Profiles in Africana Religion - Part 19: Dr. Robert Love

As the history of Pan-African ideology unfolds it becomes ever more clear that Marcus Garvey represents a focal point that has shaped the Diasporic and continental African worlds.  By this I mean that Garvey influenced some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, but more than that, he was deeply influenced by some of the most dynamic minds of the 19th century.[1]  Again, this only highlights the fact that nothing in this world happens within a vacuum, and that when one bears witness to a dynamic personality and philosophy it is prudent to understand what went into shaping that individual.  Moreover, this illuminates the dynamic connectiveness of human life and history as well as how much the global Black community is in communication with itself, a critical aspect of community building and maintenance.  To further understand this dynamic, I present the life, philosophy and personality of Dr. Robert Love.[2] 

Much of Love’s childhood is a mystery, however it did not take him long to make an impact in his community and church when he came of age.  As a young man he worked as a teacher on his birth island of Jamaica before leaving for Florida where he would immerse himself in the Christian sciences.  He then decided to study the medical sciences at the University of Buffalo.  After graduating and armed with the inspiration of the Haitian Revolution he decided to take his knowledge and skills to Port-au-Prince.  Love was deeply influenced by the life and legacy of Toussaint L’Overture and wanted to use his gifts as a man of the clothe and a lettered man of the sciences to help is people rise up and rebel against European oppression.  Moreover, in addition to his academic and spiritual accolades he was also deeply involved in Prince Hall Freemasonry.  He joined the Lodge while studying medicine in New York and quickly rose to prominence within his chapter and the organization at-large, opening new lodges in both Georgia and Florida, as well he was named Most Worshipful Master.  With his positions, connections and education, Love worked to become an accomplished philanthropist and activist for people of African descent both in the US and in the Caribbean.

Love lived and worked in Haiti for about a decade before he took his skills back to his home island of Jamaica.  In Jamaica he continued his work in the church and the community at-large, but he also began work as a publisher, founding the Jamaican Advocate, a newspaper that would be very impactful to the socio-political life of Jamaica, influencing community leaders like Marcus Garvey.[3]  Love’s primary concern as an activist was education, specifically childhood education.  But children were not his only concern.  He also understood that the entire Jamaican population had been held in a state of perpetual ignorance because of English colonial policies.  As such, he worked tirelessly to developed greater educational possibilities for the island’s citizens, which also lead to his involvement in Jamaican politics.  In 1906, he won a seat of the Jamaican House of Representatives for the Saint Andrew Parish, the home parish of Alexander Bedward and George William Gordon, where he pushed his education platform until his health started to fail.  Lastly, for this very accomplished activist, he published two books before he transitioned to the realm of the ancestors: Romanism is Not Christianity in 1892 and St. Peter's True Position in the Church, Clearly Traced in the Bible 1897.[4]

Culturally, Love was keenly aware of the importance of Africa and her children.  As such, he helped set the stage for modern Pan-Africanist thought, deeply influencing generations of thinkers to come.  In the Jamaican Advocate he wrote: “Africa has been the carcass upon which the vulture of Europe have descended and which they have sought to partition among themselves, without any regard whatever for the rights of the Africans.”[5]  Pan-Africanism was an important aspect of Love’s notions of the Bible, believing that enslaved Africans were much like the ancient Israelites and that the children of Africa were God’s chosen.  Historically, religious belief for many African people of Jamaica rejected the notion of the happy-obedient-slave, rather, they embraced versions of Christianity that was spiritually and culturally empowering.  Further, Jamaicans embraced critical elements their African traditions (such as, healing and divination) through syncritic religious systems like Obeah.  Such phenomena fed into modern Pan-African ideology, thought and practice.  Given this, perhaps the question concerning early Pan-African thinkers like Love is, can their cultural ideology be separated from their religious identity?  Or put another way, is Pan-African thought itself a spiritual belief system?  Perhaps Pan-Africanism can just be looked at as an inseparable element of particular religious systems developed in the African diaspora.  As such, Pan-Africanism itself could be simply an outgrowth of the Christianity and Islam developed by enslaved Africans of the Western Hemisphere as a survival mechanism. 

Out of the work of Love, Bedward and their contemporaries lies the development of Garveyism and Rastafarianism.  Both traditions are politically and culturally Pan-African, however, the argument can be made that both are religious/spiritual traditions as well.  The research on the religious of Rastafarianism is fairly-well established.[6]  But for Garveyism, a bit more work has to be done because the UNIA was not developed specifically as a religious movement.  Garvey was a deeply religious man, often pulling from Biblical scriptures, however it is not clear if the UNIA was specifically meant to be a religious movement, despite its overtones.[7]  Nonetheless, author Randall Burkett argues that Garveyism does feature clear elements of a spiritual system, such as the tone and texture of their meetings, the used of art, the attire of organization officials, and the use of religious language.[8]  However, perhaps the most convincing pattern for Garveyism as a religious practice was the ease with which members moved in and throughout other Pan-African/Black Nationalist religious groups of the time period.  Organizations such as the Nation of Islam, the African Orthodox Church and the Moorish Science Temple all shared membership with the UNIA Garveyites.  By extension, the argument can be made that these movements easily shared membership because these organization had the same tone and texture of a Pan-African/Black Nationalism religious system.    
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In addition to Love’s effort to advocate for a Pan-African cultural perspective he also championed the cause of women.  He argued that the education of women and girls was paramount for the advancement of African people.  In the Jamaican Advocate he wrote: “The race must rise by families not by individuals. Men are still despised in spite of their achievements.  The race rises as its women rise.  They are the true standard of its elevation.”[9]  For Love, the concept of “race consciousness” meant to move and think as an organism, as one.  Jamaica itself is a living memorial to the work of Dr. Robert Love.  Given the economic, social and political state of the Island this comment could have a number of inferences, both positive and negative.  However, to clarify, Jamaica represents the dynamic nature of African culture and history – rich and dense, but messy.[10]  Furthermore, the syncretic combination of Christian ethics and morals with Love’s understanding of Pan-African ideology created new religious beliefs and traditions that would prove to dynamically shape African American thought of the 20th century. 
 


[1] Charles Reavis Price. ""CLEAVE TO THE BLACK": EXPRESSIONS OF ETHIOPIANISM IN JAMAICA." NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 77, no. 1/2 (2003): 34.

[2] Rupert Lewis. "Garvey's forerunners: Love and Bedward." Race & class 28, no. 3 (1987): 29-40. Joseph Cox. Great Black Men of Masonry. iUniverse, 2002. Patrick E Bryan. The Jamaican People, 1880-1902: Race, Class, and Social Control. University of West Indies Press, 2000.

[3] Rupert Lewis. "Garvey's forerunners: Love and Bedward." Race & class 28, no. 3 (1987): 29-40.

[4] Joseph Robert Love.  Romanism is Not Christianity.  (1892). Ibid.  St. Peter’s True Position in the Church, Clearly Traced in the Bible.  (1897).

[5] Rupert Lewis. "Garvey's forerunners: Love and Bedward." Race & class 28, no. 3 (1987): 29-40.

[6] Leonard E. Barrett. The Rastafarians. Beacon Press, 1997.

[7] Randall K. Burkett. Garveyism as a Religious Movement: The Institutionalization of a Black Civil Religion. No. 13. Scarecrow Press, 1978, 16-17.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Patrick E. Bryan. The Jamaican People, 1880-1902: Race, Class, and Social Control. University of West Indies Press, 2000, 233.

[10] Joy Lumsden. "Joseph Robert Love, 1839-1914: West Indian Extraordinary." Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (1977-1989) 7, no. 1 (1983): 25.