Author profile – The Blue Edition

Bukka Rennie

Activist, historian, columnist and writer, widower and the father of three, Bukka Rennie left Trinidad and Tobago in 1967 to pursue studies in History and Political Science at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Montreal, Canada. After two years at Sir George he was jailed and then expelled along with forty-one other Black Caribbean students and forty-nine White Canadian students after involvement in political action against racism at that institution. He has refused since then to attend any university, including The University of the West Indies, even after the option to transfer credits was offered, and accepted by others. He co-founded and edited UHURU, a Montreal Black community based newspaper. Bukka returned to Trinidad and Tobago in November 1970 and co-founded and led the New Beginning Movement (NBM) that published the newspaper New Beginning, which he edited until its cessation in 1978. From 1978 to 1983 he edited the OWTU (Oilfields Workers Trade Union) organ, Vanguard. From then on he has managed a number of family oriented businesses while working as a freelance columnist with both the Trinidad Express and the Trinidad Guardian newspapers, and between 2001 and 2007 as personal advisor to the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs. Throughout the years, he has continued to write.