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CARIBBEAN LEAVEN IN THE AMERICAN LOAF:
WILFRED A. DOMINGO,
THE JAMAICA PROGRESSIVE LEAGUE,
AND THE FOUNDING OF A DECOLONIZATION
WILFRED A. DOMINGO,
THE JAMAICA PROGRESSIVE LEAGUE,
AND THE FOUNDING OF A DECOLONIZATION
MOVEMENT FOR JAMAICA
Birte Timm
Just as the Caribbean has been a sort of leaven in the American
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loaf, so the American Negro is beginning to play a reciprocal role
in the life of foreign Negro communities. …
—Wilfred A. Domingo, 1925
in the life of foreign Negro communities. …
This world-wide reaction of the darker races to their common as well as their local grievances is one of the most signifi cant facts of recent development.
Exchange of views and sympathy, extension and co-operation
of race organizations beyond American boundaries … are
bound to develop on a considerable scale in the near future.
of race organizations beyond American boundaries … are
bound to develop on a considerable scale in the near future.
—Wilfred A. Domingo, 1925
In the first third of the twentieth century, important but often ignored
connections between the African-American and the Caribbean freedom
connections between the African-American and the Caribbean freedom
movements developed. These entanglements are often overlooked because
conventional historiographic approaches tend to focus either on
nation-states or on local microhistories but rarely look at transnational relationships.
conventional historiographic approaches tend to focus either on
nation-states or on local microhistories but rarely look at transnational relationships.
In the past decade, however, the relatively new field of transnational
history has brought such connections between non-state entities
to the center of historical investigation, highlighting the links between cultures and people in various countries. This paradigm shift, often called the “transnational turn,” has quickly proven to be a useful approach to historical studies that yields new insights into processes of intercultural
transfer and migration.
history has brought such connections between non-state entities
to the center of historical investigation, highlighting the links between cultures and people in various countries. This paradigm shift, often called the “transnational turn,” has quickly proven to be a useful approach to historical studies that yields new insights into processes of intercultural
transfer and migration.
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Employing a transnational research perspective, this essay examines
the reciprocal infl uences of the African-American civil rights movement
and the Jamaican movement for independence, thus bolstering the fact that the history of modern societies cannot be understood within the boundaries of their isolated national histories.
and the Jamaican movement for independence, thus bolstering the fact that the history of modern societies cannot be understood within the boundaries of their isolated national histories.
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At the center of my research is a transnational organization, the “Jamaica Progressive League” (JPL), founded in1936 in New York by the Jamaican migrants Wilfred A. Domingo, Ethelred Brown, and Walter Adolphe Roberts.
Dedicated to establishing an anticolonial national movement in Jamaica, the JPL strengthened the connections between Jamaicans at home and abroad and played an important role in the creation of a national movement for self-government in Jamaica.
