Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture, hosted by me, Alexandria Miller. Strictly Facts teaches the history, politics, and activism of the Caribbean and connects these themes to contemporary music and popular culture. Hello people Wamaguan Pomaka Guan. Welcome back to another episode of Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture. With me, your host, Alexandria Miller. Today's episode is a special one, although a little bit from a different perspective than what maybe what we're used to here on the show, because we're stepping into the history of black liberation through a lens that is both powerful and a little bit messy. And when I say messy, I mean Marcus Garvey level messy. Maybe some of you might know where I'm going with this. Because today we're talking about the two women who were his wives, Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey. Two of some of the most influential Caribbean women in 20th century black political history who also happened to share the same name. Yes, that is right. Marcus married two Amis, and it's been written about in various sources and literature as the tale of the two AMI. And when I say this, I say it not to trivialize their legacies because both women were brilliant political thinkers, organizers, and architects of Black Liberation. But I am saying that history, especially political history, has a habit of being complicated, dramatic, and yes, sometimes unintentionally a little bit funny, messy, all of those things wrapped in one. And so today we're going to do two things. Give um a little bit of an early intro, precursor to our next episode by giving Amy Ashrod Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey their due in terms of their historical recognition that they deserve, while also allowing ourselves to smile at the fact that this part of the Garvey story and just the Garvey story in general has many layers, side plots, and a bit of human chaos, if we're being quite honest. So let's first begin with the first Amy. Amy Ashwood was born in Jamaica in 1897. She wasn't just someone who entered Marcus Garvey's lives. She was foundational to the Garvey movement itself. And that is the part that tends to be forgotten when it comes to her in this sort of mythmaking about Garvey, where it's Marcus Garvey did this and Marcus Garvey said that, as if the movement wasn't built by both of them in unison. Amy Ashwood was a co-founder of the UNIA. Yes, a co-founder. She was present in its earliest organizational formations in Jamaica, helping to build the infrastructure from, you know, what would become one of the largest Black political movements in modern history. She was politically bold, socially sharp, and deeply committed to Black self-determination, especially for Black people in the Caribbean and wider diaspora. She also had a visionary sense of internationalism early on that I don't think we all fully understand and have, you know, maybe even been taught or learned. One that really not only helped to shape the UNIA, but um, you know, in terms of how it would eventually operate as a global network, but one that also was very pivotal to the work that she did after um her divorce from Garvey, and we'll talk more about that in our next episode. Amy Ashwood and Marcus Garvey married in 1919, but let's just say the marriage was short-lived. And while many tell the story like it's simply, you know, some bit of personal drama, I want us to also understand that their relationship was also political. Amy Ashwood was not a quiet partner, she was not in the background, she was not just his first wife, she was a political actor, and I mean that very intentionally. After their marriage dissolved, Amy Ashwood did not just disappear into the shadows. In fact, she became even more globally engaged. She moved between Jamaica, the US, and eventually the UK, becoming an important figure in Pan-African and black radical networks, particularly in London. She helped to develop black political organizing, supported African independence movements, and played a significant role in building diasporic intellectual and activist circles in many ways. You know, she represented a transatlantic Caribbean feminism before the term even really existed in the ways that some people use it today, using organizing, institution building, and community networks to push black liberation forward. So that's the first Amy, a co-founder, a strategist, a Caribbean Pan-African woman who refused to be reduced to marital history. Now, on to the second Amy, quote unquote, second Amy. Amy Jacques Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1895. Amy Jacques was brilliant, full stop. You know, she was a journalist, an editor, political thinker, and perhaps one of the most important shapers of the Garvey legacy after his death. Now, the way she entered the Garvey story is also where things get a little complicated. Um, Amy Jacques first worked within the UNIA as a secretary and aide, and over time became one of Garvey's closest collaborators. But it's important to recognize that her significance extends far beyond being just his quote-unquote second wife. She was also a political leader in her own right and fundamentally shaped how Garveyism was communicated, preserved, and is remembered today. When Garvey was imprisoned in the 1920s, Amy Jacques stepped up to fill the gap, not just as a placeholder, but as a leader. She edited Garvey's newspaper, The Negro World, wrote speeches, managed organizational correspondence, and served as an intellectual voice guiding the movement. And if you've ever studied political history, you know how rare it is for women's political labor to be credited properly. Amy Jacques was doing the work of what many men would later be called as, you know, strategists, propagandists, ideological engine, but those words are not often affixed to women. She also wrote widely and gave lectures on Garveyism and Black political liberation, especially as it related to women. Her writings directly addressed the role of black women in the movement, not as supporters, but as leaders. One of her greatest contributions was how she preserved Garvey's writings and organized them after his death, including editing and publishing one of the most significant collections in terms of Garvey's history called The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. So when we talk about why Garvey is remembered today as a central 20th century figure, Amy Jacques is a major reason why. History didn't preserve Garvey naturally. It was curated, it was archived, it was organized, and it was defended. And Amy Jacques did that work. Alright, so naturally we have to talk about the elephant in the room. Marcus Garvey married two women named Amy, which, if we're being honest, feels like a kind of plot in a telenovela or something, you know, like what a bag of mix-up. And what makes this, you know, even more layered is that it wasn't just sort of happenstance or there wasn't necessarily an irony there in the way that you know it might have just happened because these two women were acquainted. As I said, they moved in some of the same circles. The UNIA was a community, which meant overlap politically, socially, emotionally. They were in a sense friends to an extent. And so, yes, there is an extreme messiness there, right? And in some ways, it almost feels like the jokes write themselves, right? I've heard it said that Marcus did set it so on purpose so he wouldn't confuse their names, um, which you know, Azagalis, and you know, all of these things that could lead us into a whole discourse about Caribbean masculinity and monogamy and a lot of things that I will save perhaps for another time. But what I want us to pause and stress here is the fact that history is allowed to be human. Sometimes when we talk about history generally, and even as we have on the podcast, we tell history like everyone was only serious or only strategic or, you know, major academics and ideological. They were, oftentimes, but they were also people. Movements were built by these people, humans with egos, heartbreak, ambition, love triangles, misunderstandings, and contradictions. And while we hold these political stakes seriously, it's okay to acknowledge that some parts of history are comical, funny, or to just kind of put it frankly, ota in a little bit of a way. It's not disrespectful to laugh lightly at the absurdity, especially when that laughter opens the door for more people to engage with historical truth. What's important is that we acknowledge all sides of the truth as we are coming to understand history as it happened and as we understand ourselves. And in this case, it's that we not turn Amy Ashwood and Amy Jacques into footnotes in a man's romantic narrative, right? They were not simply wife one and wife two. They were builders of political institutions, Caribbean women shaping global liberation, ideological architects, writers, editors, organizers, and survivors of the gendered politics of black radical movements. And yes, sometimes they were dealing with an incredibly complicated man. So why does this matter? Because when we talk about Garveyism, we too often reduce it to Marcus Garvey alone. But the UNIA was not built by one man. Black liberation movements are never built by just one person alone, and that historical record has long benefited from centering male charisma while minimizing women's labor. Amy Ashwood reminds us that women were foundational from the beginning, forming the organization, shaping its early ideological life, and sustaining its networks across borders. Amy Jacques reminds us that women were essential to maintaining the movement during crisis and to preserving its legacy so that future generations could learn from it. Both women show us something deeper. Caribbean women were not passive observers of the 20th century, they were producers of its political future. So today we're honoring the two AMIs. We honor their brilliance, their labor, their political impact, and yes, we acknowledge that history can be messy and complicated and occasionally funny, but in our next episode, we're getting a little bit more serious. We're diving into the work of the two AME's and many other women in the UNIA because they were just only two of the, you know, sort of myriad women shaping Garveism and the UNIA. It is in our follow-up episode that we're centering these women as organizers, educators, fundraisers, journalists, leaders, and women who also weren't perfect. Women whose names may not appear in our textbooks, but who built the movement day by day. So stay tuned because if you think Garvey's story ends with Marcus, then you've only just read the headline. Thank you all for joining me for this mini episode of Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean History and Culture. As always, be sure to like, share with a friend, follow us on socials, let us know your thoughts. And if you have any favorite moments in Caribbean history that are a little messy, a little funny, a little bit comical, let us know in our socials as well. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Until next time, Lickle Moore. Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts. Visit strictlyfactspodcast.com for more information from each episode. Follow us at Strictly Facts Pod on Instagram and Facebook and at Strictly Facts PD on Twitter.