Jamaican scholar dies in the US
AMAICAN anthropologist, author and theologian, the Reverend Dr Leonard E Barrett Snr has died. He was 83 years old.
He passed away on June 7, at his home in Pennsylvania in the United States, after suffering several strokes. He was surrounded by his family.
Jamaica’s consul-general to New York, Dr Basil K Bryan, extended his condolences to bereaved family and friends for the loss of “one of Jamaica’s native sons”.
“His life and work stand as a shining example of the great contribution that our people have made on the world’s stage. His legacy will live on for generations to come,” Dr Bryan said.
Born in St Elizabeth, Dr Barrett migrated to the United States in the 1940s, to study history and philosophy at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He then went on to Temple University in Philadelphia, where he completed graduate work in African History.
In addition to obtaining a second Masters degree, this time in divinity from the United Theological Seminary in Ohio, Dr Barrett returned to Temple where he successfully attained a doctorate in comparative religion and anthropology.
The author of several books, Dr Barrett’s major works include The Rastafarians: Sounds of Cultural Dissonance; The Sun and the Drum: African Roots in Jamaican Folk Tradition and Soul Force – African Heritage in Afro-American Religion. In 1977, Soul Force was nominated by Doubleday Press as the most outstanding publication in the United States in the area of Religion and Philosophy. In addition, he has written over 71 articles, which have been published in a variety of journals and anthologies and presented at numerous symposiums.
As an educator, Dr Barrett was headmaster of Bethel College in Jamaica and also taught for two years at the Inter-American University in Puerto Rico. He also held full professorships at Trinity College in Connecticut and at Temple College in Philadelphia.
Dr Barrett declined full professorships at Yale and Harvard universities to remain at his beloved Temple University.
He was also the first Jamaican to pastor an interracial congregation at Trinity Evangelical United Brethren Church in the Germantown area of Philadelphia.
Dr Barrett is survived by three children and two grandchildren. The funeral service took place at the Janes United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania on June 13.
