OAaSIS International Foundation (Jamaica)

Rex Nettleford. IAN ALLEN PHOTO

Jamaica’s culture icon, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Ralston Miller “Rex” Nettleford now lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Washington DC as of late Wednesday.
He who in 2006, told the founder of OAaSIS that “the progress of any country is reflected in the way the artists are treated!” has been among those that influenced the beginnings of the Foundation.

Pivitol to the development of Jamaica’s arts (literary, performing, visual), and culture, the icon who believes, and often states “creative people should be among the leaders of any society” collapsed at the hospital on Wednesday evening.

Ironically, a statement from the UWI yesterday said Nettleford went to Washington, DC, to attend a fund-raising gala for the institution.

After collapsing at the hospital on Wednesday, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Rex Nettleford, was admitted.

Jamaica’s Ambassador to Washington, DC, Anthony Johnson says Nettleford was unconscious when he visited the hospital yesterday. He also spoke of it being a “major concern for his doctors.”

All Jamaica is being affected by the news, and the Government and the Opposition People’s National Party issued statements, wishing the renowned Jamaican a speedy recovery.

Through his strides internationally, he is among the Caribbean’s most honoured nationals, who has earned the respect of many for his success in the areas of Arts culture and as an intellect.  Nettleford boasts over 50 years’ involvement in academia and the arts (performing, visual and literary).

The finale of Kumina, Rex Nettleford's signature piece by the Jamaican National Dance Theatre Company. NDTC PHOTO

Numbered Jamaicans are already reminiscing on the hey days of Caribbean theatre, when they scurried to the locations to watch him dance. His greatest achievement is the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), which he co-founded in 1962, with others including Bert Rose and Eddy Thomas.  (Read also Jamaica celebrates – Formation of NDTC). Back in 2007 he told the Caribbean’s leading newspaper, The Gleaner that with Jamaica gaining Independence from Britain in 1962, he felt it was critical for the nation to make a cultural statement. It was the marking the NDTC’s 45th season. “You have to remember we were coming at the end of the self-government movement, and we had to find self-expression on our own terms,” he said.

Chester Francis-Jackson describes the Rex Nettleford NDTC “as a tower of strength in a nation still searching for its cultural identity and soul, due to the emergence of the all-pervasive influence of cable television and global marketing strategies dominated by conglomerates fuelled by the culture of cash and immediacy.” (Read The NDTC at 47)

Nettleford, for over twenty years, has also been the artistic director for the University Singers of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus in Jamaica. The combination of Nettleford as artistic director and Noel Dexter as musical director with the University Singers has seen the creation of what is referred to as “choral theatre”.

Nettleford is a prolific writer, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. 1957 Rhodes scholar to Oriel College, Oxford, he is perhaps the only Jamaican who can claim to have an insertion of his creation into the Oxford Dictionary in modern times, making Jamaica proud.

Additionally, he has written several books, noted essays and papers on social issues, including race relations and the trade-union movement in the Caribbean. Beginning with a collection of essays titled Mirror Mirror (1969), he also edited and compiled speeches and writings of Norman Manley. Eventually, he established himself as a serious public historian and social critic. Among his books are Manley and The New Jamaica, Mirror Mirror and Caribbean Cultural Identity: The Case of Jamaica.

He has received several awards, including the Order of Merit (1975), Jamaica’s third-highest civic award, for his scholarly, cultural and artistic achievements.

Born in Falmouth, Trelawny, he is a graduate of Cornwall College and Oxford University and served as UWI vice-chancellor from 1996 to 2004. Currently, Nettleford is professor of extra mural studies at the UWI and also heads its Trade Union Education Institution.

He remains a pivotal part of the creative dance group as dancer, artistic director and choreographer, and prolific in his writings.