About Colonel C.L.G. Harris, LLD (Hon.)

Birth Year: 1917
Birth Place: Moore Town, Jamaica
Education: Mico Teachers College

Senator C. L. G. Harris initiated an action in the Jamaican Parliament in the 1970s, arguing that Nanny, the great 18th century Maroon leader, should be officially honoured. As a direct result of that eloquent, masterful motion, Prime Minister Michael Manley ordered historical research led by Professor Kamau Brathwaite. The findings resulted in the recognition of Akeompong (Grandy Nanny) as Jamaica’s 7th National Hero.

One notable poet’s definition of good poetry is “it should make the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end.” In rippling passages of The Chieftainess, Glimpses of Grandy Nanny, Colonel Harris brings several gripping battlefield encounters to life with flowing, flawless verse. C. L. G. Harris—Educator, Colonel, and Senator—recaptures events of the Nanny era: challenges faced by the Maroons and their series of scintillating military conquests over highly trained British forces.

C. L. G. Harris has written dozens of poems and short stories published in The Jamaica Daily Gleaner (1945-1998). After becoming Colonel of the Windward Maroons (1964), he represented Jamaica as senator at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 1973 at Westminster (UK).

His awards include: Distinguished Graduate (Mico College); Badge of Honour (Meritorious); Jamaica Observer Distinguished Community Service Award 1996; Keys to West Palm Beach, Florida, 1969; Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD), University of the West Indies, 2006.