Two Amys, One Movement

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Think you know the Garvey story? Meet the two Amys who built its backbone. We dive into the lives of Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey, Jamaican visionaries whose organizing, editing, and leadership turned a charismatic vision into a global movement. Their names appear in the margins of many textbooks, but their fingerprints are on every chapter of Garveyism’s rise, reach, and survival.

We trace Amy Ashwood’s role as a UNIA co-founder, strategist, and early architect who helped design the organization’s infrastructure in Jamaica and nurtured its international ambitions. Her work exemplifies a transatlantic Caribbean feminism rooted in institution-building and political education, long before the term became common. We then spotlight Amy Jacques, a journalist and editor whose stewardship during Garvey’s imprisonment kept the movement alive. She edited The Negro World, wrote speeches, managed correspondence, and articulated a bold vision for women’s leadership in Black liberation. By editing and publishing The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, she preserved a scattered archive and ensured that future generations could study, adapt, and debate Garveyism. 

Along the way, we acknowledge the human complexity—yes, Marcus married two Amys—and use that irony to open the door to deeper truths: movements are made by people with egos, contradictions, humor, and heart. Re-centering these women shifts how we measure impact, highlighting the editors, organizers, archivists, and educators who keep ideas moving across borders and time. If you’ve only heard the headline, this conversation invites you into the story behind it. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can discover the women who built Garveyism. What other hidden architects of history should we feature next?

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean
history and culture, hosted byme, Alexandria Miller.
Strictly Facts teaches thehistory, politics, and activism
of the Caribbean and connectsthese themes to contemporary
music and popular culture.
Hello people Wamaguan PomakaGuan.

(00:23):
Welcome back to another episodeof Strictly Facts, a guide to
Caribbean history and culture.
With me, your host, AlexandriaMiller.
Today's episode is a specialone, although a little bit from
a different perspective thanwhat maybe what we're used to
here on the show, because we'restepping into the history of
black liberation through a lensthat is both powerful and a

(00:47):
little bit messy.
And when I say messy, I meanMarcus Garvey level messy.
Maybe some of you might knowwhere I'm going with this.
Because today we're talkingabout the two women who were his
wives, Amy Ashwood Garvey andAmy Jacques Garvey.
Two of some of the mostinfluential Caribbean women in

(01:07):
20th century black politicalhistory who also happened to
share the same name.
Yes, that is right.
Marcus married two Amis, andit's been written about in
various sources and literatureas the tale of the two AMI.
And when I say this, I say itnot to trivialize their legacies

(01:31):
because both women werebrilliant political thinkers,
organizers, and architects ofBlack Liberation.
But I am saying that history,especially political history,
has a habit of beingcomplicated, dramatic, and yes,
sometimes unintentionally alittle bit funny, messy, all of

(01:51):
those things wrapped in one.
And so today we're going to dotwo things.
Give um a little bit of an earlyintro, precursor to our next
episode by giving Amy AshrodGarvey and Amy Jacques Garvey
their due in terms of theirhistorical recognition that they
deserve, while also allowingourselves to smile at the fact

(02:13):
that this part of the Garveystory and just the Garvey story
in general has many layers, sideplots, and a bit of human chaos,
if we're being quite honest.
So let's first begin with thefirst Amy.
Amy Ashwood was born in Jamaicain 1897.
She wasn't just someone whoentered Marcus Garvey's lives.

(02:36):
She was foundational to theGarvey movement itself.
And that is the part that tendsto be forgotten when it comes to
her in this sort of mythmakingabout Garvey, where it's Marcus
Garvey did this and MarcusGarvey said that, as if the
movement wasn't built by both ofthem in unison.

(02:57):
Amy Ashwood was a co-founder ofthe UNIA.
Yes, a co-founder.
She was present in its earliestorganizational formations in
Jamaica, helping to build theinfrastructure from, you know,
what would become one of thelargest Black political
movements in modern history.
She was politically bold,socially sharp, and deeply

(03:20):
committed to Blackself-determination, especially
for Black people in theCaribbean and wider diaspora.
She also had a visionary senseof internationalism early on
that I don't think we all fullyunderstand and have, you know,
maybe even been taught orlearned.
One that really not only helpedto shape the UNIA, but um, you

(03:44):
know, in terms of how it wouldeventually operate as a global
network, but one that also wasvery pivotal to the work that
she did after um her divorcefrom Garvey, and we'll talk more
about that in our next episode.
Amy Ashwood and Marcus Garveymarried in 1919, but let's just
say the marriage wasshort-lived.

(04:07):
And while many tell the storylike it's simply, you know, some
bit of personal drama, I want usto also understand that their
relationship was also political.
Amy Ashwood was not a quietpartner, she was not in the
background, she was not just hisfirst wife, she was a political

(04:27):
actor, and I mean that veryintentionally.
After their marriage dissolved,Amy Ashwood did not just
disappear into the shadows.
In fact, she became even moreglobally engaged.
She moved between Jamaica, theUS, and eventually the UK,
becoming an important figure inPan-African and black radical
networks, particularly inLondon.

(04:49):
She helped to develop blackpolitical organizing, supported
African independence movements,and played a significant role in
building diasporic intellectualand activist circles in many
ways.
You know, she represented atransatlantic Caribbean feminism
before the term even reallyexisted in the ways that some
people use it today, usingorganizing, institution

(05:13):
building, and community networksto push black liberation
forward.
So that's the first Amy, aco-founder, a strategist, a
Caribbean Pan-African woman whorefused to be reduced to marital
history.
Now, on to the second Amy, quoteunquote, second Amy.
Amy Jacques Garvey was born inJamaica in 1895.

(05:37):
Amy Jacques was brilliant, fullstop.
You know, she was a journalist,an editor, political thinker,
and perhaps one of the mostimportant shapers of the Garvey
legacy after his death.
Now, the way she entered theGarvey story is also where
things get a little complicated.

(05:57):
Um, Amy Jacques first workedwithin the UNIA as a secretary
and aide, and over time becameone of Garvey's closest
collaborators.
But it's important to recognizethat her significance extends
far beyond being just hisquote-unquote second wife.
She was also a political leaderin her own right and

(06:18):
fundamentally shaped howGarveyism was communicated,
preserved, and is rememberedtoday.
When Garvey was imprisoned inthe 1920s, Amy Jacques stepped
up to fill the gap, not just asa placeholder, but as a leader.
She edited Garvey's newspaper,The Negro World, wrote speeches,

(06:39):
managed organizationalcorrespondence, and served as an
intellectual voice guiding themovement.
And if you've ever studiedpolitical history, you know how
rare it is for women's politicallabor to be credited properly.
Amy Jacques was doing the workof what many men would later be
called as, you know,strategists, propagandists,

(07:02):
ideological engine, but thosewords are not often affixed to
women.
She also wrote widely and gavelectures on Garveyism and Black
political liberation, especiallyas it related to women.
Her writings directly addressedthe role of black women in the
movement, not as supporters, butas leaders.

(07:23):
One of her greatestcontributions was how she
preserved Garvey's writings andorganized them after his death,
including editing and publishingone of the most significant
collections in terms of Garvey'shistory called The Philosophy
and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.
So when we talk about why Garveyis remembered today as a central

(07:47):
20th century figure, Amy Jacquesis a major reason why.
History didn't preserve Garveynaturally.
It was curated, it was archived,it was organized, and it was
defended.
And Amy Jacques did that work.
Alright, so naturally we have totalk about the elephant in the

(08:10):
room.
Marcus Garvey married two womennamed Amy, which, if we're being
honest, feels like a kind ofplot in a telenovela or
something, you know, like what abag of mix-up.
And what makes this, you know,even more layered is that it
wasn't just sort of happenstanceor there wasn't necessarily an

(08:31):
irony there in the way that youknow it might have just happened
because these two women wereacquainted.
As I said, they moved in some ofthe same circles.
The UNIA was a community, whichmeant overlap politically,
socially, emotionally.
They were in a sense friends toan extent.

(08:52):
And so, yes, there is an extrememessiness there, right?
And in some ways, it almostfeels like the jokes write
themselves, right?
I've heard it said that Marcusdid set it so on purpose so he
wouldn't confuse their names,um, which you know, Azagalis,
and you know, all of thesethings that could lead us into a

(09:13):
whole discourse about Caribbeanmasculinity and monogamy and a
lot of things that I will saveperhaps for another time.
But what I want us to pause andstress here is the fact that
history is allowed to be human.
Sometimes when we talk abouthistory generally, and even as
we have on the podcast, we tellhistory like everyone was only

(09:38):
serious or only strategic or,you know, major academics and
ideological.
They were, oftentimes, but theywere also people.
Movements were built by thesepeople, humans with egos,
heartbreak, ambition, lovetriangles, misunderstandings,

(10:00):
and contradictions.
And while we hold thesepolitical stakes seriously, it's
okay to acknowledge that someparts of history are comical,
funny, or to just kind of put itfrankly, ota in a little bit of
a way.
It's not disrespectful to laughlightly at the absurdity,

(10:22):
especially when that laughteropens the door for more people
to engage with historical truth.
What's important is that weacknowledge all sides of the
truth as we are coming tounderstand history as it
happened and as we understandourselves.
And in this case, it's that wenot turn Amy Ashwood and Amy

(10:42):
Jacques into footnotes in aman's romantic narrative, right?
They were not simply wife oneand wife two.
They were builders of politicalinstitutions, Caribbean women
shaping global liberation,ideological architects, writers,
editors, organizers, andsurvivors of the gendered

(11:04):
politics of black radicalmovements.
And yes, sometimes they weredealing with an incredibly
complicated man.
So why does this matter?
Because when we talk aboutGarveyism, we too often reduce
it to Marcus Garvey alone.
But the UNIA was not built byone man.

(11:25):
Black liberation movements arenever built by just one person
alone, and that historicalrecord has long benefited from
centering male charisma whileminimizing women's labor.
Amy Ashwood reminds us thatwomen were foundational from the
beginning, forming theorganization, shaping its early

(11:47):
ideological life, and sustainingits networks across borders.
Amy Jacques reminds us thatwomen were essential to
maintaining the movement duringcrisis and to preserving its
legacy so that futuregenerations could learn from it.
Both women show us somethingdeeper.
Caribbean women were not passiveobservers of the 20th century,

(12:11):
they were producers of itspolitical future.
So today we're honoring the twoAMIs.
We honor their brilliance, theirlabor, their political impact,
and yes, we acknowledge thathistory can be messy and
complicated and occasionallyfunny, but in our next episode,
we're getting a little bit moreserious.

(12:33):
We're diving into the work ofthe two AME's and many other
women in the UNIA because theywere just only two of the, you
know, sort of myriad womenshaping Garveism and the UNIA.
It is in our follow-up episodethat we're centering these women
as organizers, educators,fundraisers, journalists,

(12:56):
leaders, and women who alsoweren't perfect.
Women whose names may not appearin our textbooks, but who built
the movement day by day.
So stay tuned because if youthink Garvey's story ends with
Marcus, then you've only justread the headline.
Thank you all for joining me forthis mini episode of Strictly

(13:17):
Facts, a guide to CaribbeanHistory and Culture.
As always, be sure to like,share with a friend, follow us
on socials, let us know yourthoughts.
And if you have any favoritemoments in Caribbean history
that are a little messy, alittle funny, a little bit
comical, let us know in oursocials as well.

(13:38):
Thank you all so much for tuningin.
Until next time, Lickle Moore.
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