JNHT to Host Heritage Lectures

The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) will be hosting a series of heritage lectures on Jamaica’s first National Hero, the Rt. Excellent Marcus Garvey, as part of activities to celebrate Heritage Month 2017.

Heritage Month is being celebrated in October under the theme ‘A Great Heritage… A Great Legacy’.

The first lecture is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 9 at the Institute of Jamaica, 10-16 East Street, Kingston.

The other lectures will take place at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in St James and the Northern Caribbean University in Manchester on Tuesday, October 10 and Thursday, October 12, respectively. All lectures begin at 10:00 a.m.

Students, teachers and the general public are invited to attend the lectures, which are free of cost. Guest lecturer will be the President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Steven Golding.

Public Education Officer of the JNHT, Duane Harris, told JIS News that the topic was chosen because this year marks the 130th year of Marcus Garvey’s birth, and it is important to examine his ideas and how they impact the society.

He mentioned a recent controversy involving the mounting of a bust of Marcus Garvey at the University of the West Indies Campus and the Black Lives Matter movement, a civil rights activist group in the United States of America.

“We thought it necessary to look at Marcus Garvey’s view in light of all of these situations to see who Marcus Garvey was; what his ideas about pan-Africanism were, and the extent to which they are still relevant today,” he said.

Mr. Harris said the last lecture, titled ‘Rumble in Morant Bay… Governor Edward Eyre versus National Hero the Rt. Excellent George William Gordon’, will take place on Tuesday, October 31 in the Legislative Chamber of the JNHT headquarters, 79 Duke Street, Kingston.

The Education Officer said the lecture will look at issues surrounding the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865 and the role played by Governor Edward Eyre and George William Gordon. The Lecturer for this session is Dr. Swithin Wilmot of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

He said the discussions will also examine the topic in relation to its significance of the JNHT’s headquarters, which was the headquarters of the military in 1865. “Most of the rebellions that were put down during slavery and after slavery were from the headquarters,” he added.

“We want to show students and other persons that it is not just a historic old building, but a lot of important history took place at this building. This is a real building where real things happened that impacted Jamaica,” he said.

Mr. Harris noted that George William Gordon was arrested at the JNHT headquarters before being transported to St Thomas and executed after a court trial.