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ROCK,Tdowl & Jawge a must read :
http://www.international.ucla.edu/af...p/lifeintr.asp
Garvey's references to Bunyan's classic continued after his release from prison and his deportation to Jamaica in 1927. While campaigning for a seat in Jamaica's colonial legislature in October 1929, he was convicted of contempt of court for criticizing the judicial system on the island. He declared that many judges were influenced by bribes and suggested that some be impeached and imprisoned. The Jamaican Supreme Court did not look kindly upon such contumacy and sentenced him, as a result, to three months' imprisonment in the Spanish Town prison. The episode---a major setback in Garvey's efforts to establish a political career---contributed to his subsequent decision to make a permanent move to England in the mid-1930s. Garvey referred to Jamaica in this period as "the place next to hell."^45 In a New Jamaican editorial he created a Bunyanesque dialogue between two Jamaicans who referred to the country as a "Land of Agony and Tears," which was "small, small in size and small in character," and where people who spoke their minds would be imprisoned. In Bunyan's work, the City of Destruction, where Christian was born, is described as "a populous place, but possessed with a very ill conditioned, and idle sort of People." Just as Bunyan's Christian leaves the City of Destruction to its brimstone, so Garvey's two imaginary Jamaicans recommend that the only way to remedy the evils they had witnessed was "by leaving the place and make it perish by itself."^46 Garvey echoed these themes in a May 1934 speech in which he denounced the hypocrisy of the country and announced his intention to publish a book about his journey through life, called, significantly, The Town Next to Hell. He told his audience that he had experienced a vision of "a night in hell" in a dream and that what he had seen was an authentic reflection of life under colonial rule in the Depression.
Garvey's promise to write an allegory on the subject of Jamaica was to some extent fulfilled; in July 1934 a poem written by him and entitled "A Night in Hell," was performed at a musical and poetic program at the Ward Theater in Kingston. Unfortunately, however, the text of the poem has not been preserved.
Jewish Patronage
During the peak years of the UNIA in the early twenties, a number of Jewish figures endorsed and contributed funds to Garvey's various schemes of African colonization. The Hungarian-born banker and philanthropist William C. Ritter of Brooklyn made a financial contribution to the UNIA's 1924 Liberian colonization program.^79 Two Jewish physicians, Dr. L. A. Goldfine of Chicago and Dr. J Gordon of New York, also gave warm endorsements to the movement, and Gordon addressed the Third UNIA International Convention in August 1921 from the platform of Liberty Hall.^80 Garvey's Jamaican patrons included Abraham Judah, the city engineer of Kingston, and Lewis Ashenheim, a leading luminary of the Jamaican bar. Whereas the former helped make possible Garvey's first English visit in 1913 and 1914---an undertaking that proved of immeasurable importance to Garvey's political and ideological orientation---the latter provided Garvey with critical legal defenses in Jamaica's courts after he was deported to the island from the United States. Garvey reciprocated by taking to the hustings in support of Ashenheim's candidacy in the 1935 election, the final election held in Jamaica under the old restricted franchise of crown colony rule. Garvey's support for Ashenheim proved unpopular with the electorate and occasioned a number of violent disturbances at meetings addressed by Garvey in Kingston. It also marked the end of twenty-five years of close political allegiance between Garvey and the opposing candidate and mayor of the city of Kingston, H. A. L. Simpson.
http://www.international.ucla.edu/af...p/lifeintr.asp
The best I have read so far .
http://www.international.ucla.edu/af...p/lifeintr.asp
Garvey's references to Bunyan's classic continued after his release from prison and his deportation to Jamaica in 1927. While campaigning for a seat in Jamaica's colonial legislature in October 1929, he was convicted of contempt of court for criticizing the judicial system on the island. He declared that many judges were influenced by bribes and suggested that some be impeached and imprisoned. The Jamaican Supreme Court did not look kindly upon such contumacy and sentenced him, as a result, to three months' imprisonment in the Spanish Town prison. The episode---a major setback in Garvey's efforts to establish a political career---contributed to his subsequent decision to make a permanent move to England in the mid-1930s. Garvey referred to Jamaica in this period as "the place next to hell."^45 In a New Jamaican editorial he created a Bunyanesque dialogue between two Jamaicans who referred to the country as a "Land of Agony and Tears," which was "small, small in size and small in character," and where people who spoke their minds would be imprisoned. In Bunyan's work, the City of Destruction, where Christian was born, is described as "a populous place, but possessed with a very ill conditioned, and idle sort of People." Just as Bunyan's Christian leaves the City of Destruction to its brimstone, so Garvey's two imaginary Jamaicans recommend that the only way to remedy the evils they had witnessed was "by leaving the place and make it perish by itself."^46 Garvey echoed these themes in a May 1934 speech in which he denounced the hypocrisy of the country and announced his intention to publish a book about his journey through life, called, significantly, The Town Next to Hell. He told his audience that he had experienced a vision of "a night in hell" in a dream and that what he had seen was an authentic reflection of life under colonial rule in the Depression.
Garvey's promise to write an allegory on the subject of Jamaica was to some extent fulfilled; in July 1934 a poem written by him and entitled "A Night in Hell," was performed at a musical and poetic program at the Ward Theater in Kingston. Unfortunately, however, the text of the poem has not been preserved.
Jewish Patronage
During the peak years of the UNIA in the early twenties, a number of Jewish figures endorsed and contributed funds to Garvey's various schemes of African colonization. The Hungarian-born banker and philanthropist William C. Ritter of Brooklyn made a financial contribution to the UNIA's 1924 Liberian colonization program.^79 Two Jewish physicians, Dr. L. A. Goldfine of Chicago and Dr. J Gordon of New York, also gave warm endorsements to the movement, and Gordon addressed the Third UNIA International Convention in August 1921 from the platform of Liberty Hall.^80 Garvey's Jamaican patrons included Abraham Judah, the city engineer of Kingston, and Lewis Ashenheim, a leading luminary of the Jamaican bar. Whereas the former helped make possible Garvey's first English visit in 1913 and 1914---an undertaking that proved of immeasurable importance to Garvey's political and ideological orientation---the latter provided Garvey with critical legal defenses in Jamaica's courts after he was deported to the island from the United States. Garvey reciprocated by taking to the hustings in support of Ashenheim's candidacy in the 1935 election, the final election held in Jamaica under the old restricted franchise of crown colony rule. Garvey's support for Ashenheim proved unpopular with the electorate and occasioned a number of violent disturbances at meetings addressed by Garvey in Kingston. It also marked the end of twenty-five years of close political allegiance between Garvey and the opposing candidate and mayor of the city of Kingston, H. A. L. Simpson.
http://www.international.ucla.edu/af...p/lifeintr.asp
The best I have read so far .
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