KINGSTON, Jamaica — Reggae artiste Ras Ash 1st has started an online petition to establish controversial Pan-Africanist Alexander Bedward as a national hero. 

“Bedward should be a national hero, he is an international father of Pan-Africanism. 

A hero’s blood must be shed for the survival of a people and beyond. Alexander Bedward’s blood was shed for the cause, and he is the founder of the creative spirit of freedom. He is the spiritual essence which freed Marcus Garvey, so that singers and players of instruments have a voice, a purpose to speak because Garvey understood what Bedward taught in the blood,” declared the reggae artiste.

Bedward was a preacher of Jamaican Revivalism and leader of the Jamaica Native Baptist Free Church in the early 1900s. 

“I have 47 signatures already. Sizzla agrees with the approach as well. He has not signed the petition yet but both his sisters have signed,” Ras Ash 1st said. 

Bedward is a controversial figure whose name is often mentioned with ridicule, and tales are shared about his supposed attempt to fly, his arrest in 1921 and his subsequent incarceration at an asylum until his death. Not much is articulated about his contribution to national development.

Ras Ash 1st believes that the reggae legend Bob Marley would be an advocate of Bedward being conferred with national hero status.

“Bedward can’t be compared with Bob. If Bob were alive,  he would join me in spirit and truth and recognise that Bedward inspired Marcus to teach so Bob could sing what Marcus had thought. Bob too has his place in the heavens,” said Ras Ash 1st. 

Continuing, he said “I have many brothers in the Rastafari community who are really making the same call. Bedward is Rasta, Rasta is Bedward,” he said. 

Despite the passion of Rash Ash 1st, Bedward remains a polarising figure in popular culture. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer last year, retired Senior Superintendent of Police, Reneto Adams, used Bedward as an example of how some Jamaicans have always been obsequious towards religious leaders in the wake of events that led to the deaths of three persons in a church led by the late cult pastor Kevin O Smith.

“He (Bedward) would woo all his members and force them to gather up a lot of people. And the members, it’s white that they used to dress in, and he told them about the coming of the Lord,” Adams said at the time.

Events set in motion at Smith’s Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministry in St James led to the throats of two members being slashed during a ritual. A third person was killed in a confrontation with the police, who said they were fired upon as they approached the premises on Sunday, October 17.

Adams recalled that Bedward, who was based in August Town, St Andrew told his followers to sell their possessions, including owned land, and give him all the profits. He also convinced some 30,000 loyal supporters that they could fly back to Africa if they climbed a breadfruit tree in the community. In demonstrating this to the people, he fell and broke his legs and had to be hospitalised.

But Ras Ash 1st who hails from August Town demanded an apology from Adams and shot down what he dubbed this “false narrative” which he claimed was crafted by the colonial oppressors to suppress the truth about Bedward’s doctrines. 

Ras Ash called on the society to support the petition of Bedward to become a national hero. 

“I am asking the assistance of the minister of culture, Members of Parliament, persons of influence within high and low places, to help restore something which was once lost. For too long, we have allowed the oppressors to write our stories. We need to reclaim our heritage and expunge the record of Sir Alexander Bedward, and make him a national hero who died in the struggle to free the minds of black people,” he said.