Len Garrison

Lenford Alphonso (Kwesi) Garrison
A clay model - work in progress - for a bronze bust commissioned by the BCA from Fowokan
Born	(1943-06-13)13 June 1943 Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica
Died	18 February 2003(2003-02-18) (aged 59) Brixton, London, England
Known for	ACER (Afro-Caribbean Educational Resource), Black Cultural Archives (BCA)
Medical career
Profession	Educationalist and historian
Specialism	Black British Identity
Research	Rastafari and Identity

Lenford Alphonso (Kwesi) Garrison (13 June 1943 – 18 February 2003) was an educationalist and historian whose life's work was to catalogue the development of the black British identity and its history and promote the works of young black writers. To this end, he set up ACER (Afro-Caribbean Education Resource) and co-founded the Black Cultural Archives.

Len Garrison was born in St Thomas, Jamaica. His father, Ernest Samuel Garrison — a cabinet maker born in Hopewell, Hanover — and mother, Albertha Adassa Garrison, a school teacher born in Somerset, St Andrew, migrated to Britain in 1952 and 1953 respectively, and Len joined them there in west London in 1954 shortly before the birth of the first of his British siblings, sister Janet in May 1954. This was followed by the birth of his brothers, Owen (b. July 1955), Albert (b. October 1957) and Michael (b. November 1959).

Garrison's early training was as a photographer, a passion from his childhood, which he studied at King's College London. He went on to become a specialist medical photographer at Guy's Hospital, as well as an active freelance photographer for the West Indian Gazette. His educationalist training began in 1971 when he attended Ruskin College, gaining a diploma in development studies. He later gained a BA at the University of Sussex in African history and Caribbean history, then went on to an MA in local history from Leicester University.

In 1987 he married his wife Marie, and they had a son, Tunde, born 10 December 1990.

Following his degree from Sussex, Garrison was invited to represent Britain at FESTAC - the Festival of Arts and Culture in Nigeria in 1977 (Festac Town), where his presentation was based on his dissertation on the Rastafarian movement that he had written while at Ruskin College. Ansel Wong's brief biography of Garrison in the opening of Garrison's book of poetry, Beyond Babylon, reveals that the dissertation was subsequently developed into a book, now in its second reprint — Black Youth Rastafarianisim and Identity Crisis in Britain.