A segment of the Caribbean intellectual, cultural and Pan-African community are grieving the passing of 70-year-old Dr. Tony Martin who died in Trinidad & Tobago on Jan. 17. He was buried there eight days later.
“The loss is more than a personal one, it is a collective loss. Our brother has left a legacy of phenomenal scholarship, particularly his works on Marcus Garvey,” Professor Khafra Kambon, from the University of the West Indies said. Reportedly, Kambon was one of the last people to speak with Dr. Martin before he passed.
The respected and tenured professor who educated more than a few on the dialectics of Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a disciple and staunch advocate of Pan-African theory. Throughout his life he promoted that philosophy.
Dr. Martin taught at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. He was founder and chair of the Africana Studies Department.
Last year Dr. Martin marked the 125th anniversary of Garvey’s birth by visiting and speaking at Liberty Hall, the Jamaican venue which honors Garvey’s legacy and prophesies with a statue, books and regular seminars.
There, Dr. Martin delivered a lecture – “If Garvey Dies, Garvey Lives: The Enduring Relevance of Garvey’s Ideas.”
He also launched his book “Caribbean History: From Pre–Colonial Origins to the Present.”
The T&T native authored, compiled and edited 14 books which includes: “Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist,” “Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No. 1, Or, A Tale of Two Amies,” “Literary Garveyism,” “Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance,” and the definitive classic study of the Garvey Movement “Race First: the Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.”
The 1976 publication is regarded as a source work to students, scholars and individuals in search of knowledge about Jamaica’s first national hero.
He also penned “Marcus Garvey, Hero: A First Biography,” “Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy,” “The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey,” “African Fundamentalism: A Literary and Cultural Anthology of Garvey’s Harlem Renaissance,” “The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey,” and “The Pan- African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond.”
Marley’s Coco Mon
Bob and Rita Marley’s eldest son Ziggy is now venturing past musician/singer to establish entrepreneurial interest in a culinary product he claims to be pioneering and healthy.
The Grammy-winning reggae offspring of the acclaimed king and queen of the genre has introduced Coco Mon, the world’s first flavored organic culinary coconut oils. The product he said is already available in four forms — original cold pressed, ginger, curry and orange almond.
Available in specialty stores, quantities are available in single 14-ounce bottles or six-pack packaging. Marley’s image on the containers endorses the product that has been a ‘healthy part of diets for thousands of years.’
Marley’s flavored USDA certified organic coconut oils are allegedly non-Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) verified and are cold-pressed from fresh coconut copra, unrefined, non-deodorized, gluten free and designated Kosher.
“If I was given a choice and saw something that was genetically modified and saw something else from nature, I would choose the stuff that’s from nature. I don’t want to put anything into my body that’s not natural, that wasn’t created by nature, because we are a part of nature,” Ziggy Marley said.
