UNIA women lauded at 12th Marcus Garvey Lecture
Published:Wednesday | August 18, 2021 | 12:11 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
The contribution of women to the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was on Tuesday highlighted during the 12th annual Marcus Garvey lecture, on the 134th anniversary of his birth.
Garvey started the UNIA in 1914 and was Jamaica’s first national hero.
Mainstream narratives of pan-African activism have often downplayed the intellectual and political work of black women.
Guest lecturer, Dr Natanya Duncan, the director of Africana Studies at Queens College City, University of New York, presented under the theme: ‘We Build Forever: The Legacies of UNIA Women’.
Duncan argued that it was the work of women, through grassroots activities, who engaged in orchestrating and promoting the UNIA, to ensure its legacy into the 21st century.
“His brilliance in co-fostering a space that enabled women to explore activist strategies that allowed us to have the UNIA still intact to this day is remarkable,” she said of Garvey.
Among the women she spotlighted were Garvey’s first wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, his second wife, Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, Madame Maymie De Mena, Ethel Trew Dunlap and Princess Laura Adorkor Koffey.
The UNIA received its launching through the financial support of Ashwood Garvey, when she borrowed money from her mother’s purse to print the first set of flyers for the initial meeting.
Koffey signed up 3,000 UNIA members in less than three months and established the African Universal Church.
Duncan shared prime examples of “efficient womanhood activism”, which included the formation of institutions dedicated to fulfilling the needs of UNIA members.
The Black Cross Nurses of the UNIA provided healthcare to black people and promoted good health and overall well-being through the circulation of manuals.
Meanwhile, the Universal African Motor Corps, an all-female paramilitary auxiliary, had military discipline, experience in firing, automobile driving and repairs.
Many of the UNIA women served as publishers and some went on to establish independent organisations.
“I encourage you all to take up the baton of the women of the UNIA and carry their legacy beyond the 21st century. They were institution builders, they believed in constructive partnerships that served their aims. They provided mentorship for one another and for those that would come after them, and they were bridge builders who used their social capital and their wealth towards promoting black autonomy,” Duncan remarked.