JAMAICAN

NATION
BUILDERS
 Norman Washington Manley
Norman Washington Manley was the forth
national hero of Jamaica. He was born on July 4th,
1893 to mixed race parents in Roxborough,
Manchester. His father, Thomas Albert Samuel
Manley was a hardworking small business man
born in Porus, Manchester, Jamaica in 1852 and
his mother Margaret Ann Shearer Manley was a
brilliant scholar, soldier and athlete. Manley
attended The Wolmer’s Trust High School for
Boys as well as the Beckford & Smith High school
(St. Jago High School), for 1 year each. He was an
advocate of Universal Suffrage, which was granted
by the British colonial government to the colony
in 1944, he later served as the colony’s Chief
Minister from 1955 to 1959 and later died
September 2nd, 1969.
 Edna Swithenbank Manley

Edna Swithenbank Manley was

considered as one of the most important
artists and arts educators in Jamaica. She
was born on February 28th, 1900. Edna
Manley lived her early years in England
with her father, Harvey Swithenbank, her
mixed Jamaican mother, Ellie Shearer
along with her 8 siblings. She promoted
the development of Jamaican art as a
teacher, coordinator, patron and
contributed in the finding of the Jamaica
School Of Art And Craft in 1950. She later
died on February 2nd, 1987 in Kingston,
Jamaica.
 Michael Norman Manley

Michael Norman Manley was a Jamaican

politician who served as the fourth Prime
Minister of Jamaica between 1970 and 1980 and
from 1989 and 1992. He was born on December
10th,1942, in Saint Andrew, Jamaica. Michael
Manley was the second son of premier Norman
Washington Manley and artist Edna Manley. He
attended Jamaica College and then served in
the Royal Canadian Air Force during the World
War 2. In 1945, he was enrolled at the London
school of Economics. He then graduated in
1949 and returned back to Jamaica to serve as
an editor and columnist for the Newspaper
Public Opinion. He later died on March 6th,
1997 in Kingston Jamaica.
 Robert Nesta Marley
Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican singer,
songwriter, and musician. Considered one of
the pioneers of reggae. He was born on
February 6th, 1945 at a farm in Nine Mile,
Saint Ann, Jamaica, to Norval Sinclair Marley
a white Jamaican from Clarendon, whose
family claimed to have Syrian Jewish origins
and Cedella Malcolm. His contributions to
music increased the visibility of Jamaican
music worldwide, and made him a global
figure in popular culture for over a decade. In
1977, Marley was diagnosed with acral
lentiginous melanoma which was a result of
his death on May 11, 1981, in Miami Florida.
 Richard Ho Lung
Richard Ho Lung was mostly known for being one of the main
founders of the ‘Missionaries of the Poor’. He was born on
September 17, 1939, on the island in Richmond, St Mary. His
parents were Chinese both born in Hong Kong but traveled to
Jamaica as immigrants. He was educated by the Franciscan
sisters in Kingston and then by the Jesuits at St George’s
College. He after joined the Society of Jesus, the most
respected of religious orders and certainly the most
intellectually acclaimed in the Roman Catholic Church. He
taught at St. George’s College, at the University of the West
Indies and at Boston College in the USA. On July 19, 1981,
Richard Ho Lung started the Brothers of the Poor (BOP).
Hayden Augustine, Gregory Ramkissoon, and Brian Kerr were
the first to join. Ho Lung, sharing his vision of dedicating their
lives for the poor. Together they set about the task of sharing
and relying only on God’s love. Fr. Ho Lung stepped down
from his leadership role in 2014 and was succeeded by Brother
Augusto Silot.
 Ralston Milton Nettleford
Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford was a Jamaican
scholar, past student of Cornwall College, social critic,
choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the
University of the West Indies (UWI). He was born on
February 3, 1933 in Falmouth, Jamaica. He attended
Unity Primary School in Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, and
graduated from Cornwall College in Montego Bay,
Jamaica. As a child he would sing and recite in school
concerts, sang in the church choir, danced, and began
working as a choreographer at the age of 11 with the
Worm Chambers Variety Troupe, which helped to fund
his studies. His mother was Labertha Palmer. On
January 27, 2010, he was admitted to the George
Washington Hospital, Washington D.C., after suffering
from a heart attack, he was in a coma for several days
then later succumbed to his medical condition on
February 2, 2010.
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley
Donald Burns Sangster
Edward Phillip George Seaga
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.