FORMER DIRECTOR of the Pan African Commission, Dr Ikael Tafari, is dead.
This was confirmed last night by Deryck Murray, acting director, who said Tafari died suddenly yesterday in Trinidad where he was attending a conference. It was not certain how old he was.
Tafari was reportedly recently fired from the top position in the Pan African Commission.
A former student of Harrison College, Tafari (christened Michael Hutchinson) was a member of the prominent Hutchinson family of Woodside, Bay Street, St Michael. He spent many years in Jamaica where he studied at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies and subsequently worked, before returning to Barbados.
He worked with the Pan African Commission from its inception in 1997 and eventually became its director in 2004.
Murray said that Tafari was in the twin-island republic at the invitation of National Joint Action Committee and delivered a speech on Thursday evening.
He added that there were not many details to date on the circumstances surrounding Tafari's death but said he had taken ill at his hotel and was subsequently pronounced dead at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Last night when the SATURDAY SUN contacted his relatives they requested that the paper call back today.
Tafari was a noted figure in the local and regional Pan-African movement and was a columnist in the DAILY NATION for a number of years. (ES)
Published on: 5/31/08.
http://www.nationnews.com/story/11730067047996.php
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