Richard B. Moore and the Caribbean "Awaymen" Network

It is no accident that the Caribbean, being the area that has historically produced the most peripatetic of all African peoples, has also thrown up an extravagantly disproportionate number of pan-Africanist political activists and intellectuals.1At midnight on Tuesday, 29 November in 1966 Barbados embarked on nationhood. There was just one minute between the end of three hundred and thirty-nine years of colonial rule, and the dawn of the Barbados Nation. At 11:58p.m., the lights were darkened and a brilliant spotlight revealed the British Union Jack descending a tall flagpole as the British National Anthem was played. At 12:01a.m., on 30 November the new Barbadian National Anthem sounded as the ultra marine and gold Barbadian flag ascended to fly high in the midnight sky. The crowd at the Garrison Savannah cheered loudly, church bells chimed, and fireworks exploded. Seventy-three year old Richard Benjamin Moore, surrounded by his American family, stood erect and silent to watch the symbolic change of governance from Great Britain to the two hundred and fifty thousand people of the easternmost island that spans 166 square miles in the Caribbean. He was not only intent upon the dramatic transfer of power, he was filled with thoughts of how dominating and oppressive the rulers had been, how long the journey to independence had taken, how complex the process, how widespread the influential forces, how diverse and numerous the key players had been in order to achieve this moment. None of the celebrants could have been prouder and more pleased than this son of Barbados, even though almost sixty years had passed since he sailed away. In 1909 Moore left Barbados as a colonial subject. Now that nationhood had been achieved he felt free to return. He came bearing a treasure of fifteen thousand books for the new nation - the Richard B. Moore Library. The "awayman", as he referred to himself, was at last home.When Moore migrated at the age of fifteen he was impressed by achievements of the motherland that claimed to have created an empire on which the sun never set. An independent Barbados nation was inconceivable. Yet, his presence as a guest of the new government during the weeklong independence celebration confirmed that his decades of political activism in New York had contributed to the transfer of governance. His comment on independence in the Barbados Advocate hints at his involvement: "It is a stupendous accomplishment and one which Barbadians and other people from the Caribbean living abroad have been hoping for and working towards for a long time."2 The question remains - how was it possible for an individual 1,911 miles away to exert such influence, lacking the benefit of recognized academic credentials, official government position, a large foreign business establishment, considerable financial resources, or at least strong established family ties in the island? The answer lies in the transformation of a group of "Awaymen" who dedicated their lives to fight colonialism and imperialism.A review of the activities of a relatively small segment of the PanCaribbean Movement would be incomplete without recognizing there was a broader context. The twentieth century opened with the first PanAfrican Congress. The stage was set for the raising of widespread consciousness, including examining the history of the oppression, contributions, and potential destiny of the peoples of African heritage. The multi-forces at work for half a century included: two World Wars; the Russian Revolution; revolts in the Caribbean; mass migration of peoples from the Caribbean to Panama, the United States and Great Britain; the development of political and labour organizations and the extension of universal adult suffrage in the Caribbean; and protests against racism and colonialism by numerous national groups in the African diaspora such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the United States, and Dr Harold Moody's League of Coloured Peoples in Great Britain. …