Tribute to Coleen Littlejohn

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Coleen Littlejohn who died in Managua on 25 October after a long illness.  

So many of those who knew her during the 46 years she lived and worked in Nicaragua have already shared their own recollections of her extraordinary life and the many different roles she played in promoting and defending the Sandinista Revolution.

In 2024 Nicaragua’s Copresident Compañera Rosario Murillo recognised Coleen’s extraordinary contribution and recognised ‘all her efforts in accompanying us, and her constant dissemination of our realities and defence of our truths.’

Stephen Sefton on Tortilla con Sal sums up Coleen’s contribution to Nicaragua and the Sandinista Revolution. ‘It is no exaggeration to say that losing Coleen is truly an irreparable loss for Nicaragua. Few individuals have made such a great positive difference to the lives of so many thousands of Nicaragua’s families over the last five decades. No one has her range of experience, knowledge and contacts across North America and Europe, nor her capacity to mobilize them in an effective, coherent way in support of what is now the most successful, strategic political project in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Sandinista People’s Revolution, something Coleen recognised with unrivalled clarity.’

For our part the last time we met with Coleen was in April 2023 when we spent an evening with her at a pub in Soho in Central London where we lived up to our British stereotype by sharing beer and fish and chips…at Coleen’s request!  Most importantly we shared anecdotes and enjoyed Coleen’s warmth and generosity and her encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Nicaraguan.

Coleen was in London as a key presenter at an international academic conference hosted by King’s College, London on “The Impact of Covid Restrictions on Low-and Middle-Income Countries”.  Coleen had authored and presented research evaluating Nicaragua’s alternative pandemic management strategy.

The paper that Coleen presented highlighted her commitment to explaining the historical context of the Sandinista Revolution and the country’s community model of health care. As in all her work this illustrated her determination to reflect the truth about Nicaragua and the Sandinista Revolution and what other countries can  learn from this experience.

This was at a time when the Sandinista government was being denounced internationally in the mainstream media and academia for defeating the US-backed attempted coup in 2018 and for its handling of the COVID pandemic.

This an excerpt from Coleen’s paper presented at the Conference:

‘ I want to share this [Nicaragua’s] reality with you today because of what I experienced nine years ago in Liberia, West Africa with the onset of Ebola. What was ever present in my mind during that time was the conviction that if Liberia had also been supported over the years in developing a community based public health system with sufficient internal infrastructure and public services for her people, which is the case of Nicaragua, thousands of lives would have been saved. Ironically, the same thing could be said for the United States, where more than a million people died of Covid 19 and continue to do so at the rate of about 250 per day.’

‘I feel that it is important that public health and socio-economic development specialists, especially those from the global South, become more aware of what really happened and is happening in Nicaragua, not only during the pandemic but also before, with the hope of increasing communication and learning from this experience to be better prepared for future disasters.’

Coleen was a mother and grandmother, a friend to many, a development worker, a solidarity activist, an advocate for the Sandinista Revolution for five decades, a senior operations officer with the World Bank in Africa and Latin America, and an advisor to the Sandinista government 1982-1984.

Above all, Coleen’s commitment and dedication to the Sandinista Revolution and her love for Nicaragua shone through in everything she did. We send our condolences to son Javier and his family, to friends and brothers and sisters in Nicaragua, North America, and around the world.

Coleen! Presente! Presente! Presente!