Jacqueline Creft
Photo: The House on CoCo Road
Country: Grenada
Location: Grenada
About
Jacqueline Creft (1946 – October 19, 1983) was a Grenadian revolutionary activist and leader of the New Jewel Movement and was the Minister of Education in the People's Revolutionary Government. She was assassinated in 1983 along with her husband and fellow revolutionary, Maurice Bishop.
Biography of Jaedyn Griddine
Photo of Jacqueline Creft. Photo Credit: Jacqueline Creft Collection.
Jacqueline Creft was born into a middle-class family on November 28, 1946; though she was born in St. George’s, she was raised in Tivoli, St Andrews, Grenada. She had four siblings: Colleen, Michael, Claudette and Selwyn. She was darker than all her siblings, which led her to become aware of colorism early in her life.
From a young age, Creft set her sights on improving the conditions of her people through education. After studying Sociology and Political Science at St. Patrick’s College, Creft began her teaching career at an all boys’ school, where she taught her students consciousness and progressive ideas, though, officially, she was an English teacher. She returned to school, this time at Carleton University in Canada, where she was politically enriched by the Black Power movement, which she later joined. This is where Creft met fellow radical Maurice Bishop; the two began a romantic relationship, and she gave birth to their son Vladimir-named after Vladimir Lenin-in 1977. Vladimir was a child of the revolution, led by Bishop’s New Jewel Movement (NJM), which successfully installed the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) two years later in 1979.
Creft was essentially a founding sister of the NJM, as she was an early affiliate due to her radical beliefs. Bishop became the PRG’s first Prime Minister, and Creft the Minister of Education, making her the PRG’s first female minister. Before that, though, she was one of the first women appointed by the Caribbean Council of Churches (CCC) to work in youth development when she was made regional coordinator with the Christian Action for Development in the Eastern Caribbean (CADEC), a branch of the CCC. She held a rather large position, being responsible for Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Guyana; her position led her to form cooperative relationships across the Caribbean with Merle Hodge, Andaiye and Peggy Antrobus.
With women and youth empowerment in her sights, Creft set out on a literacy campaign; through the Centre for Popular Education, several literacy programs were launched, including: a reading and writing program that improved the literacy of over 1,000 (mainly female) individuals, a teaching program for all genders to learn Grenadian culture and consciousness, and a training program that targeted a variety of fields, such as farming, public service and nursing. Creft also instituted free secondary education. With these programs, Creft acted as a significant impetus for the mobilization of Grenadians after the revolution, which strengthened the newly-freed country. She remained committed to bringing social justice, working class and women’s empowerment, and cultural consciousness to her people until her untimely assassination in 1983.
Women were often discounted from revolutionary theorizing and mobilization; Creft herself recognized a double-standard in which radical men were seen as politically powerful, while radical women were often ignored. Creft’s work was extremely important, and though she attempted to keep a neglected women’s population vigilant and engaged, her efforts ultimately weren’t enough to prevent an extreme lack of women’s engagement in the revolutionary state. Creft is remembered as a figurehead for radical leadership; she held many important titles, though she is popularly reduced to the titles of “Maurice Bishop’s partner” or “Vladimir’s mother”.
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