Rupert Roopnaraine (born 31 January 1943) is a Guyanese cricketer, writer, and politician. Roopnaraine served as Minister of Education of Guyana between 2015 and 2017.

Biography

Roopnaraine was born in Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana. In 1954, he won a scholarship to Queen's College, where he excelled in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

; he captained the team and represented

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state ...

in the Inter-county Cricket Finals. In 1962 he was awarded a Guyana scholarship to attend St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for the

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

team from 1964 to 1966 and was awarded a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

for representing the university in the annual

University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1965 and 1966. As a cricketer, he was a lower order right-handed batsman and a right-arm

off-break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler. In 1970 he was awarded a scholarship to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, New York, where he obtained an MA and PhD in Comparative Literature. From 1976 to 1996, he has worked as a university lecturer in the UK,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the US and at the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for ...

Politics

He joined the

Working People's Alliance The Working People's Alliance is a democratic socialist political party in Guyana. It was a consultative member of Socialist International until 2005. History The WPA was established in 1974, as an alliance of the Working People's Vanguard Par ...

(WPA) in Guyana in 1977 and became one of the leaders of the party, along with

Walter Rodney Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgeto ...

Clive Y. Thomas Clive Youlande Thomas (born 6 February 1938) is a Guyanese economics professor and political activist. He publishes on issues relating to development and poverty eradication in Guyana and the greater Caribbean region. Thomas is currently Preside ...

and

Eusi Kwayana Eusi Kwayana, formerly Sydney King (born 4 April 1925), is a Guyanese politician. A cabinet minister in the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government of 1953, he was detained by the British Army in 1954. Later he left the PPP to form ASCRIA (A ...

. He was an activist politician and at the height of the years of People's National Congress (PNC) repression was arrested on charges of burning down the PNC headquarters. He also narrowly escaped death when he was attacked by PNC party thugs, only reaching safety with the help of sugarcane workers who led him through the cane fields to escape. After the assassination of Walter Rodney, Roopnaraine became leader of the WPA. In 2015, Roopnaraine was appointed Minister of Education of Guyana. In 2017, he was reassigned to Ministry of the Presidency, and Nicolette Henry replaced him as Minister of Education.

Author

Roopnaraine is one of the leading Caribbean intellectuals of his generation, though political activism has restricted his output. Nevertheless, he is an art critic (champion of the work of Stanley Greaves), literary critic (author of a pioneering essay on

Martin Carter Martin Wylde Carter (7 June 1927 – 13 December 1997) was a Guyanese poet and political activist. Widely regarded as the greatest Guyanese poet, and one of the most important poets of the Caribbean region, Carter is best known for his p ...

), film-maker (''The Terror and the Time'') and poet. He is the author of ''The Web of October: Rereading Martin Carter'' (1986), a suite of love poems entitled ''Suite for Supriya'' (1993), and ''Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves'' was published in 2003. Roopnaraine also contributed a substantial "Introduction" to the

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...

2010 edition of

Edgar Mittelholzer Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (16 December 1909 – 5 May 1965) was a Guyanese novelist, the earliest novelist from the West Indian region to establish himself in Europe and gain a significant European readership.Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to Wes ...

's ''Shadows Move Among Them''. Roopnaraine's collection of essays, ''The Sky’s Wild Noise'', won the non-fiction category of the 2013

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year.José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...

and

George Lamming George William Lamming OCC (8 June 19274 June 2022) was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for ''In the Castle of My Skin'', his 1953 debut novel. He also held academic posts, including as a distinguished v ...

rival the range of Roopnaraine’s capacities of response, depth of analysis and subtle and mordant style.""Rupert Roopnaraine wins major literary award"
''Kaieteur News'', 30 April 2013.

Selected works

* ''The Web of October: Rereading Martin Carter'' (Peepal Tree Press, 1986) * ''Suite for Supriya'' (love poems; Peepal Tree Press, 1993) * ''Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2003) * ''The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roopnaraine, Rupert Living people 1943 births Guyanese writers Alumni of Queen's College, Guyana Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Cornell University alumni Guyanese cricketers Cambridge University cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Working People's Alliance politicians Members of the National Assembly (Guyana) People from Georgetown, Guyana Guyanese politicians of Indian descent 21st-century essayists 20th-century Guyanese writers Cambridgeshire cricketers Guyanese essayists Guyanese activists Government ministers of Guyana