Professor Tony Martin Dies at 70

UPDATE – JANUARY 28, 2013

Prof Tony Martin's Send-Off
Prof Tony Martin’s Send-Off — January 25, 2013

A Celebration and Thanksgiving Service for the life of Professor Anthony Martin
21st February, 1942 – 17th January, 2013.
Service on Friday 25th January, 2013 at 9.00 a.m.
St. Theresa’s R.C. Church, Woodbrook thence to the St. James Crematorium for 11.00 a.m.
More photos here

UPDATE – JANUARY 23, 2013

The funeral of Professor Tony Martin will be held on Friday 25th January, 2013, at 9:00am at St. Theresa’s R.C. Church, 50 De Verteuil Street, Woodbrook.

Trinicenter.com Reporters
January 17, 2013 – www.trinicenter.com

Professor Tony MartinDr. Tony Martin, former Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College, has passed over tonight, January 17th 2013 in Trinidad & Tobago at West Shore Medical Hospital. Trinidadian-born Dr. Martin taught at the University of Michigan-Flint, the Cipriani Labour College (Trinidad), and St. Mary’s College (Trinidad). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, Brown University, and The Colorado College and also spent a year as an honorary research fellow at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad.

Professor Martin has written, compiled or edited 14 books including Caribbean History: From Pre-Colonial Origins to the Present (2012) published by Pearson Education; Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No. 1, Or, A Tale of Two Amies (2007), Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance (1983), and the classic study of the Garvey Movement, Race First: the Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1976).

His work on Marcus Garvey was featured on the curricula of many African studies programmes around the world and he was a well-known lecturer in many countries.

Source: www.trinicenter.com/tnt/2013/1701.html

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Dr. Tony Martin Books & Biography

Tony Martin Speaks on Marcus Garvey pt.1

Professor Tony Martin The Slave Trade

75 thoughts on “Professor Tony Martin Dies at 70”

  1. A visionary who anyone interested in the fate of Africans will surely miss. Gone much too soon!

  2. Tony Martin was an outstanding scholar of Marcus Garvey. His Race First was an outstanding nuanced study with nothing of the narrowness that some may imagine in the title. He was also a kind and generous person.

    He was a friend to scholars and freedom fighters with very different perspectives than his own. Two examples. He helped me with some valuable hints on research regarding his old schoolmate in Lansing, Michigan Kimathi Mohammed (Stan McClinton)– an unsung but very important disciple of CLR James.

    Recently, he republished Bukka Rennie’s classic History of the Trinidad and Tobago Working Class. Mr. Rennie and Mr. Martin had very different viewpoints on the content of national liberation.

    His The Majority Press is a model of what a scholar or a small circle who are innovative and before their time can do to transform scholarly fields like social movement history when they are fearlessly confident in their purpose.

    It saddens me when I reflect on the mediocre and vicious people who attacked Tony’s character when he merely stood against Zionism (the key to our Middle East problems) and the audacity of white liberals (mind you not merely conservatives) whose false claims of rationalism and self-sufficiency distort African peoples contribution to civilization and self-government.

    We of course in peripheral and imperial nations are now conquered and degraded by liberal people of color whose discourse on human rights and development is a sham. They degrade us all in fact with their economy of nonsense and their breaking out of party hats and kazoos for those who bomb people of color all over the world.

    The form and content of the onslaught moves on but we must continue to develop a more precise way of seeing. We should all strive to make the impact that Tony Martin did on a world scale.

  3. I am still in shock from hearing this very sad news what a great Pan AFricanist will sadly be missed by us all I am a better Pan Africanist just knowning Dr. Tony Martin on to meet other great Ancestors.

    Always willing to share his knowleges with each and everyone he meets, what a lost in times like these! RIP

  4. Death while expected is never easily accepted and an unfillable void is created with the passing of Professor Martin. Many years ago when he was at UWI, I had the benefit of ‘sharing’ his space. His regular sharings and visits to TT in recent times must be cherished for those of us who participated. We, and my husband in particular, are students of Marcus Garvey and consequently we own a number of books by Professor Martin and have had the benefit of his knowledge therein.
    We join in mourning the passing of a great and expansive mind – the scholar Professor Tony Martin.

  5. May the world extend a moment of silence for the Honorable Dr. Tony Martin who has transitioned on January 17, 2013. Per Ankh em Smai Tawi and Per Ankh Khamniversity Institute extend our condolences to the family, relatives, friends, colleagues, students and all associated with Dr. Tony Martin. May our Ancient Regal Ancestors welcome him to the Sacred Council amongst the Shepshu Ankhu (Great Eternal Ancestors who Achieved Heights while on earth) for all the great and powerful works he provided on the vision, life and times of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey to our AfRaKan nation and humanity. May his name be said abundantly with reverence, respect and honor for his great works while on the earth plane.
    A life of thanks for this information being shared via the Trinidad and Tobago News.com networks and for Queen Deborah Wright of the SRDC International extending this throughout our PanAfrican and AfRaKan nation building networks.

    http://www.trinicenter.com/tnt/2013/1701.html
    http://www.tonymartin.net.tt/

    “My heart is so heavy today upon learning of the Earthly death Dr. Tony Martin. Dr. Martin was a brilliant scholar and Pan Africanist. I met him in the 1970’s right after the publication of ‘Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.’ I was in the UNIA at the time and Tony Martin was a regular visitor to our Division, in fact, he was the historian for the UNIA at that time. He was Pan Africanist and scholar first and foremost AND he was warm, friendly and very sharing of himself. His body of work is profound….
    Today I have gathered up a few choice publications by Tony Martin: The Pan African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond; Race First; Marcus Garvey: Message to the People; The Course of African Philosophy; The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey; Marcus Garvey Hero: A First Biography…to carry with me to work today … in Remembrance and in Tribute to a GREAT!

    Peace and Blessings,
    Deborah Akua Wright”
    ********
    Dua Sr. Queen Deborah Akua Wright for sharing this most important news with our AAANKKH Legacy family and A NU Humanity. Sending comforting prayers of tranquility and healing strength to the Martin family on this untimely ascension of a great AfRaKan man who gave so much to his family, our nation, international scholarship and A Nu Humanity. May we honor Dr. Tony Martin by saying his name with RAspect and implementing the foundational nation building works he brought to our AfRaKan nation and humanity. Shem em Hotep!
    NswtMwt Dr. ChenziRa
    Per Ankh Khamniversity Institute
    UNIA-ACL Queen Mary Hubert Harrison Division #307- United Virgin Islands
    http://www.perankhu.org
    http://uniaacl.org/www.uniaacl.org/styled-16/styled-51/index.html

  6. I was sad to learn of the passing of Dr Tony Martin. He was indeed a scholar, teacher, Arthur and educator. He will be sadly missed I have had the privilege of attending some of his lectures and read many of his articles and books.

    The world have lost a wonderful son, he will be cared for in the arms of the ancestors. I hope his family will be comforted knowing that he was a wonderful person.

    May he rest in perfect peace.
    Jan

  7. Professor Tony Martin greatly influenced the academic work and enriched the personal lives of women in the Wellesley College community, especially the women of African Descent. He was a consummate scholar whose serious study of the African experience in America and throughout the world left us all more informed and the development, growth, and progress of black peoples. Professor Martin, thank you for realizing the gifts, talents, and skills of young women and investing in the education of women – black women. Thank you for affirming our voices. Thank you for sharpening our minds and intellect. Thank you for that Trinidadian gait that we could never miss – even from afar! You will be sorely, missed! Signed one of your former students,
    Dr. Nichole R. Phillips

  8. I am in shock also, I was hoping to meet this great man whose work spoke for itself. He is now a righteous ancestor and his work lives on in all of us who read it and carry forth his spirit in our actions. He was a mighty Pan African. RIP brother, you will be missed.

  9. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a mentor and big brother at times. The world has lost a giant in “my good brother”

  10. Tony was my cousin. We both shared and cherished our connection with the strength and spirit of Marcus Garvey as “Garveyites”. When I was at South Carolina State College on a track scholarship and I was passionately involved in the civil rights movement both in the United States and Canada, we began to “reconnect”. He was particularly proud of my running 40 miles, with threat of the vicious klan, to protest the killings of students in what what is referred to as “The Orangeburg Massacre”. Growing up in Trinidad, we attended separate high schools that were bitter rivals, largely based on race. However, we were later reunited through Garveyism and our pursuit of justice for African people. Tony was the most gifted historian that I ever knew. I sincerely hope that he was able to complete his book on what he referrd to as “The Jeffers Saga”. We were planning a family reunion, it may now have to be on “the other side”. May God Bless you Tony. Now Peace!

    1. Dear Ken Jeffers,

      I am sorry for your family’s loss. I was a student of Tony’s (at Wellesley College) and he was a mentor to me. I knew him very well and even visited him in Trinidad once. Please, if there is any chance I could send a word to Shabaka or his mother, let me know.

      In Friendship,
      Alissa

  11. The impact Dr. Martin had on my daughter as a student at Wellesley, speaks volumes to his purpose on the Earth plane. She was able to gain a greater perspective and understanding of the African experience and her place in it. Dr. Martin was so personable and loving of his students that she and classmates visited with he and his family in Trinidad.

    May the Peace that only the Creator gives be bestowed upon Dr. Martin’s soul and that of his Beloved family and colleagues.

  12. The world will miss Professor Tony Martin for his insightfull contributions on the African discourse. My condolences to his family. May the ancestors accept him.

  13. A Great Tree has fallen. Tony now is on his way to join our Pantheon of Glorious Ancestors. May his passage be smooth as sing dirges of praises chronicling his achievements. We are proud of you Tony for your L-O-Y-A-L-T-Y to AFRICANS BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD.

  14. I am indeed saddened by Tony’s passing. I always admired his massive intellect and integrity. As a boy he was a student of mine at St.Mary’s College We had been in touch for several years. The world has lost a real scholar. C’etait l’oeuvre de Dieu(Charles Baudelaire)

    RIP, My friend.

  15. Tony – friend, scholar, pan man and expert at picong. We in the UK owe much to this man. All his colleagues from Hull University pay homage to him.

  16. Dr. Tony Martin was an intellectual giant promoting the interests of Black people in the Diaspora and Africa. He has left a great body of work that others will long build from. He fought grand battles in life as a general for truth and justice. He will forever live on in the pillars of his literary works.

    T. West
    CART/AfriSynergy

  17. Sifa ote ina Mzee Tony Martin.

    Much appreciation for all of your contributions. Just last night (1/17/13) i was stating that you were a leading authority on Marcus M. Garvey. We were doing an overview of “Race First” in our examination of Garveyism (neo-Garveyism) being our primary method of getting us “out of this mess” of this “400 yr room”

    It was your text “Marcus Garvey The Hero” that was so instrumental in my re-Afrikanization process. Your text was one of the first four books that started a path for me some 25 years ago. This body of work provided me the ideological clarity and frame work to develop a theoretical lense to view and engage my/our Afrikan reality.

    Again, i say, sifa ote ina Mzee. Asante sana for all of your contributions.

    Your name and efforts will not be forgotten,

    Baba Nubian Malik

    Co-founder Amos N. Wilson Institute (Chicago)

    “An Afrikan is not dead, until they are forgotten” AP

  18. R.I.P., Tony. I just adopted your latest book as one of the texts for my class because it pays homage to the history of Caribbean people of African descent — more so than many of the other general survey texts on Caribbean History.

  19. I join in mourning the passing of Tony Martin. His “The Jewish Onslaught” )1993) was an eye-opener for me, helping me to understand from his personal testimony the lengths to which the Jews would go to protect their Great Lie. I greatly admired his courage in the face of the threats and intimidation — physical and financial — that were brought to bear against him. Not only was he a man of immense scholarship and intellect, but also, more impressively, one of courage, integrity and resourcefulness. He was the prototypical David, going up against Goliath, and prevailing. There was no braggadocio in his make-up, rather if anything a becoming modesty. But for all his modesty, he had a certain charisma, and could hold the rapt attention of an audience entirely through the force of clarity of intellect and of the eloquence of his usually well-marshaled arguments. He was among the very best that this country has produced, and I know he would have been appalled at the “eat-ah-food” mentality that has taken hold of so many of our public intellectuals.

    Prof. Martin, like most Afri-centrists, took it for granted that we the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were “African”, and more specifically, sons of Ham. I remember one of his lectures where in his usual dispassionate way took apart the lie of the “curse of Ham”. He found and pointed out that the curse of Ham actually fell, not on Ham, but rather more narrowly on Canaan. Had he studied the Bible more extensively, he would have found that the “Negro” that suffered the Middle Passage dis so pursuant to the curses of the Holy Covenant, under which it is true Israel that would suffer enslavement and captivity. True Israel is “Negro” from the line of Shem, not Ham. This is of course a more comprehensive rebuttal of the myth propounded by the fake Jews of the “curse of Ham”, as applying to the “Negro” they had a major hand in enslaving; see “The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews”. They sought with the myth of the curse of Ham to hide us to our true identity, and to advance their own false claim to being sons of Jacob. Committed fiercely as he was to follow Truth wherever it led, I’m sure that Prof. Martin would have embraced this knowledge had he known. But I suppose the time was not yet.

    Be all that as it may, it is with the greatest respect and admiration that I mourn the passing of this great scholar and warrior, who withstood the Jewish onslaught of the time with resolve and courage, and ultimately with great success. His work and life was an example and inspiration to us all. I’m proud to call him a fellow son of Israel, by way of Trinidad and Tobago. May Yahweh grant him mercy, and may he be blessed with eternal life in the presence of Yahweh, after the resurrection and judgment.

    1. Apropos the Jewish Onslaught so well resisted by Prof. Martin, I just came across the following while net-surfing:

      According to Ford, that is their aim because they are Jews, and they are reaching for even more control than they already have. This is the historic modus operandi of the Jews. They are outsiders everywhere except in Israel, and when they first appear in any Gentile society and begin reaching for power they are resisted. The society treats the Jews as outsiders, as aliens, and attempts to keep them from gaining control. The Jewish method of countering this opposition is to work quietly to accumulate as much wealth as possible. At the same time they work to corrupt the society’s leaders with money and to sow dissension among the masses, to set one social class against another, to break up the society’s solidarity and its cohesiveness, so that there will be less resistance to their penetration of the society.

      Source: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=63809

      The tactics so well summarized also fit racial politics in Trinidad and Tobago. The wise will understand. The wise will also understand that we’ve got to fulfill the Book, before redemption time ah come.

      Shalom

    2. It saddens me to know end that people worldwide are hoodwinked and bamboozled by a book called the bible. This so-called bible is based on African and Persian Gulf spirituality and stories that explain the cosmos and the movement of the heavenly bodies within the various cycles. It is utterly preposterous and sad that people are led to believe that the first Homo sapiens on the planet were some ridicules made-up characters named Adam and Eve. Anyone who does minimal research will know that black people were the first humans on the planet and ruled the ancient world when white people were still in caves painting themselves blue. The foundation (Mark, Luke, Mathew and John) of the so-called bible are nothing but the four fixed cardinal signs of the zodiac. The “birth of Jesus” is the pre-Christian birth of the Sun on December 25th. The travels and stories of Jesus are nothing more than the Sun interacting with the solstices and the equinoxes and other stars and planets while traveling through each zodiac sign.
      Read the Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews if you want to be educated about the European Jews role in history. It is nonsense that Africans in Kemet enslaved Hebrews; in fact it was the other way around; read about the Hyksos in Kemet (Egypt). I could provide you with hundreds of books to read that prove with facts that the nonsense about black people being punished for sins during ancient times is pure fiction and nonsense. The history of Kemet written by Africans was in place over 6,000 years ago refutes such fiction and ignorance.
      The major problem that black people worldwide have is totally ignorance about who they are and being mentally enslaved by other cultures myths. Please get your head out of the book that the top biblical scholars in the world conclude; they don’t know who wrote it. The mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and historians of the major characters in the so-called bible cannot be found. Before quoting so-called scripture; please read books by Gerald Massey, Alvin Boyd Kuhn, (Shadow of the Third Century) Dr. Ben Yosef A A Jochannan (born a black Jew), Dr. John Jackson, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, etc. If you were to read other books besides the bible; you will begin to understand who you are and throw off the shacklers of mental enslavement.

  20. I was shocked when I heard the news of Brotha Tony’s passing. I got to know him when I testified on behalf of him for his lawsuit against Wellesley where he taught for many years. He was a kind and gentle Brotha whose scholarship was absolutely impeccable. He was fearless, and his work on the insidious nature of zionism and its influence in the academy was brave and accurate.

    May the Ancestors receive this powerful scholar and gentleman with open arms. He will be missed…

  21. I am so very sad to learn of this death. Dr. Tony Martin was a huge influence in my life during my years at Wellesley in the early 70s. He was a serious scholar and a friend who challenged even as he listened to us as young women. And while he was much beloved and admired by the Sisters on campus-I never heard a whisper of him taking advantage of his status. After I married, my husband and Tony became friends as well-and we used his consummate text on Garvey when we home-schooled our sons. One of our family’s highlights was hosting Tony when he was the “Faculty Speaker” for the Columbus Wellesley Club. I was delighted to have our sons actually meet him and hear his brillance for themselves. Tony was gracious yet intellectually challenging with them-just as he’d been with us back at Wellesley. May God grant the peace that surpasseth all understanding to his son and his entire family!

  22. A great general of our intellectual army has fallen in battle and his spirit will forever support our efforts at African regeneration. Tony Martin will return a million times and he shall be seen in the young brother or sister who refuses to accept falsehood as truth and evil as good. I remember when Tony was fighting against his enemies at Wellesley and asked me to come to Boston to give a deposition to lawyers about his place in our history and his expertise as a scholar. I flew up to Boston and spent the day with this warrior and attorneys. His courage, bravery, and genius were always on display for his people. We will miss him but each time we see the storm, like Garvey in the whirlwind, we will see and hear Tony Martin. Hail Tony Universe!

  23. A Great Afrikan Moves On! Brother Tony Martin cared for our people and did much to set the record of our history right. Forever live his “Spirit!” Blessings and Peace to his Family for sharing him with us.

  24. Toni was a deep and dear friend of mine. His energy will stay with me forever. Go home my brother and say hello to Ivan Van Sertima, and all the other great warriors on the other side.
    Tell sister Nzynga we miss her here but we have all her contributions. I love you Tony, we all love you

  25. sad news , indeed….saw his last August at the 50/50 conference i Jamaica organized by Brian Meeks and UWI (Mona)…we hadnt met for a long time and tough he was there largely to see old friends/colleagues and autograph his most recent book, we talked about the persistent failures of the micro state in the West Indies and my contention(SS Ramphal. Ron Sanders et al also) that some form of federation is a “sine qua non” to renewed viability for these states in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world
    But he seemed depressed as he recounted his fight to get custody of his young son then domiciled in Guyana and his consequent residing there
    he was a brilliant scholar and caribbeanist whose pedagogy was at times contentious but never malicious. He was very principled and stood on principled positions. It was good to see he, Selwyn Ryan, Norman Girvan, Havelock Brewster, Ken Hall and other Luminaries deep in thought the 50 year mark for Jamaica which is not doing very well…and they each had their own framework and perspectives of analysis
    he was so young yet….but the Grim Reaper stalks us all and we must be prepared…May his soul RIP with The Ancestors and may his legacy continue to bind us
    .Goodbye my friend and colleague!!!!The Ancestors will welcome and Protect you

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