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The Formation of a Caribbean Intellectual
Rex Nettleford, a leading Caribbean intellectual visionary and renaissance figure, was born on February 3rd, 1933 in the rural town of Falmouth, Jamaica. Enveloped by the folklore of the rural hinterlands of Jamaica and the natural integration of music and movement in life, Nettleford cultivated an acute sensibility to the creative ingenuity and resilience evidenced in the collective intellect of the black rural community. His creative imagination was fostered by an immersion in the daily rhythms of country life, and invested him with a keen appreciation for the dynamic process of creolisation as witnessed in diverse religious practices, eclectic music traditions and resistant speech patterns. These "homegrown" articulations of Jamaican identity were constructed out of the meeting of Africa and Europe on Caribbean soil and stand as testament to the innovative cultural vitality of the region. It is this quality of cultural tenacity on the part of the Afro-creolised populations that Nettleford holds in great esteem and which serves as the nodal point through which he formulates his ideas concerning Caribbean identity in the postcolonial milieu.
Nettleford was educated, as most budding scholars of his generation, in the local appendages of the British colonial intelligentsia. Trained first at the Cornwall College in Montego Bay, he went on to pursue a history degree at The University College of the West Indies (London University) before moving on to postgraduate studies in politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Although highly educated and versed in the social mores and language of the British imperial crown, Nettleford never lost site of his commitment to his native home and the promotion of its national vernacular culture. At a time
when the country's most talented and educated peoples were being siphoned off to fill the ivory towers and corporate offices in the metropolis, Nettleford returned to his island home and launched a public intellectual and artistic career whose effects reverberated throughout the Caribbean basin and its diasporic communities.
Many have argued that Rex Nettleford's location as a "third-world" scholar, operating from the periphery of the Western academy, has hindered the wholesale readership and international acclaim of his works. But for Nettleford, the work of the "organic intellectual" begins at home, and thus his commitment is first and foremost "to the preparation of a citizenry ready for participation in the political, social and economic processes of its country" (1970:229). The task of the Caribbean and/or "third-word", postcolonial intellectual is to redress the perceived and accepted notion that by definition, nothing creative could come out of the colonies. The first means of accomplishing this task is through working with the masses on their native soil and in their native tongue and by utilizing indigenous epistemologies for examining cultural phenomena and processes that are the lived reality of Caribbean citizens. Nettleford's Caribbean compatriots, Stuart Hall and Derek Walcott continue to open a space for critical scholarship on the Caribbean and contribute significantly to the intellectual climate of diverse communities. Their location in the metropolitan centers of North America and Britain, affords them access to a broader community of transnational postcolonial subjects, but it has also moved them away from the local articulations of nationhood, identity and cultural development as experienced and negotiated in the Caribbean territories. Nettleford thus provides a voice from within the region that later becomes the source of dialogue for those in the metropolis.
Nettleford's importance to the Caribbean and for Caribbean nationals living across the globe derives from the fact that his master project has been the decolonisation of the Caribbean spirit and imagination. His writings, lectures and choreographies reflect a profound conviction in the creative power of the peoples of the region, a power struggling to unleash itself from the conjunction of historical and neo-colonial forces. The commitment to contesting the idea of the colonial found expression through the creation of an indigenous dance form promoted by the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC), Nettleford co-founded and has been artistic director since 1963. As former professor of Extramural Studies at the University of the West Indies Mona, Jamaica, Nettleford directed the University's Adult Education Programme, which afforded thousands of men, and women throughout the anglophone Caribbean access to higher education. As founder of the Trade Union Education Institute, through which factory and estate workers interface with scholars at the highest seat of learning, Nettleford aimed to bridge the divide between the classes and bring theory in closer proximity to praxis. Nettleford's scholastic achievements culminated with his 1998 appointment as Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
"The hidden history of Jamaica is here seen as the history of the struggle of the African component to emerge from the subterranean caverns into which it has been forced." --Nettleford 1970:194
The Formation of a Caribbean Intellectual
Rex Nettleford, a leading Caribbean intellectual visionary and renaissance figure, was born on February 3rd, 1933 in the rural town of Falmouth, Jamaica. Enveloped by the folklore of the rural hinterlands of Jamaica and the natural integration of music and movement in life, Nettleford cultivated an acute sensibility to the creative ingenuity and resilience evidenced in the collective intellect of the black rural community. His creative imagination was fostered by an immersion in the daily rhythms of country life, and invested him with a keen appreciation for the dynamic process of creolisation as witnessed in diverse religious practices, eclectic music traditions and resistant speech patterns. These "homegrown" articulations of Jamaican identity were constructed out of the meeting of Africa and Europe on Caribbean soil and stand as testament to the innovative cultural vitality of the region. It is this quality of cultural tenacity on the part of the Afro-creolised populations that Nettleford holds in great esteem and which serves as the nodal point through which he formulates his ideas concerning Caribbean identity in the postcolonial milieu.
Nettleford was educated, as most budding scholars of his generation, in the local appendages of the British colonial intelligentsia. Trained first at the Cornwall College in Montego Bay, he went on to pursue a history degree at The University College of the West Indies (London University) before moving on to postgraduate studies in politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Although highly educated and versed in the social mores and language of the British imperial crown, Nettleford never lost site of his commitment to his native home and the promotion of its national vernacular culture. At a time
when the country's most talented and educated peoples were being siphoned off to fill the ivory towers and corporate offices in the metropolis, Nettleford returned to his island home and launched a public intellectual and artistic career whose effects reverberated throughout the Caribbean basin and its diasporic communities.
Many have argued that Rex Nettleford's location as a "third-world" scholar, operating from the periphery of the Western academy, has hindered the wholesale readership and international acclaim of his works. But for Nettleford, the work of the "organic intellectual" begins at home, and thus his commitment is first and foremost "to the preparation of a citizenry ready for participation in the political, social and economic processes of its country" (1970:229). The task of the Caribbean and/or "third-word", postcolonial intellectual is to redress the perceived and accepted notion that by definition, nothing creative could come out of the colonies. The first means of accomplishing this task is through working with the masses on their native soil and in their native tongue and by utilizing indigenous epistemologies for examining cultural phenomena and processes that are the lived reality of Caribbean citizens. Nettleford's Caribbean compatriots, Stuart Hall and Derek Walcott continue to open a space for critical scholarship on the Caribbean and contribute significantly to the intellectual climate of diverse communities. Their location in the metropolitan centers of North America and Britain, affords them access to a broader community of transnational postcolonial subjects, but it has also moved them away from the local articulations of nationhood, identity and cultural development as experienced and negotiated in the Caribbean territories. Nettleford thus provides a voice from within the region that later becomes the source of dialogue for those in the metropolis.
Nettleford's importance to the Caribbean and for Caribbean nationals living across the globe derives from the fact that his master project has been the decolonisation of the Caribbean spirit and imagination. His writings, lectures and choreographies reflect a profound conviction in the creative power of the peoples of the region, a power struggling to unleash itself from the conjunction of historical and neo-colonial forces. The commitment to contesting the idea of the colonial found expression through the creation of an indigenous dance form promoted by the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC), Nettleford co-founded and has been artistic director since 1963. As former professor of Extramural Studies at the University of the West Indies Mona, Jamaica, Nettleford directed the University's Adult Education Programme, which afforded thousands of men, and women throughout the anglophone Caribbean access to higher education. As founder of the Trade Union Education Institute, through which factory and estate workers interface with scholars at the highest seat of learning, Nettleford aimed to bridge the divide between the classes and bring theory in closer proximity to praxis. Nettleford's scholastic achievements culminated with his 1998 appointment as Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
"The hidden history of Jamaica is here seen as the history of the struggle of the African component to emerge from the subterranean caverns into which it has been forced." --Nettleford 1970:194
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