Diaspora chair calls for Jamaican-Americans to learn Alexander Bedward’s legacy

A leading figure in the Jamaican Diaspora says Americans of Jamaican heritage should be taught about people who made a lasting impact on the country’s development, such as Alexander Bedward. Honorary chairman of the Jamaica Diaspora Southern Region, Dr Allan Cunningham, recently made his acting debut as Pastor Dawson in Bedward The Musical, which played at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center in South Florida. He told the Observer Online that many Jamaicans overseas know little about the self-styled preacher who famously said he would fly in a flaming chariot on Christmas Eve, 1920. “While standard history books often highlight Marcus Garvey, Bedward laid the crucial, anti-colonial groundwork that inspired the post-Emancipation black population in Jamaica,” Cunningham noted. “For Jamaican-Americans, understanding Bedward provides a deeper look into the roots of Jamaican spiritual resistance, the foundations of Rastafari, and the early fight for black self-sufficiency and civil empowerment.” Bedward was leader of the Jamaica Native Free Baptist Church in August Town. One year after his sensational act, he was arrested by police for sedition and sent to Bellevue asylum in Kingston, where he died in 1930. Bedward The Musical is written by Louis Marriott, one of Jamaica’s great playwrights. It was first mounted in 1960 at The Ward Theatre in Kingston as The Shepherd. While colonialists branded Bedward a madman, Cunningham considers him a trailblaser. “It is important to know the significance of Bedward on the life of Marcus Garvey. Bedward called Garvey his ‘Moses’, bridging his spiritual movement with Garvey’s political movement,” he said. Presented by the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council, Broward County Cultural Affairs and the Board of County Commissioners, Bedward The Musical played September 19-20 at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Centre. It starred Ricky Rowe as Bedward, with Cunningham, Malachi Smith, Father Horace Ward, The Jamaican Folk Revue, Phillip Cross, Neville Williams, Nadine Brady-Taylor and Lena Lawrence.