Song for Jessica or Praise Song for the Deserving



Bust unveiled on her 70th birthday


Let us hail all those deserving of honour -

Jessica Huntley, an African woman born in Guyana, came to England and rocked (and that is what the children said) ok, the older ones simply say she always ‘represented’.

Jessica Huntley dark and proud lived through the sixties and testified:

Do remember to place her properly when you write the history

Of how our elders

When they were younger

Lived and dreamed of a new world in Arusha

Georgetown

Soweto and Birmingham Alabama

Sometimes with pain but all the time believing

Even as their voices cracked

And went off beat in the midst of singing

‘We Shall Overcome’ and ‘Nksoi Sikeleli Africa’;

O Lord, It is so hard to keep faith but we keep going...

And the road is long and ‘tuff’

But we must bear witness to this journey and of all our triumphs

And then out of the gloom

The invocation – ‘legba ouvrir pour moi’: Bogle L’ouverture!

(Dual incarnation of the word committed to paper- published)

Even if Toussaint’s Haiti

Symbol of Africa and all her involuntarily scattered children

On this unyielding earth

Still struggles and yearns for that difference


You too dear reader must hail Jessica Huntley African woman from Guyana growing dreadlocks at seventy years of age because she believed that evergreen/ever red is the colour of the heart: if you believe. You see black is beautiful means that you never give up because the spirit has wings and flies back to its source having retrieved every breath and every feather - Sankofa, claim tomorrow.

In this sculptured piece Fowokan sought to portray both the physical or
real experience and the ideas generated by Jessica i.e. faith, strength. The piece which could perhaps be described as a love-imbued resolution in iron resin succeeds in doing this by capturing the subject in a meditative pause/space.

Those who know her well, speak of Jessica’s unique ability of mixing discussions of weighty issues - poverty, equality and unity with every concern for the comfort of the visitor- “would you like another drink or perhaps some more yams, eat up man, wha’ wrong wid u?” In the book shop she founded with her husband Eric Huntley (an Africanman from Guyana- a true Solid/Dad of whom more, later) as an outlet for the books they published, as well as of those of other publishers, it is said they gave away as many or probably more than they sold. Feed the mind, free the mind. ..

Another example of this fusion of the political and the personal was seen in 2000 when the floods overwhelmed Mozambique. This coincided with the 50^th anniversary of their wedding and Eric and Jessica raffled all the presents they received and presented the money to the Mozambique Embassy in London.

The meditative quality that emanates from the sculpted piece is, according to Fowokan, the result of an intention to depict the quality of strength and determination of the subject. The piece was finished and presented and unveiled at Jessica’s 70^th birthday by which time an element of frailty was discernible. The essence of nobility of purpose that defines the subject and a lifelong crusade for the rights, education and empowerment of community are balanced in an inspiring way. This complements the message conveyed by a plinth/base that tapers to give the combined messages of strength/human vulnerability; nobility/everyday concerns for equality. Surely the accompanying picture to the sculpture taken on her 80^th birthday speaks more volumes about this heroine of African peoples than words can describe.

Encore: So do say when you can that Jessica Huntley an African woman from Guyana is a Worthy Elder and a bearer of good tales.

Zagba Oyortey

August 2008

Jessica on her 80th birthday


** A bronze replica of the bust can be seen in the Huntley Room at the London Metropolitan Museum **