Louis E.A. Moyston | The forgotten one(s)

As we celebrate the milestones in our history, it is important that we place premium on the effort to educate our people on the real richness of our history. There are many great Jamaicans that are generally ignored, especially those from the late 19th to early and mid-20th century. They emerged as important leaders in the journey to create a modern and independent Jamaica.

Some of those persons are: Dr T.E. S. Scholes, Sandy Cox, Una Marson, W.A. Domingo, W. A. Roberts, Leonard P. Howell, St William Grant and A.G.S. ‘Father’ Coombs, among others. Dr Robert Love, a Bahamian, whose critical intervention from the late 19th to early 20th century into the Jamaican society is the focus of this article.

During the 18th century, the Haitian Revolution was the beacon for black liberation in the African diaspora. It was against this background of Dr Love’s inspiration from Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution that he developed his black thought and his dedication to assist in the debriefing process of the ex-slaves in Jamaica. In order to understand the dynamism of Marcus Garvey and his global impact, it is most important to explore the life and times of this great Bahamian and his influence on Garvey. Garvey, indeed, was an outcome of a process. It is also critical to understand his contribution to the development of black consciousness and black politics in Jamaica. He arrived in Jamaica after the 1888 period, when there was an adjustment in the political arrangements that increased the participation of black men in the Legislative Council elections. Who will honour this great man?

HIS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

Joseph Robert Love received his early education under the influence of the Anglican Church in The Bahamas. He was born in 1839. As a young teacher, he travelled to Florida in the late 1860s where he not only became a clergyman, but also a manager of schools for black children. From 1877 to 1880, he studied medicine in Buffalo, New York; and he may have learned about the great Jamaican, John Russwurm, who in the mid-1830s, along with Samuel Cornish in New York, established the first newspaper for black people in America – Freedom’s Journal. Russwurm, a back-to-Africa advocate, was an admirer of Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution. The newspaper played a most important role in the black community in the United States north, including highlighting the significance of the Haitian Revolution as the lighthouse for black liberation in the African diaspora. The newspaper advocated black aesthetics, the role of education in the service for the upliftment of black people. Dr Robert Love lived in New York from 1877 to 1880 and, as an astute student, the lessons from Russwurm and Freedom’s Journal provided him with well-needed perspectives that prepared him for his mission to return to the Caribbean. He made his contribution to Haiti and later to Jamaica, where he was a leading and powerful force in the Jamaica society in the post-1865 period.

LOVE RETURNED TO THE CARIBBEAN

After graduating from medical school, Dr Love migrated to Haiti in 1881. Like John Russwurm, he was part of the 19th-century community of black scholars and activists whose thinking was influenced by Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution. He served as an Anglican clergyman and later as a medical doctor for the Haitian army. Unfortunately, the army was involved in revolt and Love was expelled. In 1889 he arrived in Jamaica, a year after some changes were made in the electoral laws that were favourable to an increased participation of black men in the electoral process of the Crown Colony political system. The setting in Jamaica was characterised by a continuation of post-Emancipation social and economic miseries: unbridled racism - black people treated as inferior beings, the absence of a deep black consciousness movement, poor education, land deprivation, high taxation, epidemics, and poor housing and health conditions. There was also a low level of political participation due to restricted franchise, and, of course, an exceptionally high level of unemployment with a corresponding level of imprisonment, especially among young black men. Dr Love was also concerned about the exploitation of black people in general, but also a particular type of exploitation of black women. He was a staunch advocate for education, from the Negro’s point of view, especially for young black girls. Several years after his landing in Jamaica, he set up the black newspaper, the Jamaican Advocate, in 1894.

LOVE, THE JAMAICAN ADVOCATE AND BLACK POLITICS

This newspaper was patterned off Freedom’s Journal. That black newspaper was transformed into a primary tool for social reform; and also as a cultural medium that exposed the political influence of the Haitian Revolution in the United States. It was also an advocate for education in service of the upliftment of black people. The newspaper campaigned against the white supremacist notion of black inferiority. The Jamaican Advocate emerged during the post-1865 period and the establishment of the Crown Colony system of government. The newspaper encouraged black self-improvement. It urged black people to demonstrate their mental capacities as they struggle against their degraded existence in an oppressive system. The Jamaican Advocate and Dr Love played a most important role in encouraging and organising black political participation in elections for the Legislative Council. It led voter registration campaigns as it set out on the journey to assist in the process of empowering black majority in a minority white society and government. His political activities contributed to the role of the Sandy Cox National Club, the pioneering black trade union and political movement in Jamaica. He made an indelible contribution to the emergence of the black press in Jamaica.

LOVE AND POLITICS

Dr Love entered electoral politics in 1906 when he ran successfully in the St Andrew seat for the Legislative Council. In 1909, he worked with another pioneering black politician, Alexander Dixon, as organisers for Sandy Cox’s candidacy for the Legislative Council seat for St Thomas. There was a general sense of massive resistance from the white minority against black politicians. This was one of the reasons why Dr Love and Alexander Dixon led this high-powered political campaign against a planter named Cork, who moved from St Catherine, where he was a member of the Legislative Council, to St Thomas; and in a black majority space, he conducted a contemptuous racist campaign against Sandy Cox. The latter eventually won the seat. Poor health overwhelmed Dr Love. He was forced out of office in 1910 and died in 1914. He was buried in the cemetery of the St Andrew Parish Church, Half-Way Tree.

The Sandy Cox experience in St Thomas in the 1909 campaign was indeed a brief reflection of the historical resistance of the white minority in not only to keep the black people ignorant and landless, but also their audacious effort to stop black majority rule in Jamaica. This is one of the many areas of the history of the country that requires serious attention. As we celebrate, we need to recalibrate the curriculum, to rid it of its ‘null’ and ‘hidden’ qualities towards an emancipatory project. Dr Love called for education in Jamaica to be grounded in the “black man’s point of view”, a call to displace the colonial philosophy of education. The practice of selecting one man as a representative of Black Nationalism in Jamaica is not a good conception of history. We need to develop the history and curriculum of Black Nationalism in Jamaica, not from any single individual, but a programme rooted in this rich tradition of Black Nationalism from Bogle to Bedward, Dr Love, the others, and the forgotten ones. By the way, please leave August alone.

Louis E.A. Moyston, PhD. Send comments to thearchives01@yahoo.com.