Radical and dread men

Jerome Teelucksingh

TWO SONS of TT, CLR James and George Padmore, were familiar with the work of WEB Du Bois and Marcus Garvey (a Jamaican), who were based in the US. The philosophy of Garveyism reinforced anti-colonial and anti-imperial sentiments, but, more importantly, it stimulated racial pride and self-reliance among blacks.

Indeed, Garvey has been credited as laying the foundation for the struggles of the 1930s and subsequent socio-political developments. To a certain extent, James, in A History of Negro Revolt, supported Garvey’s ideological stance. James credited Garvey’s monumental work in making the American black more conscious of their African origin and developing the feeling of international solidarity among Africans and its diaspora.

James admired the courage and indomitable spirit of Garvey and the value of his leadership to the African diaspora. However, James also believed that Garvey’s African theories “had no sense” and his plan to return blacks to Africa was “pitiable rubbish.”

Not surprisingly, during the late 1930s, James and Padmore regularly heckled Garvey at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, England. However, Paul Buhle surmised that both James and Padmore later realised they had made “a political and personal blunder” by heckling Garvey.

In 1940, James, writing under the pseudonym JR Johnson, was critical of Garvey: “He used fierce words but he was opposed to the labour movement and counselled subservience to bosses. One reason for his success was that his movement was strictly a class movement.”

James also believed that Garvey should not merely be seen as an agitator but as building up a movement. Later, James would identify Garvey as promoting black popular fascism which was comparable to that of Adolf Hitler of Germany.

Leonard "Tim" Hector, a leftist political leader of Antigua, argued that Garvey was hostile to most of the other black activists/writers of that era. Furthermore, Hector felt Garvey wanted Africans to create a new civilisation based on European-American practices and ideas.

There were groups in the UK that were advocates of Pan-Africanist ideology. They included the African Association, founded in 1897, and the African Progress Union in 1921. During the 1920s and 1930s, other groups influencing black thought included the Ethiopian Progressive Association.

In TT, during the 1930s, an African consciousness existed. For instance, there was the establishment of the African National High School at Park Street in Port of Spain, which taught African language courses. There was also the proactive Daughters of Ethiopia, which raised funds for such groups as the Ethiopian Red Cross.

In the mid-1950s, James, while in London, met with Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, a charismatic Afro-American who would later become an influential leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the US. They discussed ideas to improve the conditions and lifestyle of blacks.

Such dialogue would have influenced James when he later returned to the US and shared ideas with his group based in Detroit. This group would later publish Negro Americans Take the Lead (1964).

James had been in contact with and sought to influence the actions of LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), a radical Afro-American, and one of the leading proponents of Black Power, Trinidad-born Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). However, James was not able to adequately influence both personalities.

In addition to speaking invitations, James was respected as a magazine writer and presenter on radio and television programmes. For instance, the editor of Africa Events requested a short article from James dealing with the retirement of president Julius Nyerere of the United Republic of Tanzania.

There were numerous requests for James as a speaker on issues relating to Africa. For instance, in December 1953, the secretary of the Cambridge University Students’ Club invited James to deliver a lecture on an African-related topic. Subsequently, James agreed to speak on Africa and the Crisis of Modern Civilisation on January 17, 1954.

Almost two years later, on March 17, 1958, James wrote to Jean Brierre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, indicating that the group Société Africaine de Culture (Présence Africaine) was organising a second conference of African writers and those from the African diaspora, to be held in Rome in September. Subsequently, on July 8, 1958, the group invited James to deliver a presentation at this prestigious and exclusive conference. James was well received at these public sessions.

In TT, James possessed the qualifications necessary to become a powerful asset of the colony’s labour movement. However, he was branded a communist and scorned. Ivar Oxaal noted that James was neglected, treated with "indifference" and faced "persecution" in TT.