Barry chevannes jamaica biography
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The University of the West Indies, Mona
Jan. 7,
Sociologist and authority on Rastafari whose work has impacted the lives of persons outside the confines of the University. Professor Chevannes served organisations such as Fathers' Incorporated, Partners for Peace, Peace Management Initiative, the National Commission on Ganja, the Justice System Reform Task Force, and the Caribbean Community Commission on Youth Development. Professor Chevannes was also a leading activist for peace in Jamaica as he headed the Violence Prevention Alliance which launched a safe community campaign in
He played a leadership role in the University Township Project, and did considerable work in the surrounding communities of August Town for many years In addition to his outstanding contribution to the University of the West Indies, Professor Chevannes also contributed to the field of music, as a song composer and a singer, acclaimed for his excellent baritone. Professor Barry Chevannes received nume
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Prof Chevannes dies
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Alton 'Barry' Chevannes, the respected sociologist and anthropologist, died yesterday at the University Hospital of the West Indies. He had been admitted there in early September.
Chevannes, 70, died six weeks after participating in the Rastafari Studies Conference at the University of the West Indies' (UWI) Mona campus. He was one of the five-day symposium's main organisers and delivered its closing address.
Chevannes is the second major Jamaican academic to die this year. Professor Rex Nettleford, vice chancellor emeritus of the UWI, passed away in February.
Born in Kingston, Chevannes studied for the priesthood after leaving St George's College. But by the early s, he began researching Rastafari and went on to write extensively on that religion.
Rastafari: Roots and Ideology and Rastafari and Other African Worldviews were just two of his published projects on the Rasta movement.
Michael Lorne, a senior member
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Remembering Professor Barry Chevannes
I value the friendship inom had with Barry Chevannes () for he was a special person who loved people and listened to people from all walks of life. He was a trained Jesuit who taught Latin, but left the Jesuits to do outreach work among the poor on Chambers Lane, which is nära the Catholic church of Sts Peter and Paul. He also left the Jesuits to get married. At the centre of his life was his wife Pauletta and their talented daughters Abena and Amba.
I met Barry in the s and both of us were activists in the Workers Liberation League and the Workers Party of Jamaica from to He was responsible for work among ungdom and communities. He had extraordinary ability for community activism in both urban and rural settings, and in difficult and violent times was a peacemaker. He started the Partners for Peace in and then became a member of the board of the Peace Management inom