Eileen Garcia, 4/19/20

- How can we get to the global before even addressing the continental? How do you get from where we stand in Jamaica today to a global governance system? Who would put it together and manage it? Would it happen automatically by some spontaneous human awakening? Could it happen in some other way? If not, why not?

- How can we say that complex civilization is for the good if it warms the planet and poisons the sea? I'm research-deficient, so I don't know what other large continent has created cultures that preclude the wheel (the basis of industrial civilization) but Africa? If Africa is unique in that way, and if the extraordinary preservation of its megafauna is a result, wouldn't we need--for the sake of the global environment-- to concentrate on how to maintain that somehow? It's not being maintained at present, so how can it help to go on to bigger things and just ignore the prospects of an alternative African world view? 

TOWARD A REEXAMINATION OF AFRICAN IDENTITY

Whereas  endemic intra African slavery was among people of similar ethnicity, large ethnic and civilizational differences between African slaves and European slave owners might have created unprecedented gaps between slaves and owners. And adapting to those gaps at such a scale and speed might be seen as a most unusual event in history? Moreover, the indiscriminate (?) mixing of Africans of different cultures and languages together so that THEY had to adapt to each other could be seen as an equally monumental cultural challenge. (It's unclear as to the nature of adaptation by and among slaves as opposed to that by or among slave owners. Scholars should delve into this.)

A takeaway from the issue of adaption by continental African to cultural conditions in the West is the unalterable way in which Africans in the West challenge the issue of African identity. Is the African in the West a harbinger of African unity? And, if so, is European heritage therefore embedded in a provisional African identity? 




Trevor Burrowes "...are you familiar with the writer Albert Murray? This week’s essay is probably the sixth or seventh that has brought his work to mind for me. (Other times when you’ve written about architecture, mythology, the spiritual influence of place, and especially American history, culture, character.) It’s never a specific enough connection to describe in a concise comment, but I suspect you’d find a lot to chew on in his body of work.

He’s difficult to characterize briefly, but there’s a distinct and subtle set of ideas running through all his work. I’m just going to drop in a paragraph that hints at a few of his themes:

'Thus, in the second and third quarters of nineteenth century America, Negroes can find adequate historical as well as mythological documentation for ‘all that really matters’ in the establishment of their national identity. Not that they need to do so to meet any official requirements whatsoever. After all, such is the process by which Americans are made that immigrants, for instance, need trace their roots no further back in either time or space than Ellis Island. By the very act of arrival, they emerge from the bottomless depths and enter the same stream of American tradition as those who landed at Plymouth. In the very act of making their way through customs, they begin the process of becoming, as Constance Rourke would put it, part Yankee, part backwoodsman and Indian–and part Negro!'

That’s from his essay 'The Omni-Americans,' which is as good a place to start with Murray as any."

Jonathan.

https://www.amazon.com/Omni-Americans-Perspectives-Experience-American-Culture/dp/0876900015

ROOTS SHAMANISM

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59w8yd/i-died-met-god-and-came-back-as-a-roots-healer

TOWARD ENDING DEMOLITION

As a strategic first step, shouldn't Town Planning be asked to demand detailed photo documentation and measurements prior to permitting any demolition? For all buildings without exception?

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. 

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

DOMINICA

Kia Penso The darkest place I ever was at night was Dominica. It was so dark I was afraid to move for about five minutes. Finally I was able, by putting one foot forward and dragging the other to meet it very cautiously, to get out from under the trees to the lesser dark. I was standing in the driveway of a hotel/restaurant in the hills outside Roseau, I had walked up there alone from the guest house where I was staying, had my dinner, and was setting out to walk back to my guest house. Between me and the guest house was a little village and between me and the village was pitch black of trees overhanging the unlit road. Every spook and duppy and jumbie and haint and strange disembodied voice that I ever heard of in my childhood had jumped right out of storage in my brain and was waiting in the forest beyond those trees. I ran for that village like they were after me. Please note also that that was the only thing I feared walking alone in Dominica at night. It is a blessed place.

KINGSTON GRANTS MESSAGE

Dear Kingston Grants,

INTRODUCTION

In these very trying times, I'm looking to see strides in collaboration between the US and Jamaica. I was heartened by the high level outreach by the VP and Secretary of State in the past year. There is one further matter that might help to strengthen the relationship between the two nations. 

gARVEY AS A BI-NATIONAL AND UNIFYING FIGURE

rOBERT hILL AND usla

Madison Square event 20 years ago

GARVEY AND THE PLANET AT A CROSSROADS

alternative development for Africa

a reevaluation of Africa and the US coinciding

issues of the anglophone world

going back voluntarily for our mutual benefit

19th century technology and the printery

connection to SAB

SAB as a model of transition

established academic world--pro Chinese, anti colonial heritage

exoneration

division between intellectuals who look to China: I suppose it fits an academic tendency to elitism , viewing Garvey through elitist lens, when he was in fact the consummate populist

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. 

I am drawing on this understanding to promote the preservation of the architectural and cultural heritage of Mr. Garvey, and hope to apply this year for an AFCP grant to assist with this endeavor 

s. We're hanging in there, although we wonder if anyone is absolutely sure how to conduct ourselves re infection. Your dad is strong. His body and mind are trained to survive. Do take the best care of yourself. It's probably better no to be specific re the dye. But those 19th century machines that didn't use electricity are what I'm sure the society will be needing in fairly short order. So a more general (and circuitous) discussion along those lines may be best. 

Explain as best as you can the benefit to Jamaican culture and community by the USA pardoning a National Hero of the

Country and request their participation in the plan to pardon Mr Garvey.

Connect with Lennox Lewis via Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ lennoxlewis/posts/

See how little help you would get from the current Marcus Garvey Jnr?

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ Marcus-Garvey-Jnr- 436917169978440/posts/?ref= page_internal

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