Jacqueline Creft
Jacqueline Creft was a Grenadian politician, one of the leaders of the revolutionary New Jewel Movement and Minister of Education in the People's Revolutionary Government from 1980 to 1983. She was executed in October 1983, along with Maurice Bishop, prime minister of the country and father of her son Vladimir.
Biography
Early years of militancy of exile
Jacqueline Creft studied political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and returned to Grenada at the end of 1971. She became involved in the revolutionary struggle early on, and was already participating in the New Jewel Movement from its beginning. In January 1973, she was among those who led an unprecedented protest against the British aristocrat Lord Brownlow, when he erected a gate on his estate of La Sagesse, denying the community its traditional privileges of access to the beach and use of the pastures. The protest was organized by members of JEWEL, including Maurice Bishop.In 1976 and 1977, Creft resided in Trinidad and Tobago, where she was the regional coordinator for youth affairs within Christian Action for Development in the Eastern Caribbean, a branch of the Caribbean Conference of Churches, until the government of Eric Williams banned her from the country. She returned to Grenada in 1977, but the government of Prime Minister Eric Gairy refused to give her work "as I was a new mother", Jacqueline complained.
On 4 December 1977, Creft's son Vladimir was born. She then travelled to Barbados with the organization Women and Development. She returned to Grenada to participate in the revolution of 13 March 1979.
The challenge of transforming the education system
In January 1980, Creft was appointed Minister of Education of the People's Revolutionary Government. She coordinated the Volunteer School Repair programs and was in charge of Cuban scholarships. The revolution was especially committed to the construction of more schools and the eradication of illiteracy. Creft was dedicated to the transformation of the educational system inherited from colonialism, with the challenge of making it relevant to the population, and making education a right rather than a privilege.The speeches of the People's Revolutionary Government, in the First International Conference of Solidarity with Grenada in November 1981, included "The construction of mass education in Free Grenada", by Minister of Education Jacqueline Creft.
In June 1982 Creft created, and was placed in charge of, the Ministry of Women's Affairs. The secretary of that ministry was Phyllis Coard, wife of Bernard Coard, who would later overthrow Bishop and execute him, along with Creft herself.
Creft left the party's leadership in November 1982, after having been active in it since its founding. In March 1983, Creft was demoted from candidate member to applicant member, though the reasons for this are not clear. According to writer David Franklyn, the situation was related to internal disputes in the movement between Bishop and Bernard Coard. The movement professed that the government would have co-leaders, but Bishop, though initially accepting and appointing Coard as vice president, changed his position and criticized Creft's support of Coard. The opposing faction, moreover, accused Bishop of sowing rumours that Coard planned to assassinate him.
Execution
In the tense days of early October 1983, Creft met in private with Maurice Bishop, being one of the few that visited him. When Bishop was placed under house arrest on 12 October 1983, at his home in Mount Wheldale, she went to visit him the next day. Security warned her that if she saw him, she would be arrested. According to reports, she accepted this.At midday on 19 October 1983, a student from the Grenada Boys' Secondary School, Thomas Cadore, led a group that surrounded the Mount Wheldale house where Bishop was confined and released him and Creft. Bishop was led to Fort Rupert by a crowd celebrating his release, and Creft decided to follow him. The army, under the command of General Hudson Austin, took action against Bishop's supporters. They arrested the leader and several members of his government and followers, including Creft, lined them up against a wall, and shot them.
In December 1986, 14 people were convicted of murder, and three of manslaughter – the so-called Grenada 17 – for their role in the killings. Death sentences were given for the murder charges, but these were subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. In 2008 and 2009, all of the remaining prisoners were released.