Four undercelebrated black women who contributed immensely to Pan-Africanism

Amy Ashwood Garvey

Amy Ashwood was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, on 10 January 1897. She attended the Westwood High School for Girls in Trelawny, Jamaica where she met Marcus Garvey. She co-founded UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) and the UNIA newspaper, The Negro World. Ashwood and Marcus later got married on 25th December 1919. The marriage, however, broke down in 1922.

Ashwood was passionate about emancipation of women and is remembered for her views in the African-American publication New York Amsterdam News, “there must be a revolution among women. They must realise their importance in the post-war world … Women of the world must unite”.

Ashwood participated in the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in October 1945 where she articulated her concern “very much has been written and spoken of the Negro, but for some reason very little has been said about the black woman – she has been shunted into the social background to be a child bearer – this has been principally her lot”. Ashwood Garvey was vocal about the abusive working condition of the labouring class of women (worked in the field, sold in the market).