REV JOHN WESLEY KNIGHT A MISSIONARY 
REV. DR. JOHN WESLEY KNIGHT – A CANADIAN MISSIONARY WHO UNSELFISHLY SERVED HIS BLACK ADOPTED BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN ST. ANN, JAMAICA
By Winston Donald, Kingston , Jamaica (Pending MA in Cultural studies)
Class, colour and race have defined Jamaica. The majority black Jamaicans are ever reminded of our past not by institutions but by the power relations that permeate our socio-economic and cultural space.
Yet in our history the people of colour are and were those who represented colonizers , settlers and abusers of our humanity but strangely at times produce individuals who made an indelible impression on our lives and have served with love and call beyond duty.
Not many Jamaicans knew of Dr. John Wesley Knight but those of us who are Baptists, especially Independent Baptists, knew of Knight’s connection to the Dry Harbour Mountain villages of Clarksonville, Aboukir, Cedar Valley, Thatch Walk, Campbell’s Land, Aburthnot, Cave Valley, and Northern Clarendon villages of Mt. Moriah, John Reid, Aenon Town, Anderson Town , Bog Hole and Wild Cane. And those of my generation who hold conservative Baptist values fondly remembered a man who walked with the people, talked to the people and dwelled among the people.
Dr. Knight a native of the Stoufville area of Ontario came as a young man to Jamaica in 1929 and became immersed in the culture of the citizens of South Western St. Ann. Can you imagine? , a white man who any pregnant woman could at any hour of the night call upon to take her to the local Alexandria Hospital to have her child delivered. Can you also imagine a white man who would stop his car to give a ride to a Civil servant , a teacher, a housewife, a student or a farmer if that person request a ride by flagging him down on the main road, arterial road or highway.
Knight as a foreigner living among Jamaicans was not scared to get his hands dirty He was a productive farmer engaging in digging the red “dirt” of the bauxite
By Winston Donald, Kingston , Jamaica (Pending MA in Cultural studies)
Class, colour and race have defined Jamaica. The majority black Jamaicans are ever reminded of our past not by institutions but by the power relations that permeate our socio-economic and cultural space.
Yet in our history the people of colour are and were those who represented colonizers , settlers and abusers of our humanity but strangely at times produce individuals who made an indelible impression on our lives and have served with love and call beyond duty.
Not many Jamaicans knew of Dr. John Wesley Knight but those of us who are Baptists, especially Independent Baptists, knew of Knight’s connection to the Dry Harbour Mountain villages of Clarksonville, Aboukir, Cedar Valley, Thatch Walk, Campbell’s Land, Aburthnot, Cave Valley, and Northern Clarendon villages of Mt. Moriah, John Reid, Aenon Town, Anderson Town , Bog Hole and Wild Cane. And those of my generation who hold conservative Baptist values fondly remembered a man who walked with the people, talked to the people and dwelled among the people.
Dr. Knight a native of the Stoufville area of Ontario came as a young man to Jamaica in 1929 and became immersed in the culture of the citizens of South Western St. Ann. Can you imagine? , a white man who any pregnant woman could at any hour of the night call upon to take her to the local Alexandria Hospital to have her child delivered. Can you also imagine a white man who would stop his car to give a ride to a Civil servant , a teacher, a housewife, a student or a farmer if that person request a ride by flagging him down on the main road, arterial road or highway.
Knight as a foreigner living among Jamaicans was not scared to get his hands dirty He was a productive farmer engaging in digging the red “dirt” of the bauxite