.
