Bishop

Grenada had a very interesting story on its way to independence from Britain in 1950s and after. Many people were killed and so much blood was shed on their bloody route. When Grenada achieved independence there were many other political movements, excluding government, searching for power. I will describe Maurice Bishop's rise to power, who was one of the major characters of Grenada's history and who changed many aspects of its politics, overthrew Sir Eric Gairy, and brought in the democracy into the country. Eric Mathew Gairy, who had achieved independence for Grenada, was politically indifferent to his country, desiring only power, prestige, and lifestyle it afforded him. Bishop joined the party called 'The New Jewel Movement' where he started his career, which opposed Gairy's GULP (Grenada United Labor Party). During Bishop's time in office many major historical events of Grenada (1930s-1980s) occurred. I will start with introducing Bishop, his legitimacy that overthrew him, and showing other type of political leaderships within Grenada at that time range. Later, I will analyze in depth his charismatic rise to power.

        In order to understand how Bishop achieved power we must know who he was. He was born on the island of Aruba in the Dutch Antilles off the coast of Venezuela on 29 May 1944 to Rupert and Alimenta. In 1951, Bishop went to Wesley Hall Primary School and to the St George's Roman Catholic school. He won a scholarship to Presentation College, the best academic school in the island. He was an excellent student. Even he was tall and everyone embarrassed him by calling 'a permanent cricket team member', he distinguished himself as a debater and a social creature who became the president of the student's council. He became editor of the school magazine Student Voice. At 19 he left the...