Carolyn Cooper | Donna McFarlane representing blackness with style and substance

“The negro race has at present gone but a short way on the path of civilisation. The individuals are still as children, childlike in belief and faith ....They too often lack pride in their work .… Gratitude is, it is to be feared, not a strong point with many of them .... As a race they are certainly not artistic.” Those are the words of Frank Cundall who came from England in 1891 to assume the position of secretary and librarian at the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ). Almost four decades later, his influential opinion of us was published in Jamaica in 1928: A Handbook of Information for Visitors and Intending Residents with some Account of the Colony’s History.

Cundall represented whiteness in all its cultural arrogance. He was prepared to take up “the white man’s burden”. Rudyard Kipling’s imperialist poem, published in 1899, advocated American domination of the people of the Philippines who were, allegedly, unable to rule themselves. The poem became a rallying cry for racist colonisers:

“Take up the White Man’s burden —

Send forth the best ye breed —

Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives’ need;

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild —

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child.”

Like birds or fish, the “new-caught” colonised subjects were trapped in the net of civilisation. Rescued from their wild, devilish and childish condition, they should have been grateful. Instead, they were often sullen. This must have been what Cundall resented. After all, if your father binds you to exile and you agree to serve your captives’ need, the least you should expect from them is a little gratitude. Poor Cundall did not know that the Jamaicans he was attempting to civilise had mastered the art of playing fool fi ketch wise.

Cundall did do excellent work at the Institute of Jamaica. He founded the West India Reference Library in 1894 which evolved into the National Library of Jamaica. He also created an art gallery at the Institute. Cundall was a prolific writer on a wide range of subjects about Jamaica: from the taxing of Jews in the 17th century to tortoiseshell carving. He collaborated with the medical doctor Izett Anderson to compile Jamaica Negro Proverbs and Sayings, published in 1910. They cite eight introductory proverbs about proverbs, including this one from the Yoruba people of Nigeria: “A wise man who knows proverbs reconciles difficulties.” Cundall’s knowledge of our proverbs did not appear to have influenced his unwise perception of the Jamaican people. An unreconciled difficulty!

HEALING ANTIDOTE

Last Monday, I got a most welcome email from Professor Emeritus Rupert Lewis, our premier Garvey scholar, with the subject line, “Donna’s book is out on Amazon.” The University of the West Indies Press had published in December Representing Blackness, The Multimedia Marcus Mosiah Museum written by Donna McFarlane. She was the first director/curator of the museum and gave stellar service to the institution for a decade and a half until her death in 2018. Her book is a healing antidote to the colonialist politics of Frank Cundall and his ideological heirs.

In his Epilogue, Rupert Lewis asserts that, “Donna was critical of the history of the IOJ based on the persistence of colonial legacies in its curatorial practices ... She felt the IOJ’s anti-black legacies had not been sufficiently confronted.” He quotes Donna who argued that, “Up to 1961, collecting the material culture of black Jamaicans, and representing blackness in museums was never considered the responsibility or interest of the IOJ.” The appointment in 1971 of novelist Neville Dawes, the first African-Jamaican executive director of the IOJ, marked the turning of the tide.

The African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank was established as a division within the IOJ in 1973. Dawes wrote a cultural policy for Jamaica that was commissioned by UNESCO and published in 1979. He predicted that, “Culture and cultural development in Jamaica are on the threshold of transition and transformation from a situation where ‘approved’ cultural material and a set of activities were the preserve of an elite trained to foreign norms, to a democratic situation in which the materials of culture belong to all the people and draw their strength from authentic folk traditions.”

“INTELLECTUAL DRIVE”

Thanks to the vision of cultural ambassador Elaine Melbourne, Donna was appointed in 2003 to lead the revitalisation of Marcus Garvey’s Liberty Hall. Her training as an economist and her commitment to pan-Africanist ideals were decided assets. With the support of numerous individuals, chief of them her husband Claude Nembhard, Donna was able to amass substantial funding from public and private sector institutions. The shell of a building at 76 King Street became a vibrant multimedia museum affirming the therapeutic power of “authentic folk traditions”.

When Donna’s health began to fail, she asked her long-time friend and sister academic, Professor Emeritus Lynn Bolles, to complete the transformation of her doctoral dissertation into a book manuscript. Lynn, a distinguished anthropologist, put her whole heart in the project. In her Prologue, Lynn described Donna in this way: “Her sense of personal style and grace was accompanied by her energy, talent and intellectual drive.” Representing Blackness is a brilliant manifestation of Donna’s essence. From the realm of the ancestors, she transmits a powerful reminder of the urgent need to emancipate ourselves and our cultural institutions from the stranglehold of those who are determined to ‘civilise’ us. Against our will!

- Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a teacher of English language and literature and a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.