“I fought to control the tears, feeling sorry for myself and for Trinidad, the place I had grown up in and known or thought I had known and loved…I was overwhelmed by it all, fearful that this beautiful island, this extraordinary country of great intellectuals, poets, artists and everyday people, had been assaulted, brutalised, soiled – like the TTT building seven days ago had been just a normal place to work.”
– Raoul Pantin, writing in Days of Wrath.

Raoul Pantin was a journalist, editor, poet and playwright. He studied at Fatima College, a Roman Catholic secondary school in Port of Spain, and received his diploma in journalism from the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff, Wales.

Raoul Pantin with Boscoe and Shiela Holder. Photograph courtesy the Trinidad Express archives.

Raoul wrote the screenplay for the seminal 1974 Trinidadian film Bim (directed by Hugh A. Robertson and starring Ralph Maraj), a collection of poems entitled Journey, the plays Hatuey and Radio Republic 555 and four non-fiction books, including “Black Power Day,” which explored the Black Power Revolution in 1970.

Other publications include The Trinidad Express Story, a history of the Trinidad Express newspaper, and Days of Wrath: The 1990 Coup in Trinidad and Tobago, his first-hand account of the 1990 Jamaat al Muslimeen coup.

Raoul began his career in journalism and broadcasting in 1962 at NBS Radio 610. In 1963, he went to the Trinidad Daily Mirror newspaper and would go on to work as a business and political reporter at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express where he also served as editor Trinidad Express.

In the 1980s, Raoul was part of a team of journalists credited with expanding the coverage of Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT), then the only television station in the country.

During that time, television cameras were allowed to film proceedings within the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago for the first time. Raoul hosted a weekly television program, Parliament Review, the first television show to report on Parliament with cameras positioned inside the legislative chamber.

The filming of Parliament was pioneering at the time. Parliament is now widely covered through live television broadcasts today and streamed on the internet.

Raoul survived the 1990 Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt and terrorist attack, in which he and other employees of the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) station were held hostage for six days.

Pantin retired as an editor at the Trinidad Express in 2005 but continued to work as a columnist for the paper until his death on January 15 2015.

In 2006, Pantin was honoured by both the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago and the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA).

He is survived by daughters Pilar and Mandisa and a grandchild, Jaliyah Phillips.