The Lion Of Basdeo Panday Poem by Sookdeo Manansingh

If you see a lion and me fighting, don't feel sorry
for me, I will find victory in my faith'
The words of a great union leader

who fought fearlessly for the rights
of workers in time once ruled
by colonial masters of the estate.

A little boy born in the sugar estate
and migrated to England to get an
education that will lead his

parents out of bondage and slavery.
A lion in human form with a powerful
voice to remove the mountain of fear

which forced him to wreck fear
amongst the slave masters
and to give freedom to a new generation

of two separate races and unite them
to carry the chain of unity
tied to the ashes and arrows

of the canefield.
The Legend of Basdeo Panday
have become immortal framed

inside the doorway of every home
He was a man more than a beast
with his blood flowing

in memories of every prison
where he was held captived
and chained that his

strength even grew one hundred
fold making a legacy of himself
as the Lion of Caroni

to prove the watchwords
'Together we aspire.
Together we achieve