Tribute to Sister Ijahnya Christian The worldwide Pan-African Movement suffered a tremendous loss on Monday 27th April 2020 when Sister Ijahnya Christian — one of our Movement’s most highly accomplished and respected leaders and elders — left this earthly realm and joined the ancestors. At the time of her passing Sister Ijahnya held the important posts (and responsibilities) of Executive Officer of the Caribbean Rastafari Organization (CRO) and Executive Officer of the newly established Rastafari Continental Council — the umbrella body for all Rastafari organizations of the continent of Africa.
Sis Ijahnya was also an Executive member of the Caribbean Pan African Network from its inception in 2004 until her migration to Ethiopia in 2010. She represented the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation and the island of Anguilla Sister Ijahnya was simply a phenomenal African woman who exemplified the very best of the Pan-African ideal! The Pan-African journey of the originally named Carol Patricia Rey began in 1957 with her birth in the then tristate British colony of St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla — three small Caribbean islands, the African-based heritage and culture of which, she would ultimately research and develop deep scholarly insights.
In the 1970s, she evolved in the direction of Rastafarianism, converted to the faith in 1980, adopted the name of Ijahnya Christian and travelled outward from her Anguillan home to Jamaica and the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, where she pursued and attained a degree in Social Work. Thereafter, her journey took her to Southampton University in the United Kingdom for a Master’s Degree in Education and it is there that she first experienced the European component of the African Diaspora.
No doubt, as a Rastafarian guided by the biblical prophecy that “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God”, and a believer in the divinity of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie, it was inevitable that this dedicated daughter would one day repatriate to the African mother continent. And that day came in the year 2010, when our sister migrated to Ethiopia, where she established her home and performed invaluable work for the members of the Rastafarian settlement of Sheshamane. Thereafter, Sister Ijahnya headed southwards to the Republic of South Africa, and to her pioneering work as a driving force behind the establishment of the Rastafari Continental Council and the organizing of several international gatherings of members of the Rastafari faith. Needless-to-say, throughout all of Sister Ijahnya’s evolutions and migrations, she maintained a strong connection with the Caribbean. This region of the African Diaspora was — after all — the place where she served as a High School teacher, newspaper columnist, researcher and scholar, cultural activist and public intellectual over a span of some twenty-six years.
It was also in the Caribbean that she carried out crucial work both as a founder-member / architect of the Caribbean Rastafari Organization (CRO) and as a key leader of the Caribbean Pan-African Network (CPAN). Over and above the many duties that Sister Ijahnya performed, there was also her exemplary personal example and her infectious energy and spirit! Without a doubt, she constituted a towering example of the best of our Pan-African Civilisation — an individual in whom the elements of Caribbean humanity and culture, Ethiopia, Rastafari and Black Consciousness had coalesced to form a truly unique and outstanding personality. Our Sister Ijahnya was brilliant and enterprising, yet always humble and caring. Natural, down-to-earth, disciplined, dependable, classy, elegant and “royal” in how she presented herself — just a beautiful African sister! Our Sister will be greatly missed and will live on in the collective memories and spirits of our people for many, many years to come! We, the officers and members of the Caribbean Pan African Network hereby extend our deepest condolences to Sister Ijahnya’s children and to other members of her immediate family as well as to the members of her world-wide Rastafari family.