Place of birth
Guyana
National identity
Guyana
Gender
Male

Judaman Seecoomar

Short biography
Judaman Seecoomar was born on the Lusignan Plantation, Demerera County Guyana in 1932. Despite his stepfathers’ refusal to allow him to continue with his education beyond the age of 12, he studied independently and eventually qualified as a teacher He believed passionately in raising the aspirations of his students and challenging the culture of the plantations which encouraged many young people to leave school early to work on the sugar estate.

In 1962 Judaman left for England, fearful of the effects of the growing racial violence in Guyana.

He settled in England with his wife and children and worked as a teacher in an inner city school in North West London. Widespread.racism and limited funds made life difficult.
He separated from his first wife in 1967

In his 30’s Judaman completed a BA in International Relations and later an MA in Urban Education, both from the university of London. He became deputy head of South Kilburn High School in the early 1980s.
After the premature deaths of his son Rohan in 1988 and his second wife, Judith in 1990 Judaman focussed on his passion for his homeland and his desire to search for methods of resolving the legacy of racial conflict left by colonialism which had caused him and many others to leave.

He began work on his PHD and throughout the 1990s he made many trips to Guyana both to undertake research and to work on teacher training projects as a volunteer His study was interrupted by coronary heart disease and he often worked on chapters of his thesis while in hospital. He received his doctorate from the University of London in 2002 at the age of 70.
His first book Contributions Towards the Resolution of Conflict in Guyana (2002), was based on his PhD. In it Judaman argued for new constitutional and institutional arrangements, and for the assistance of international facilitators.
It was well received across the political divide, and with applications that extended well beyond Guyana, is on academic reading lists worldwide. His second book, Conflict Resolution in Post-Colonial Guyana, to be published in April 2007,presents a vision of what these new arrangements might look like.
The first draft of Conflict Resolution in Post-Colonial Guyana, was completed in 2004 at University College Hospital following treatment for cancer. The final changes were made days before he died on March 26th 2006.