Set the World on Fire by Keisha N. Blain

Author:Keisha N. Blain [Blain, Keisha N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2018-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Anticolonial Politics in the African Diaspora

If black nationalist women in the United States endorsed a diasporic politics committed to anticolonialism and racial equality, then so did their counterparts in other parts of the African diaspora.57 In Jamaica, for example, teacher and social activist Amy Bailey published a plethora of writings, addressing a number of key issues concerning people of African descent on the island and in other parts of the diaspora. Born in Manchester, Jamaica, in 1895, Bailey became one of the most prolific Caribbean women writers of the twentieth century.58 Like other black women on the island during the early twentieth century, Bailey had limited access to the formal political process in Jamaica—one that was largely dominated by whites and nonwhite elite men. In 1919, Bailey entered the teaching profession, marking the formal beginning of her public career as a social worker and activist.59 With the introduction of Public Opinion and other progressive black newspapers in Jamaica, Bailey and other black middle-class reformers found an informal yet crucial space in which to engage in Jamaican politics, thereby attempting to influence the direction of public policy.60 Her writings addressed a range of concerns, including racial discrimination and the marginalization of black women in Jamaican society.

During the 1920s, Bailey began to embrace the teachings of Marcus Garvey. While she did not become a member of the UNIA, Bailey endorsed the key tenets of Garveyism, including racial pride, black political self-determination, and anticolonialism. She also deeply admired Garvey during her lifetime. “As a young enthusiast,” she later explained, “I followed Marcus Garvey to every night meeting at Edelweiss Park and to many other meetings that were held in an open space (now a car park) beside Parish Church on Sunday afternoons.” She added, “So enthused was I that on reaching home I would write down much of what I had heard. Unfortunately my bookkeeper friends borrowed those exercise books and I lost them but memories linger.” According to Bailey, one of the “high spots” of her memories included the UNIA’s 1929 procession in downtown Kingston led by Henrietta Vinton Davis and Maymie De Mena, two women pioneers of the Garvey movement. While the 1929 convention marked the effective collapse of the UNIA as an organization, Bailey remained deeply moved by Garvey’s teachings and, during the 1930s, went to visit him in London.61 In the ensuing years, Garvey’s ideas continued to inform Bailey’s writings as well as her social and political work.

A gifted writer, Bailey found a public platform from which to share her ideas in a range of black newspapers, including the Jamaica Standard and the Kingston Daily Gleaner. These opportunities helped to catapult Bailey’s political career, expanding her visibility and influence in Jamaica. Moreover, these newspapers linked Bailey and many others to black communities in other parts of the diaspora.62 Writing in Public Opinion in 1938, Bailey argued, “The problems of the labouring classes of this country are many, and must be solved; and we who claim to have the milk

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.