7 April 2020
Dear Kingston Grants,
INTRODUCTION
In these very trying times, I'm hoping for greater collaboration between the US and Jamaica. I was heartened by the high level outreach to Jamaica's PM by the US VP and SoS in the past year. There is one further matter that might help to strengthen the relationship between the two nations: securing a presidential pardon or exoneration for Jamaica's First National Hero, the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
IN AMERICA'S INTEREST
Robert Hill, UCLA professor emeritus of the Garvey Papers Department has written a very accessible Garvey biography called: "Marcus Garvey, Negro Moses". The attached bibliography is also useful for explaining Garvey's role in the cultural, political and spiritual development of America starting in the early 1920s.
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-garvey.html
In an age where low fuel prices threaten economic stability, it's becoming harder to hold the country together. The Garveyite vision a pardon would help would foster self-sufficiency among large groups of America's black people, relieving pressure on the system. Since Garveyism, among its many prospects, tends toward uniting US, Caribbean and Central American black anglophone groups, a pardon will increase good will and collaboration between these groups and the USA, with its attendant economic and security benefits.
Anglophilia: The only countries or communities Garvey visited were English speaking ones. This argues for a stronger bond between blacks in the West with the British Commonwealth. A US pardoning of Garvey would greatly help to expand the US sphere of influence within the British Commonwealth, overlapping with anglophone African nations. This would of course mean stronger US influence on the African continent.
A Garveyite transformation needs a geographic example of Garveyite governance that is inclusive, balancing the emphasis on race with an emphasis on place. A logical supposition is that the town where Garvey was born and educated, St. Ann's Bay, would be an asset to the US foreign posture were it to be a center of US preservationist attention and funding. Moreover, St. Ann's Bay is the site of Jamaica's first capital, dating from 1506, and is now the major center of government offices away from the capital; it would be a logical place to try on the program and strategy that a Garvey pardon would enable. A pardon should not be wasted on incoherence and lack of programing.
CONCLUSION: A QUIET PROCESS
- This proposal assumes that pardoning Garvey is equally to the benefit of Jamaica and America. It can be initiated from the US end as well as the Jamaican. It can be combined with other pardons. It needn't make the front page news.
- It is strongly pro-American, for the simple reason that black labor helped set the foundation for America's greatness, and that redounds to the heritage of black people. Helping America is the same struggle as helping to save the British Colonial material culture in Jamaica that is simultaneously the culture of blacks who built it.
- An Iconoclastic Approach: The established academic world that is traditionally Garveyite seems, misguidedly, pro Chinese and anti-colonial-heritage. I am in disagreement with these two tendencies, while lacking the academic, governmental, and other support for my views. There is division between my views and those of intellectuals who look to China; the latter fits a dry and academic tendency to elitism , viewing Garvey through elitist lens, when he was in fact the consummate populist. The academic set favors the the industrial development models that China's exemplifies with unsurpassed efficiency, but that the world's environment can no longer afford. .
- African Spiritual Traditions Grafted Into Western Culture: It is by no means clear that African spirituality did not transition from wood sculpture in the equitorial forests to wooden and other forms of architecture Africans were required to build during the colonial era. https://www.ecosophia.net/in-the-footsteps-of-high-john/
- Alternative Development In Africa: The rate of animal extinctions in Africa is very high, and flawed assumptions of what the planet can endure led to a style of development that exploits natural resources at an alarming rate. Much of this is due to unwise and exploitative foreign investments, particularly Chinese. This proposal seeks to link a pardoning of Garvey to a monumental effort to set an alternative example of development that is respectful of natural fiscal resources.
https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/
https://afrikanza.com/endangered-animals-africa/
- A Personal perspective: As the grandson of Garvey's chief mentor and educator (Alfred Burrowes) I believe I have a personal understanding of Mr. Garvey, his methods, his vision, and possible, though disputed, failings.
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-garvey.html
In an age where low fuel prices threaten economic stability, it's becoming harder to hold the country together. The Garveyite vision a pardon would help would foster self-sufficiency among large groups of America's black people, relieving pressure on the system. Since Garveyism, among its many prospects, tends toward uniting US, Caribbean and Central American black anglophone groups, a pardon will increase good will and collaboration between these groups and the USA, with its attendant economic and security benefits.
Anglophilia: The only countries or communities Garvey visited were English speaking ones. This argues for a stronger bond between blacks in the West with the British Commonwealth. A US pardoning of Garvey would greatly help to expand the US sphere of influence within the British Commonwealth, overlapping with anglophone African nations. This would of course mean stronger US influence on the African continent.
A Garveyite transformation needs a geographic example of Garveyite governance that is inclusive, balancing the emphasis on race with an emphasis on place. A logical supposition is that the town where Garvey was born and educated, St. Ann's Bay, would be an asset to the US foreign posture were it to be a center of US preservationist attention and funding. Moreover, St. Ann's Bay is the site of Jamaica's first capital, dating from 1506, and is now the major center of government offices away from the capital; it would be a logical place to try on the program and strategy that a Garvey pardon would enable. A pardon should not be wasted on incoherence and lack of programing.
CONCLUSION: A QUIET PROCESS
- This proposal assumes that pardoning Garvey is equally to the benefit of Jamaica and America. It can be initiated from the US end as well as the Jamaican. It can be combined with other pardons. It needn't make the front page news.
- It is strongly pro-American, for the simple reason that black labor helped set the foundation for America's greatness, and that redounds to the heritage of black people. Helping America is the same struggle as helping to save the British Colonial material culture in Jamaica that is simultaneously the culture of blacks who built it.
- An Iconoclastic Approach: The established academic world that is traditionally Garveyite seems, misguidedly, pro Chinese and anti-colonial-heritage. I am in disagreement with these two tendencies, while lacking the academic, governmental, and other support for my views. There is division between my views and those of intellectuals who look to China; the latter fits a dry and academic tendency to elitism , viewing Garvey through elitist lens, when he was in fact the consummate populist. The academic set favors the the industrial development models that China's exemplifies with unsurpassed efficiency, but that the world's environment can no longer afford. .
- African Spiritual Traditions Grafted Into Western Culture: It is by no means clear that African spirituality did not transition from wood sculpture in the equitorial forests to wooden and other forms of architecture Africans were required to build during the colonial era. https://www.ecosophia.net/in-the-footsteps-of-high-john/
https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/
https://afrikanza.com/endangered-animals-africa/
- A Personal perspective: As the grandson of Garvey's chief mentor and educator (Alfred Burrowes) I believe I have a personal understanding of Mr. Garvey, his methods, his vision, and possible, though disputed, failings.
As we stand at the crossroads of new global paradigms, no one has a clear vision of where to go. Clearly, Garvey's sense of uplift and self-confidence is one strand in a future direction. The British Colonial system with its rationality, order, elegance and style is another. Native American respect for the land is yet another. American energy and creativity, its economic, military and cultural dominance are all strands in the formation of a new world. I am drawing on this understanding to promote the preservation of the architectural and cultural heritage of Mr. Garvey's birthplace, and hope to apply this year for an AFCP grant to assist with this endeavor
- My qualifications in a nutshell: My extensive higher education has been confined to the Americas and centered on culture and the humanities. I also have several teaching credentials. My formal degrees--BFA, '61 and MFA, '63--are both from Yale University School of Art. My work which most pertains to this proposal to pardon Garvey and engage in planning and preservation around his heritage is the Weeks Neighborhood Plan, (in which the National Park Service participated) spearheaded by the East Palo Alto Historical and Agricultural Society, of which I was founding director.
http://www.urbanecology.org/downloads/WeeksNeighborhoodPlan.pdf
Wishing you health and endurance in a time of pandemic.
Sincerely,
Trevor Burrowes, MFA
burrowestrevor@gmail.com
505-455-7926
- My qualifications in a nutshell: My extensive higher education has been confined to the Americas and centered on culture and the humanities. I also have several teaching credentials. My formal degrees--BFA, '61 and MFA, '63--are both from Yale University School of Art. My work which most pertains to this proposal to pardon Garvey and engage in planning and preservation around his heritage is the Weeks Neighborhood Plan, (in which the National Park Service participated) spearheaded by the East Palo Alto Historical and Agricultural Society, of which I was founding director.
http://www.urbanecology.org/downloads/WeeksNeighborhoodPlan.pdf
Wishing you health and endurance in a time of pandemic.
Sincerely,
Trevor Burrowes, MFA
burrowestrevor@gmail.com
505-455-7926
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