NJAC and literature for liberation

THE EDITOR: As the nation is just nine months away from the 50th anniversary of the TT revolution of 1970, I want to look again at the impact of the literature that informed NJAC’s activism toward a new and just society.

Communication technology was not as sophisticated as it is now. Instead NJAC used radio, cinema, cassette tapes and vinyl records to receive and pass on information. There were enlivening raps/discussions on the blocks, starting off in Laventille and then spreading throughout the country, in tandem with others who had begun their own groups.

The study of history was pre-eminent. NJAC studied West Indian, African, Indian, Chinese, African-American as well as Latin American civilisation. The organisation invited lecturers from UWI to lead the talks on the street corners. Among them were Prof Gordon Rohlehr, Dr Brinsley Samaroo, the late Dr Pat Emmanuel (Grenada), and Dr Bill Riviere (Dominica). Everybody read widely. From progressive Caribbean thinkers to leaders of the anti-imperialist movements in the so-called Third World. Activists studied Walter Rodney, Lloyd Best, Malcolm X, Fanon, Yosef ben Jochanan, Eric Williams, Garvey, Gandhi, Mao Tse Tung, Che, Castro, as well as Marx and the radical left in Europe and America.

There was intense preparation for the post-Industrial Age. Among the required reading was Jacques Servan-Schreiber, amongst other futuristic writers.

In order to satisfy this hunger for literature, NJAC encouraged visitors to bring books for members. And activists went overseas to purchase books for sale to the public. The organisation sold literature at market days, rallies and offices. The idea was to establish home libraries. Eventually a bookstore was established at NJAC’s Caribbean Arts Community.

In a previous letter I mentioned that NJAC published its own literature starting with East Dry River Speaks, and other community papers progressing eventually to the NJAC national newspaper, Liberation, which had a circulation of 30,000 copies per month.

In addition, NJAC published magazines, booklets and innumerable pamphlets on the state of the society, the economy and politics.

In that letter I neglected to mention that Liberation attracted significant local and international attention. When Kasala Kamara was editor, the management of SWMCOL was so impressed by the distribution network of Liberation that they approached the organisation to have their newsletter Chase Charlie Away placed as an insert in Liberation. NJAC readily agreed.

Kamara was also chosen as the TT representative for the International Organisation of Journalists and attended a number of conferences overseas.

None of this activity went unnoticed by the government. Many times the police would raid NJAC offices and members’ homes, seeking what they called “subversive literature.”

Dr Eric Williams, the prime minister, monitored what NJAC read. He cynically claimed that while most of the activists were reading Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth they were not able to go beyond the first chapter which was titled Concerning Violence.

Much of the literature that was read in the 1970s remains relevant but the current generation has to go beyond where NJAC was. The would-be change agents, political or otherwise, have to forge ahead to seek contemporary sources of information and inspiration. They have to research new ideas.

As Fanon wrote, “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.”

AIYEGORO OME
,
Mt Lambert

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