J. R. Ralph Casimir

J. R. Ralph Casimir (28 September 1898 – 8 March 1996)[1] was a Dominican poet, editor, journalist and bookseller. A pioneering Caribbean pan-Africanist, he was a founding member of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), organising its Dominica branch.[2][3] Casimir also compiled Dominica's first poetry anthologies.[4]

J. R. Ralph Casimir
Born
Joseph Raphael (Ralph) Casimir

(1898-09-28)28 September 1898
St. Joseph, Dominica
Died8 March 1996(1996-03-08) (aged 97)
NationalityDominican
Other namesCivis Africanus
Occupation(s)Poet, editor, journalist

Biography

Born into a lower-middle-class black family in St. Joseph, Dominica, in 1898, Joseph Raphael (Ralph) Casimir was educated at the St. Joseph Government School,[5] serving as a pupil teacher in 1915–1916, before he and his family moved to Roseau, where he became a solicitor's clerk to Cecil Rawle.[1]

Keenly interested in politics and the historic and contemporary experiences of African people, Casimir contacted Marcus Garvey after reading an article in the Negro World,[1] and became a founding member as well as the organiser and General Secretary (from 1919 to 1922) of the Dominica branch of Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).[5] Casimir's essay "What Ails Dominica", published in the Negro World in 1920, resonated with readers in dealing with dissatisfaction to colonial rule in the Caribbean.[6] He acted as the Dominican agent for Negro World and for other black periodicals such as The Crisis (edited by W. E. B. Du Bois).[7] Under the pseudonym "Civis Africanus", he contributed "dozens of Pan-Africanist-oriented poems" to the Negro World, and after the publication was officially banned in West Africa, sent copies to the editor of the Gold Coast Leader, J. E. Casely Hayford.[8] Casimir was also an agent for Garvey's Black Star Line.[3]

Casimir was the secretary to the 1932 Dominica Conference – a forerunner of the West Indies Federation in advocating for democratization of the English-speaking colonies as a first step towards self-government[9][10] – which was attended by representatives from Trinidad, Barbados, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Kitts and Grenada, including such key figures as Captain Arthur Cipriani of Trinidad and T. Albert Marryshow of Grenada.[11][12]

Alongside being the leading figure in the Dominica UNIA,[13] Casimir was active at a local community level, elected to serve as a Roseau town councillor, and his working life additionally encompassed being a bookseller and bookbinder.[5] In his literary career he contributed militant poetry to The Dominica Star, the newspaper edited by Phyllis Shand Allfrey, as well as writing articles for local, regional and US publications, including the Pittsburgh Courier,[5] for which he was a correspondent from 1950 to 1952.[9]

He published six collections of poetry: Pater Noster and Other Poems (1967), Africa Arise and Other Poems (1967), A Little Kiss and Other Poems (1968), Farewell and Other Poems (1971), Dominica and Other Poems (1968), and The Negro Speaks (1969),[14] featuring in his last book a series of poems about African civilization and the historical contributions of black pioneers.[15]

Casimir was also an editor and anthologist, notably compiling four volumes of Dominican verse: Poesy, Book I (1943), Poesy, Book II (1944), Poesy, Book III (1946), and Poesy Book IV (1947).[14]

Casimir died aged 97 in 1996, and he is the subject of a biography, Black Man Listen, by his granddaughter Kathy Casimir MacLean (Papillote Press, 2022).[16][17]

References
  1. Garvey, Marcus, "1920". In The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume XI: The Caribbean Diaspora, 1910–1920, edited by Robert A. Hill, John Dixon, Mariela Haro Rodriguez and Anthony Yuen, New York: Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 509ff.
  2. Menegaki, Maria (10 January 2017). "Writers from Dominica You Should Know". Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  3. Honychurch, Lennox. "Cultural Icons of Dominica". A Virtual Dominica. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  4. "Dominica". Papillote Press. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth. "'A FORGOTTEN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE': Social Life in Dominica and the Creative Imagination" (PDF). Vassar University. p. 22. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  6. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume XII, The Caribbean Diaspora, 1920–1921 (eds Anthony Yuen, John Dixon, Mariela Haro Rodriguez, Robert A. Hill), pp. xxxiv, 135, 254.
  7. Hill, Robert A. (ed.). The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. IV | September 1921–September 1922. p. 520, note.
  8. Marable, Manning (1998). "Political Intellectuals in the African Diaspora". Black Leadership. Columbia University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780231500296. Retrieved 23 March 2022 – via Google Books.
  9. "J. R. Casimir papers". Archives and Manuscripts. New York Public Library. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  10. Christian, Gabriel J. (2 August 2020). "Whither August Monday? A reflection on our British heritage, Pan-Africanism & development". Dominica News Online. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  11. Christian, Gabriel (11 August 2014). "A.C. Shillingford – A captain of Dominican industry". Thedominican.net. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  12. "West Indies: Conference", The Crisis, January 1933, p. 19.
  13. Ewing, Adam (2011). "Broadcast on the Winds: Diasporic Politics in the Age of Garvey, 1919–1940". p. 139. Retrieved 23 March 2022 – via ProQuest.
  14. Paravisini-Gebert, p. 27, note 24.
  15. Andre, Irving. "Returned Exile: A Biography of George James Christian of Dominica and the Gold Coast, 1889–1940". GJC Newsletter. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  16. MacLean, Kathy Casimir (2022). Black Man Listen: The Life of JR Ralph Casimir. Papillote Press. ISBN 9781838041526 – via Google Books.
  17. "JR Ralph Casimir of Dominica: a reading from his biography". Papillote Press. 22 August 2022 – via YouTube.
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