Francine Black, Staff Reporter

Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart making a presentation. - Nathaniel Stewart

Dr Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart is widely admired for his rise from poor beginnings to achieving a PhD, but this is not what he considers to be his greatest achievement. Instead, it's his acceptance of himself.

"My greatest accomplishment is reaching a point where I am absolutely comfortable with who I am. A lot of Jamaicans are not at ease with themselves. They have to struggle with bleaching and meeting all sorts of world views," he said.

An astrophysicist

This new-found comfort has made him stronger. "It is incredibly powerful. I actually believe that if I set out to become an astrophysicist, I could do it and no one could stop me," Stewart said.

He wasn't always comfortable with himself and he got into a lot of trouble trying to attain the things required by the society. Born in Kingston, Stewart grew up in a 'ghetto' area, but he said it was not all bad being there. "Well it was a mixture of good and bad," he said

Some of the good times he described were going to church and spending time in Mile Gully, St Mary during his summers. Although he was poor, his mother placed a strong emphasis on education. "No matter wah reach mi, I had to go to school. I remember my mother tek out an iron put it pan coal stove and iron mi uniform. When hole inna mi shoes, she put duck tape on it cause I had to go to school," he said.

Growing up in the ghetto made it almost impossible for him to avoid getting 'mixed-up'. Stewart said he was exposed to gunmen and felt proud when they showed him their weapons and even allowed him to hold them. "I felt very proud when them ask me to clean their guns," he said.

He noted that having a weapon, made him feel like a man even though he was quite young. This was only the beginning to the troublesome path on which he would venture.

Jailed several times

He was thrown in jail several times as a teen after being caught shoplifting and even ended up in places of safety. Stewart stole items such as toothpaste, lotion and books. In jail he remembers being ruffed up by other inmates who made him do things such as sing lullabies and nursery rhymes, crow like rooster and even be the ashtray for their cigarettes.

Ironically the first time he was thrown into the Half-Way Tree lock-up; it was for stealing a book to read. "The first time mi go (Half-Way Tree) jail I was in a pharmacy reading a book and di time come fi mi go home, but mi decide say no sah dissa book too sweet, mi nah go home without it. Suh mi tek it and dem ketch mi, " he said.

When he was thrown into jail, no one knew he was there, but lucky for him he saw someone who had access to a phone. Stewart asked the person to call a particular teacher he knew and to tell him to contact his family.

'Woman' he did not know

But the teacher did more than just call his family, he also contacted a lawyer, Hillary Phillips and asked her to represent him. On the day of court, Stewart was surprised to see this 'woman' he did not know pleading with the judge on his behalf. Thanks to her persistence, he was released and his record wiped clean.

When he finally met the lawyer, she said the words that pushed Stewart to finally turn his life around. She said; "you see people believe in you. It is time to believe in yourself."

The statement made the then 20-year-old Stewart re-evaluate his life before deciding to turn it around. Soon after, an opportunity came up for him to go abroad and he went on a work programme and also to university.

While he was abroad, Stewart continued to be tested in his life, but he managed to persevere. In 1993 he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology/African Studies from the Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

He then went on to pursue a masters degree at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut in Educational Psychology: Counselling and Psychotherapy with a concentration in cross-cultural counselling. He received this degree in 1995 and in May 2001 he received his PhD in Anthropology from the said university.

Now Stewart inspires other people through his various jobs as a talk show host and a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.

He said he also motivates others through workshops and everyday conversation, something he said is important. "Most of the help I received is as a consequence of the way that I have been helpful to others. So people should help others because it doesn't come back the way you expect it to come back, but it comes back in other ways," he said.