"We Must Simply Do Better at Home": Amy Ashwood Garvey, Maymie de Mena Aiken, and the Forgotten Female Pioneers of Jamaican Political Activism

From its humble beginnings in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1914, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) bloomed into the largest social justice self-help organization of the twentieth century. The UNIA’s “race first” platform, implemented by everyday women and men, called for the full enfranchisement and autonomy of Black people in Africa and the Diaspora. However, by the mid-1930s, the UNIA had begun to wane in membership numbers. In response, the organization’s central leadership figures—including its co-founder Amy Ashwood Garvey, and the woman who courageously canvased the globe in an attempt to hold the UNIA together, Maymie Turpeau de Mena Aiken—retreated from the New York headquarters and chose Jamaica as their new base. They took with them a woman-defined leadership style, a focused political agenda, and a social activist practice that sought to empower Black women and men regardless of their socioeconomic status.

This paper chronicles the groundbreaking political activism of Ashwood and de Mena in Jamaica during the 1930s and 1940s. Historical accounts of political activism during this period highlight the work of male trade union leaders and populist politicians, ignoring the trailblazing efforts of Ashwood, de Mena, and other forgotten female activists. Capitalizing on the speaking and organizing skills they developed in the UNIA, Ashwood and de Mena pursued political office in Jamaica as members of an independent third party. In addition, they worked tirelessly to recruit and train other women candidates for political offices throughout the island’s 14 parishes. This paper reconstructs Ashwood’s and de Mena’s political work and sheds new light on their valiant fight against racism and Crown Colony rule in Jamaica during the interwar years.