Studies of political change on Grenada have invariably centred on the activities of T. Albert Marryshow in the period immediately after World War I. Drawing on the rich data available from contemporary newspapers, this paper argues that Donovan's efforts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided the impetus and framework for Marryshow's later struggles. In fact, Marryshow himself admits Donovan's contributions to his political growth. The "first of the Federalists", Donovan preached federation long before the concept was fashionable. Embracing a broad approach to the island's situation, both activists linked local demands for change to the plight of Africans worldwide. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT];
"Alexander Bedward, minister of the revivalist Jamaica Native Baptist Free Church during the period 1889-1921, emerged as one of the island's earliest black nationalists. Under the guise of religion Bedward called on the black majority to rise up and take action against the prevailing system of racial discrimination, socio-economic deprivation, injustice, the tyranny of minority colonial rule, and to establish a government representative of the people. While he was revered by the masses, attracting thousands of followers at home and abroad, he was feared by the upper classes and colonial authorities, who saw him as a threat to political stability. An antagonistic relationship developed between the government and Bedward. Eventually, he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to the lunatic asylum, where he later died." (publication abstract);
As anonymously as Anton de Kom began his life in 1898 in a small nineteenth-century Surinam village, it would be terminated forty-seven years later by forces beyond his control. His death, however, was not a singular event, but one representative of an entire generation of Surinamese migrants who, desiring to improve their lives, travelled northward to Holland, the "mother country", only to find a deeper sense of pain as unwanted and abused eacute;migrés. De Kom's migration to Holland occurred twice. First, as a youth he was pulled northward to understand better "her greatness". A decade later, he was forcibly pushed and exiled northward by the Dutch colonial authorities. On the second occasion, he became aware of his own illegitimate political birth as a colonial subject, and the psychological trap that awaited him when asked to defend the imperial country against an invading German army. His residence in exile exposed the serious dilemma of "two-ness", described by W.E.B. DuBois, when the colonized becomes psychologically and aesthetically committed to the colonizer's world, as well as that of the colonized. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT];
The author responds to articles in the journal by Kevin Gaines and Patricia Saunders concerning her book Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. Particular focus is given to the notion of outsiderness regarding the status of black women and Caribbean women within radical and intellectual traditions. Lessons from the life and political career of political activist Claudia Jones are explored.
"In the first half of the century diasporic connections, particularly shared oppression and ancestral ties, triggered responses. When the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), an informal organisation of African American congressional representatives, became the key architects of African American foreign policy in the early 1970s, civil rights tactics were wedded to diasporic appeals to motivate African Americans to help shift US foreign policy towards South Africa and Haiti." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR];
