Descendant of father of Pan-Africanism to speak at The Mico

The great-great-granddaughter of Edward Blyden, the highly acclaimed father of Pan-Africanism, is set to deliver a keynote address at The Mico University College tomorrow in part of a series of presentations and discussions that are open to the public.

Dr Sylvia Olayinka Walmina Oreshola Blyden, former Sierra Leonean minister of social welfare, gender and children affairs, is the first woman to own a newspaper in West Africa. She is also a well-respected journalist and political commentator who has made it part of her life’s mission to establish the connection with descendants of enslaved Africans and build on the legacy of her ancestors in the Caribbean. Her strong and vocal advocacy led to her arrest on charges of sedition and defamation in 2020, in relation to social media posts in Sierra Leone.

Thursday’s event is part of ‘A Conversation with...’, a series of important presentations and discussions hosted by The Mico UNIA Garvey Club, the oldest UNIA chapter in Jamaica, which was started in 2004. The event follows on the heels of ‘A Conservation with Heirs of Slavery’, convened by former BBC anchor Laura Trevelyan, who left the BBC to campaign for reparative justice in the Caribbean after her family publicly apologised for ownership of more than 100 enslaved Africans.

In anticipation of the event, Andre Dunn, male president of The Mico UNIA Garvey Club, described it as a platform for deepening and strengthening students’ understanding of issues associated with reparation in the broader context of Pan-Africanism.

Dunn, a fourth-year student pursuing a B Ed in business administration, is encouraging “young people to avail themselves of information to help them understand the historical narrative which will help to shape their thinking and advocacy”.

The charter of the UNIA mandates that each chapter must have a male and female president. For final-year social studies student Antoinette Anderson, the female president, understanding where we are coming from will help to guide how we frame our thinking around reparation and Pan-Africanism. She quoted Garvey: “ A people without a knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

Steven Golding, president of the UNIA Division No.1, Jamaica, said the presentation by Blyden comes at a critical juncture and pays homage to the strong historical connections between Sierra Leone and Jamaica. During the second Maroon War of 1795-1796, thousands of Jamaicans were deported to Sierra Leone via Nova Scotia. Sierra Leone recently amended its policy on citizenship, creating a pathway for Africans in the diaspora.