Claiming Garvey and Rastafari

Cooper

Carolyn Cooper, Contributor

“Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.” That’s one of my favourite quotes from the phenomenal archive of Marcus Garvey’s visionary mind. Some of us are still bearing the burdens of ignorance. We refuse to rule our own world intelligently.

Last week’s column, ‘Reading and Writhing’, provoked the usual gut reaction from readers whose English comprehension skills are rather poor. My sister, Donnette, did warn me. She suggested that I highlight ‘both’ and ‘and’ in this sentence: ‘The Ministry of Education must now ensure that every single child is given the opportunity to talk and write in both English and Jamaican.’

I purposely disregarded my sister’s advice, breezily asking her, “Den dem coulda fool enough fi tink seh mi no want di pikni dem learn English?” After all, I do teach English for a living. As it turns out, yes, dem fool enough. Some people seem to feel that the brain is like a coconut. If you full it up with one language, there’s no room left for others. So teaching literacy in Jamaican must mean that students won’t be able to learn English.

Then there’s the short-sighted claim that the Jamaican language has ‘geographical limitations,’ according to Ms Robertson in a very ‘speaky-spoky’ letter to the editor. ‘Nothing no go so’. Languages travel with their speakers. And there’s no place on Earth where you won’t find a Jamaican. Our mother tongue is a global language, just like reggae music. Ask the Japanese converts to Jamaican culture who don’t even know English. But they speak Jamaican.

‘Stop draw Jamaica small’

Another reader authoritatively declared that ‘English is the most widely spoken language.’ No. It’s Mandarin Chinese. Wikipedia lists Jamaican Creole in the group of languages with one to 10 million native speakers, giving a 2001 estimate of 3.2 million.

That outdated figure obviously doesn’t take into account the Jamaican diaspora and second language learners of Jamaican from other cultures. I estimate five million speakers, putting Jamaican in the same category as Hebrew, Danish, Norwegian, Swahili, Slovak, Gikuyu and Mongolian.

So there’s no need for us to ‘small up’ ourselves and our mother tongue. Louise Bennett, Jamaica’s premier cultural activist, tried her best to liberate us from the prison of self-doubt. Miss Mattie, one of the many outspoken characters created by Miss Lou, humorously declares:

She hope dem caution worl-map

Fi stop draw Jamaica small

For de lickle speck cyaan show

We independantness at all.

Moresomever we must tell map

We don’t like we position -

Please kindly teck we out a sea

An draw we in de ocean.

I’ll never be able to convince some people that Jamaican is a valuable language. I take consolation in another Marcus Garvey quotation: “God and nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.” This could easily be translated into Jamaican. But I don’t want to stress those people who have such a hard time reading and writhing!

This week, we celebrate the 123rd anniversary of the birth of the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey. On August 17, Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey hosts an open house and cultural fair dubbed, ‘Harambee.’ That Swahili word means ‘all pull together.’

Liberty Hall also launches the Marcus Garvey lecture today at 4 p.m. Professor Verene Shepherd will speak on ‘Marcus Garvey and the Education of People of African Descent in a Post-Colonial Society’. The venue is the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica auditorium at 36 Trafalgar Road. It’s a pity that the event has gone uptown; but I gather that there are good technical reasons for not using Liberty Hall. The quality of sound recording in the open-sided great hall is not ideal.

Rastafari Studies Conference

Marcus Garvey would certainly endorse another major cultural event this week: the inaugural Rastafari Studies conference hosted by the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The theme is ‘Negotiating the African Presence: Rastafari Livity and Scholarship’.

The conference is the brainchild of Dr Jahlani Niaah, who considered it imperative to commemorate the publication in 1960 of the far-reaching Report on the Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica. Co-authored by social anthropologist M.G. Smith, historian Roy Augier, and cultural critic Rex Nettleford, the high-level report, published by the then University College of the West Indies, confirmed the central role of academics as public intellectuals engaging with the pressing issues of the day.

Revolutionary Marcus Garvey had long advocated a daring conception of God that is celebrated by Rastafari: “If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. If the yellow man’s God is of his race, let him worship his God as he sees fit. We, as Negroes, have found a new ideal. Whilst our God has no colour, yet it is human to see everything through one’s own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles.

“The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, let Him exist for the race that believes in the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, the One God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship Him through the spectacles of Ethiopia.”

Liberated from mental slavery, Garvey was able to envision an all-embracing plurality of gods. Refusing to bear the psychological burdens of the white man’s greedy god, Garvey created out of his own genius an ideology of emancipation that Rastafari affirms. As a nation, are we prepared to claim Garvey and Rastafari?

Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a public intellectual specialising in cultural enterprise management. She is founder and director of the Global Reggae Studies Centre, a private- sector initiative. Send feedback to or .

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Spear and the Garvey factor

Garvey

Burning Spear

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Today marks the 123rd year of pan-African leader Marcus Garvey's birth. It is also 35 years since Burning Spear recorded 'Marcus Garvey', one of the seminal albums of popular music.

Singer Winston 'Burning Spear' Rodney was cooling out at the Key Largo Beach in his hometown of St Ann's Bay in 1975 when he ran into Lawrence Lindo, a sound system operator popularly known as Jack Ruby. Their meeting was pivotal.

In a 1999 interview, Spear said Ruby spoke of his admiration for his work at the famed Studio One and expressed a desire to work with him. Ruby, who reportedly had ties to the illegal drug trade, said he would put up the funds to record the singer's debut album.

Spear agreed, and in a matter of weeks, he and back-up singers Rupert Wellington and Delroy Hines were at Randy's studio in downtown Kingston, where Ruby had assembled several of Jamaica's top musicians to record Marcus Garvey, a passionate homage to the country's first National Hero.

Bobby Ellis was one of those musicians. During a 2003 interview, he hailed Spear's ode to a forgotten hero.

"There was nobody talking 'bout Garvey at the time even though everybody was into black consciousness," Ellis recalled. "Spear felt Garvey was the right man for the times because that's what he stood for, black consciousness."

Born in 1887, Garvey was also a St Ann's Bay native. He left Jamaica in the 1900s and eventually ended up in Harlem, New York which had become a mecca for black thinkers like writers Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

Fraud charges

Garvey became a leader of the Harlem Renaissance but, hounded by United States law enforcement, he was imprisoned on dubious fraud charges, then deported to Jamaica. He died from a stroke in London in June 1940.

His body was exhumed and shipped to Jamaica in November 1964. He was also officially recognised as a National Hero.

Spear, who took his moniker from Kenyan freedom fighter Jomo Kenyatta, had been inspired by Garvey's teachings. His early recordings were done for producer Clement 'Coxson' Dodd at Studio One, but though songs like Door Peep, Swell Headed, Foggy Road and The Sun were well received, they were not big sellers.

With little happening for his career, he retreated to St Ann's Bay. Four years after leaving Kingston, he met the jocular Ruby who was eyeing a new career as a producer.

At the time, roots-reggae was taking off internationally through Bob Marley, another St Ann-born singer/songwriter. Most of the musicians who worked on Marcus Garvey had done session work, or toured, with Marley.

They included guitarists Tony Chin and Earl 'Chinna' Smith of the Soul Syndicate Band; bass players Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare; keyboardists Tyrone Downie, Earl 'Wya' Lindo and Bernard 'Touter' Harvey.

The drummer was Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace while the horn section was completed by saxophonists Richard 'Dirty Harry' Hall and Herman Marquis, and trombonist Vin Gordon.

Ellis remembers the Marcus Garvey sessions taking three weeks to complete.

He says they were special.

"It was great, yuh know, everybody was striving for excellence in those days," he explained. "Spear is more of a chanter an' he doesn't use a lot of words, so that gives the musician an opportunity to express themselves."

Marcus Garvey was a revelation. It included the title track, Old Marcus Garvey, Slavery Days and Tradition, militant songs which introduced Spear to an audience that follows him to this day.

The album was picked up for distribution by Chris Blackwell's Island Records, and helped solidify reggae's emergence.

Garvey has been the unwavering focus of Burning Spear's music for over 35 years. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album and in 2007, was awarded the Order of Distinction (Jamaica's fifth highest civic honour) for his contribution to his country's music.

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I own this documentary for all those who it or own it as well. Thisis an addendum to the film made by his son.It is a must read in order to quell any misunderstandings.

Garvey’s Son Responds to PBS Film

“Marcus Garvey – Look For Me in The Whirlwind”

Letter 1: To the Editor of the Jamaica Gleaner

Dear Sir,
I would like to make some comments relative to the PBS documentary on Marcus Garvey, “Look for me in the Whirlwind”, that was shown at the Little Theatre in Kingston on February 20th.

My two major areas of criticism are (1) Factual inaccuracies and slanderous statements without even attempting to substantiate them and (2) The absence of any in-depth analysis of what Marcus Garvey stood for or was trying to do.

I will attempt to deal with some of the former that I consider to be of major importance.

(1) The early incident of Marcus Garvey being left in the grave is dramatized and the statement is made that his father was teaching him ‘Never to rely on anyone’. The incident is factual, but the reason given to me by my mother is that my grandfather was teaching Marcus not to be afraid of anything!

It may seem initially like a small difference, but it sets the stage for later gratuitous statements that Marcus Garvey was always alone, never confided in anyone, did not take advice and was dictatorial.

So right from the beginning we have psychodrama and psychohistory.

Incidentally the technique of leaving someone in a graveyard for an extended period of time is a well-known Tibetan Buddhist practice, used for centuries to test an initiate’s fearlessness and stability of mind.

(2) Statements that Amy Ashwood was the cofounder of the UNIA is an exaggeration in that Marcus Garvey returned from England to Jamaica on July 15th 1914 and within 5 days founded the UNIA.

It is unlikely that a 17-year-old girl had the vision to be anything more than an early member.

It is said that Amy Ashwood’s mother did not consider Marcus Garvey the right type of person for her daughter to date, as he did not have a solid income. Well at this point he was a world traveler, a master printer, a journalist and the founder of an organization that had her daughter as one of fifteen members of the “board of management”. Incidentally, both Amy Ashwood’s mother and brother were on the UNIA payroll.

Marcus Garvey was elected president and TRAVELLING COMMISSIONER of the UNIA at its founding.

I emphasize this latter with good reason. Incidentally both Amy Ashwood’s mother and brother were on the UNIA payroll.

(3) Marcus Garvey grossly mismanaged the funds of the organization and used them for his own purposes.

Again, not only is there no proof of this, but the opposite is true in that Marcus Garvey gave a public accounting of how the funds were used. At this early stage the organization was mostly uplift and philanthropy. It was a literary and debating society, did charitable work such as feeding and entertaining hundreds of poor and sick people, especially on Emancipation Day and at Christmas.

Garvey never ran away from Jamaica or left in a hurry. This was carefully planned and there are letters to Booker T. Washington and his successor, Moton, to prove that Garvey’s visit to the U.S. was to see Tuskegee Institute, which he viewed as a model industrial institute, and to raise funds for a similar institute and farm in Jamaica.

I think he was clearly carrying out his duties as TRAVELLING COMMISSIONER.

Also he never abandoned Amy Ashwood in Jamaica, as she had already left for Panama.

(4) Marcus Garvey is portrayed as being awed by the bright lights, richness and tall buildings of Harlem.

He had already had 4 years of world travel under his belt, 2 in the Caribbean (Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and 2 in Europe (England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy).

I do not think he was overly impressed with Harlem, New York, U.S.A.

He is said to have been so nervous at an early speaking engagement that he shook like a leaf and LITERALLY fell on his face.

Marcus Garvey even prior to leaving Jamaica in 1910 took part in debates and elocution contests and he trained himself in this area. He studied the speaking style of many ministers in Kingston, he spoke in public on many occasions in Costa Rica and Panama. He studied the speakers in London’s Hyde Park, at Speaker’s Corner. He participated himself. He also sat in the gallery of the House of Commons and studied the speakers there engaged in parliamentary debate.

He did not have to go to the U.S. to copy the speaking style of someone named Billy Sunday and he certainly would not have “shaken like a leaf”.

His topic, by the way was ‘Jamaica’ and the audience was largely West Indian.

As to literally ‘falling flat on his face’. This is an outright lie, as to fall flat on one’s face, one would have to be in an altered state of consciousness so that the normal defense mechanism of putting out one’s hands to break the fall would not be operational.

The one fact in all this is that Marcus Garvey fell off the platform while speaking on May 9th, 1916 at St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church Hall at 57 West 138th Harlem, N.Y.

How one gets from this one fact to the tissue of lies and fevered mental projections is quite a leap.

By the way he got up and continued his speech. He needed no medical attention for a broken nose, busted lip or bruised head as he would have done if he ‘literally fell flat on his face’ from the platform.

(5) Garvey is said to have been authoritarian, antidemocratic, naming himself and others with fancy titles, etc.

The UNIA was an organization with a constitution. Marcus Garvey was elected Provisional President of Africa by 25,000 delegates from all over the world at the first international convention of the Negro peoples of the world in N.Y. in 1920. He was opposed by Dr. Lewis from Nigeria, but he won the election.

Important matters relative to the objectives of the organization and how they should be carried out were discussed at convention and by the delegates in committee and the recommendations voted upon democratically by the delegates present. Not autocratically dictated by Marcus Garvey.

There were 8 such conventions. The first in 1920 and the last in 1938 in Toronto Canada. WWII started in 1939. Garvey died in 1940.

(6) He is said to have fired his lawyer and no reason is given for this except to say that Garvey wanted to impress the jury with his oratory.

The fact is that his lawyer wanted to plea bargain and Garvey refused, protesting his innocence and therefore fired him. Nevertheless he hired lawyers to advise him on court proceedings, as he pleaded his case.

He did this well enough to have a hung jury. At which time the presiding judge instructed the jury not to ‘turn the tiger loose’. They came back in 15 minutes with a guilty verdict.

The only piece of evidence was an empty envelope; the address was not in Marcus Garvey’s handwriting.

(7) A handbill is shown advertising and seeking subscriptions to buy a boat called the ‘Phyllis Wheatley’. This is said to be a gross misrepresentation, as the ship did not exist.

Well the ship did exist, and $20,000 had been paid down on it and the organization was raising funds to complete the purchase and rename the ship the ‘S.S. Phillis Wheatley’. The fist ship of the Black Star Line was the ‘Yarmouth’, renamed the ‘Frederick Douglas’. The third ship was the ‘Kenawha’, renamed the ‘Antonio Maceo’. The fourth ship was to be named the ‘Phillis Wheatley’ after Afro-Americas first female poet and one of its most celebrated.

How this can be called misrepresentation requires a wide stretch of the imagination.

(8) Finally, the last scene that was dramatized showing Garvey, ‘the failure, who had come down, in the world’, being stoned by children and walking toward a hovel, presumably his home.

A despicable lie. We lived at 53 Lady Musgrave Rd., St. Andrew from 1927 to 1937. My brother and I were both born there. The house still stands and was lived in by the Hendricks family and subsequently housed the Indian High Commission.

I do not need to tell a Jamaican readership of the many accomplishments of Marcus Garvey between 1927 and 1935 in Jamaica.

To end a documentary on Our 1st National Hero, Hero of the Americas and a Hero to millions of Africans, those at home and those abroad, climaxes the many distortions of fact, lies and character assassinations that are so numerous that I cannot include them all here.

One can only ask, Why?

Perhaps it is a situation of ‘who pays the piper calls the tune’.

I prefer to be charitable and say, ‘My father forgive them for they know not what they do’.

Sincerely,
Julius W. Garvey, M.D.

Letter 2: To The Editor of The Observer ( Jamaica)

I would like to make some comments relative to the PBS documentary on Marcus Garvey, “Look for me in the Whirlwind”, that was shown at the Little Theatre in Kingston on February 20th.

My criticism is twofold: (1) the film was rife with factual inaccuracies and slanderous innuendo and; (2) it lacked any real understanding of what Marcus Garvey stood for or was trying to do or what he ultimately achieved. I will attempt to deal briefly with the latter.

First was a sense of identity.

African people had the longest history and culture of all peoples and could be justly proud of same. They created the first civilizations in Africa, which were the prototypes of all others. Only recently in world history were we brought down from our pinnacle of civilization and enslaved.

Not withstanding European propaganda we were not subhuman, but we were once great and could be great again. As he said, “History is the landmark by which we are directed into the true course of life”. The history of a movement, of a nation, of a race is the guidepost of that movement’s destiny.

So we must know our history and our past accomplishments and that will give us the strength and courage to accomplish even more.

Second was self-reliance.

We do not need to depend on others for our own development, but must use our own intelligence and creative genius to solve the problems that we currently face and to determine our own agenda and hence our destiny.

He said, “Man is the individual who is able to shape his own character, master his own will, direct his own life and shape his own ends. Man is therefore the architect of his own fate and master of his own destiny.

Third was Unity and Nationhood.

A united people with a strong sense of identity had to have land where they could develop according to their own idealism. This was the basis of Nationhood.

He said, “Nationhood is the only means by which modern civilization can completely protect itself. Independence of Nationality, independence of government , is the means of protecting not only the individual, but the group. Nationhood is the highest ideal of all peoples”.

This is what he wished for African people.

This Pan-African Nation had to have a land base in Africa, (The Liberia Project).

It is only through Nationhood that African people could be supported and protected globally.

Fourth, only through a strong economic base could the above ideological framework be carried out. He said, “Every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a group of slaves. A race that is solely dependent upon another for its economic existence sooner or later dies.

Africans, where ever they were therefore (a) had to be in control of their resources and the means of production (b) Africans needed to constitute a trading block made up of those on the continent and those in the Diaspora.

Today numbering 600,000,000; (c) they also needed to control the means of transportation and the means of communication amongst each other.

Fifth, only those who had mastered the physical and psychological sciences would be able to prosper and dominate competitively in the future. Therefore education of all ages and in all locations was paramount. He said, “The battles of the future, whether they are physical or mental, will be fought on scientific lines and the race that is able to produce the highest scientific development, is the race that will ultimately rule.

The significant caveat for African people was that spirituality had to control the knowledge of and use of scientific developments. This was the only way to combat the evils of modern scientific materialism.

Sixth, one had to apply these principles pragmatically, depending on time and place and using one’s creative genius.

A host of solutions were put forth in the early 20th century that were needed at the time. (A) The weekly newspaper the, ‘Negro World’, published continuously from 1919 to 1933. The largest Negro weekly in the U.S.A. (B) The Negro Factories Corporation. Employing over 1,000 people in N.Y.C. alone. (C) The Black Star Line had four ships in all at a time when shipping was the means of transportation for raw materials and manufactured goods worldwide. (D) The Black Cross Nurses; (E) the African Orthodox Church; (F) the African Legion, etc.

Seventh, Garveyism represented a way of life that did not separate the spiritual from the secular and therefore represented an integrated view of man and indeed a New African Humanism based on the Father/Motherhood of God and the brother/sisterhood of woman/man.

God was a formless permanent, spiritual force that created the universe and everything in it and was both immanent and transcendent simultaneously.

In order to discuss or image God one had to resort to anthropomorphism. Each race, ethnic group or cultural entity could picture God in their own image.

This was necessary to make God, universal Love and human transformation towards perfection, relevant to a specific time and place on the material plane. Garvey thus wrestled God away from the white race and gave her to everybody.

Ninth, Garveyism was a Philosophy, Theology, Psychology and Social Action Plan and as such is timeless and can be applied by all peoples in any location.

A useful mantra for humankind is, One God ! One Aim! One Destiny! One Love!

Even though Garvey’s organizational structure was largely dismantled by J. Edgar Hoover, the Justice Department, 8 fulltime agents, countless informants and saboteurs, as well as internal dissension, the depression and the second world war, Garvey’s brand of Pan Africanism was resurgent by 1945.

Dubois had called my mother to ask who to invite to the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester. Both himself and Padmore had at this point given up on communism and acknowledged that Garvey was right.

Amy Ashwood Garvey was there, Jomo Kenyatta and other Africans that would lead many national liberation movements in Africa, were also present.

Nkrumah, Azikewe, Kenyatta, Lumumba, Nyerere, Mandela, have all attested to Garvey’s influence on their thinking and development of national consciousness.

In the U.S., Garvey is the father of all Nationalist Movements. El Hajj Malik el Shabazz (Malcolm X) was his most direct ideological disciple.

His influence as anti-colonial champion and on all political independence movements in the Caribbean is well known.

He is Jamaica’s first and most popular National Hero.

His bust rests in a prominent position in the Hall of Heroes of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C.

Marcus Garvey never set foot in Africa is well known, however my mother, his widow, Amy Jacques Garvey was invited by the government of Nigeria to attend the inaugural ceremonies of the installation of Dr. Nnamdi Azikewe as Governor-General in November 1960. This was a tribute to the memory of Marcus Garvey, who he considered a mentor.

She then went to Ghana as the guest of the government and was honored there. She met Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, King of Kings, Elect of God, and Lion of Judah.

The Emperor conferred on Dr. Nkrumah the Exalted Order of the Queen of Sheba, and he in turn conferred on the Emperor the Exalted Order of the Star of Africa, the Black Star.

So much for those who speak of Garvey’s megalomania and Penchant for Pomp.

I will close by quoting Frank Hill in the Daily Gleaner, 17th August 1960 under the caption-”The Prophet of Black Zionism”, he states in part; “What makes a man great? It is, I think, the universal quality of the contribution he makes to the civilization of his times. The accent is on the word universal, for the quality of his vision must be such as to be able to hold the attention of mankind, rather than mere isolated pockets of men grouped in special circumstances…..”

I agree with the attestation of Frank Hill to Garvey’s greatness and I am equally sure that he would agree with me that mediocrity cannot tarnish the brilliance of our shining Jamaican Black Star, MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY.

Sincerely,
Julius W. Garvey, M.D.

Many Rastafarians call Marcus Garvey the prophet of the movement because he predicted the rise to power of an Ithiopian Emperor who he said was to lead the Black Man to liberation. Many Rastas don’t know Garvey had serious issues with Selassie and his behavior and well as mistakes he made while in power. Dr Ben in the past also spoke of how disliked he was by some of the ethnic groups in Ithiopia he ill treated while in power(see his 2 works Black Man of the Nile and His Family and We the Black Jews for more.). This article is a paper written by Garvey himself addressing his gripes with H.I.M.

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man – London, March/April 1937

THE FAILURE OF HAILE SELASSIE AS EMPEROR

When the facts of history are written Haile Selassie of Abyssinia will go down as a great coward who ran away from his country to save his skin and left the millions of his countrymen to struggle through a terrible war that he brought upon them because of his political ignorance and his racial disloyalty.

It is a pity that a man of the limited intellectual calibre and weak political character like Haile Selassie became Emperor of Abyssinia at so crucial a time in the political history of the world. Unfortunately, Abyssinia lost the controlling influence of a political personality of patriotic racial character like the late Menelik, whose loyalty to his race and devotion to his country excelled all his other qualities, to the extent that he was able to use that very strength to continuously safeguard the interests of the Ethiopian Empire. What he did so well to preserve, a cringing, white slave hero worshipper, visionless and disloyal to his country, threw away. This is the impression the serious minded political student forms of the conduct of the ex-Emperor of Abyssinia.

EVERY NEGRO ASHAMED

Every Negro who is proud of his race must be ashamed of the way in which Haile Selassie surrendered himself to the white wolves of Europe. These statements may be considered very severe, and in fact, they are. We could have been otherwise apologetic and sympathetic, but that would have been only if we were dealing with a Coptic Priest or a Religious Monk and not a[n] Emperor who held and presided over the political trust of twelve million people of his own country, and the political destiny of the entire Negro race. This little misguided Emperor could not realise that he held in his hands the political trust of the hundreds of millions of Negroes of the world, men and women, who were looking up toward the firm establishment of political sovereignty, and that Ethiopia, like Liberia and Haiti were to them prizes of glory to be perpetuated and strengthened in the maintenance of the dignity of that black race that other men have claimed to be incompetent, inferior and unworthy, which every black man must disprove.

LOOKED WITH HOPE

When the war started in Abyssinia all Negro nationalists looked with hope to Haile Selassie. They spoke for him, they prayed for him, they sung for him, they did everything to hold up his hands, as Aaron did for Moses; but whilst the Negro peoples of the world were praying for the success of Abyssinia this little Emperor was undermining the fabric of his own kingdom by playing the fool with white men, having them advising him[,] having them telling him what to do, how to surrender, how to call off the successful thrusts of his Rases against the Italian invaders. Yes, they were telling him how to prepare his flight, and like an imbecilic child he followed every advice and then ultimately ran away from his country to England, leaving his people to be massacred by the Italians, and leaving the serious white world to laugh at every Negro and repeat the charge and snare – “he is incompetent,” “we told you so.” Indeed Haile Selassie has proved the incompetence of the Negro for political authority, but thank God there are Negroes who realise that Haile Selassie did not represent the truest qualities of the Negro race. How could he, when he wanted to play white? how could he, when he surrounded himself with white influence? how could he, when in a modem world, and in a progressive civilization, he preferred a slave State of black men than a free democratic country where the black citizens could rise to the same opportunities as white citizens in their democracies?

TELL THE TRUTH

The truth must be told so that the white world will realise that it was not the pride of the Negro that surrendered in Abyssinia. It was the disloyalty of a single man who was too silly to take pride in his race, who played such a game as to disgrace the political integrity of a noble people. The Negroes of Abyssinia and of the world are satisfied however that Abyssinia was not conquered by Italy and the European forces of Mussolini. Abyssinia was only conquered by the black levies of Italy. The Askaris have really been the victors in Abyssinia. [Rodolfo] Graziani only marched into Addis Ababa after he had made sure of the advanced guard of the Askaris. Every battle that the Italians won in Abyssinia resulted from the advanced charge of the Askaris. It was black men fighting black men, and this was made possible in Abyssinia because the regime of Haile Selassie had given a bad taste to the mouth, not only of the blacks of Abyssinia but of those of the surrounding territories. They felt that they had a cause against the Amharic white loving Emperor who liked to chain and flog black men, and whose brutality to them gave Mussolini the cause to fool the world that he was bestowing a blessing upon the people of Abyssinia by freeing them.

NO SLAVES

It was a piece of impertinence to suggest that black men should be held as slaves. We must admit that we glorified Haile Selassie when the war started, fought his battles to win international support, but we ever felt deep down in our hearts that he was a slave master. We had hoped that if Abyssinia had won that we would have forced the Government of Abyssinia to free the black whom they held as slaves. We would have preferred this than seeing the country taken by Mussolini or any European power; but now that the country is temporarily lost and the Emperor has cowardly exiled himself, the truth must be told.

WHAT RIGHT HAS HE?

The future freedom of Abyssinia must be built upon the highest principles of democracy. That is why it is preferable for the Abyssinian Negroes and the Negroes of the world to work for the restoration and freedom of the country without the assistance of Haile Selassie, because at best he is but a slave master. The Negroes of the Western World whose forefathers suffered for three hundred years under the terrors of slavery ought to be able to appreciate what freedom means. Surely they cannot feel justified in supporting any system that would hold their brothers in slavery in another country whilst they are enjoying the benefits of freedom elsewhere. The Africans who are free can also appreciate the position of slaves in Abyssinia. What right has the Emperor to keep slaves when all the democratic sections of the world were free, when men had the right to live, to develop, to expand, to enjoy all the benefits of human liberty[?]
The Emperor who has been exiled in Europe must have seen the civilization of Europe. In England where he lives he sees that men are not flogged and chained and kicked because of their colour or because of their condition, but where true human liberty guarantees to every man the happiest pursuit he can bring to himself. It has been reported that he is leaving England for Syria, where a large number of Abyssinian refugees are living. There is an interpretation that the decision to leave England and to live among “his people?” in Syria is to perpetuate his divine majesty in the presence of that king worship that he doesn’t get in England, where men look at others as equals and not as masters by divine right. In truth, the Emperor is out of place in democratic England. He wants to be once more in the environment of the feudal Monarch who looks down upon his slaves and serfs with contempt. Except he changes the attitude of thinking himself better than the Negro who constitutes the larger number of Ethiopia and profit by the experience he has gained, he should not be a fit person to be in authority in the very country in which he was born. After all, Haile Selassie is just an ordinary man like any other human being. What right has he to hold men as slaves? It is only the misfortune of the slaves that causes him to be a slave master. Negroes who have the dignity of their race at heart resent the impertinence of anyone holding the blacks as slaves. Haile Selassie ought to realise this and abolish his foolish dream of being an Emperor of slaves and serfs and try to be an Emperor of noble men, and for him to be that he must himself be the noblest of them all. He hasn’t proved his nobility in the war between Italy and Abyssinia. Ras Desta proved to be the Lord, the Nobleman of Ethiopia whilst Halle Selassie proved a cringing coward!

Marcus Garvey: Millennium Afrikan Hero

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu

Introduction

In this new millennium, Afrikan peoples should be both proud and knowledgeable of their heroes who have advanced and championed their cause. One such millennium hero is Marcus Mosiah Garvey. As such, it is now apropos to delineate the positive, potent and posthumous contributions of this Afrikan hero to the total unification and liberation of Afrikan peoples on the Continent and throughout the Diaspora.

The tentacles of Garvey extend beyond the geographic confines of the Caribbean a la Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley. They both gave the oppressed the big picture of European global dominance, supremacy and colonialism/imperialism.

They both may be physically dead but their spiritual, political, cultural and revolutionary messages are still alive and kicking in the veins of the global oppressed, disenfranchised and “Wretched of the Earth.”

They both represent continuity, longevity and Afrikanity at its supreme zenith. They both took Afrikan peoples to the mountain top so that we can see OUR promised land together as ONE unified, solidified, dedicated, committed, empowered, global majority PEOPLE.

They passionately championed Afrikan unity and togetherness by any and all means necessary. Marcus Mosiah Garvey and Bob Marley represent our AFRIKAN MANHOOD in all its multi-faceted forms and dimensions.

Indeed, they are our AFRIKAN “Heroes”.

MARCUS GARVEY : Life, Mission, Movement

Birth and guilty status in United States

The Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on 17 August 1887, in St. Ann’s Bay Parish, Jamaica. He died in London on 10 June 1940. In January 1922, the United States government charged Garvey with mail fraud. In February, he was indicted along with three other associates with mail fraud and conspiracy; Garvey’s trial was postponed for eleven months until a third indictment added an additional mail fraud charge.

On 18 June 1923, Garvey was found guilty of one count of the second indictment. His codefendants were acquitted. Garvey received the maximum sentence, namely, a five-year term in the US penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, a $1,000 fine and court costs. On 8 February 1925, Garvey entered prison.

Life in Jamaica

In Jamaica, Garvey’s formal education ended at age fourteen years. His desire to continue his education was impeded when due to the financial problems of his family, he had to leave school in Sixth Standard in 1903.

This was not unusual for most Afrikan Jamaicans due to the color caste system which downgraded the education of Jamaica’s Afrikan peasants.

The system of Euro-colonial education was not designed to advance/uplift the Afrikan masses.

Forced to learn a trade for life’s survival, Garvey was apprenticed to his godfather, Alfred E. Burrows, who was a printer. This experience allowed the young Garvey to continue the process of being a self-made man.

And since his godfather was an avid reader and maintained a library, Garvey was exposed to books which enhanced his knowledge of Afrikan history, current issues and world affairs.

At age eighteen, he became a foreman at the printery. At age twenty, he became assistant secretary to a political organization, the National Club, which was Garvey’s introduction to anti-colonial politics.

At age twenty-three, the young Garvey felt the urge to expand his political horizon, so he decided to leave Jamaica. His purpose was to observe and analyze the plight of the Black man throughout the Diaspora.

Foreign Travel

In his travel to Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras and Columbia, Garvey discovered that the plight conditions for the Black man in these countries were no different from the Black man in Jamaica.

On his return to Jamaica in 1911, Garvey “digested and determined that amends should be made for the deception practiced on Afrikans and their relatives abroad”.

European travel

In 1912, Garvey sailed for England, where he was exposed to the plighted conditions of Afrikans in Europe.

His Euro-British visit compelled Garvey to study Afrikan cultural history and ancient Afrikan civilizations. He also visited France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany.

Experience in Britain

While in England, Marcus Garvey read and was greatly influenced by Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery. This book warned Garvey of his mission and plight to lead his people in their quest for racial pride, justice and equality.

Booker T. Washington’s autobiography had a major impact upon Marcus Garvey and in later years, Garvey would in several ways, develop institutions “modeled” after Washington’s American Tuskegee Institute, owned, controlled and financed by Black dollars.

In addition, his foreign travel imbued Garvey with the vital ammunition he needed to fulfill his need to help his fellow Afrikan brethren.

UNIA

When Marcus Garvey returned to Jamaica on 15 July 1914, he established the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and Afrikan Communities Imperial League. Later it was changed to the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

On 23 March 1916, Marcus Garvey arrived in New York and lived among Black folk in Harlem. 1n 1918, he established the UNIA in New York.

According to Alphonso Pinkey (1976), the UNIA “became the first Black organization to embrace the complete spectrum of Black nationalism and its leader was the first Black man to put forth a comprehensive ideology of Black nationalism”; it was “the world’s foremost organization of Blacks” and “the largest of any Black nationalist organization on an international scale in twentieth century America”.

Impact of UNIA on Afrikan Liberation Sruggle

In this book titled Black Power and the Garvey Movement(1972), Theodore G. Vincent contends that:
The Universal Negro Improvement Association advocates the uniting and blending of all Negroes into one strong, healthy race. It is against miscegenation and race suicide. It believes that the Negro race is as good as any other. It is against rich Blacks marrying poor whites. It is against rich or poor whites taking advantage of Negro women. It believes in the spiritual Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. It believes in the social and political physical separation of all peoples to the extent that they promote their own ideals and civilization, with the privilege of trading and doing business with others. It believes in the promotion of a strong and powerful Negro nation in Afrika. It believes in the rights of all men (pp.20-21).

Through the UNIA, there developed the political-philosophical ideology of Garveyism. This ideology sought “the creation of international solidarity among all people of Afrikan descent. All Blacks were to be considered brothers, although they differed from one another in language, religion, societal structures, and other ways”. Indeed, Garvey’s mottoes: “AfriKa for the AfriKans at Home and Abroad” and “Back to Afrika” had a profound impact on Afrikan-Americans in “that once Afrika had been freed from colonial rule, Blacks in the United States could be given aid in their fight for equal rights”. Garveyism linked the domestic struggle of Afrikan-Americans to the international struggle of all Afrikan peoples. At that juncture, the liberation struggle reached its Diasporan zenith. This is one of the greatest contributions of Garveyism to the Pan Afrikan Nationalist struggle.

Philosophy of UNIA

According to Theodore G. Vincent:
Until the coming of Garvey, there had not been a movement in the mainstream of Black American politics based on allegiance to a power beyond the borders of the United States (p.17).

However, Garvey’s objective was “the building of a nation”; he sought to give Afrikan people” a consciousness of nationhood”. He fought for the self-determination, self-reliance and global empowerment of Afrikan peoples.

One of the pillars of Garveyism is the notion of “Race First” and “Racial Pride” or genophilia. It taught Afrikan people “to be proud that they were Black, to cherish their Afrikan past, and to build for themselves their civilization of the future.”

According to Roi Ottley (1972):
The (Garvey) movement set in motion what was to become the most compelling force in (Black) life-race and color consciousness, which is today that ephemeral thing that inspires ‘race loyalty,’ the banner to which (Afrikans) rally; the claim that binds them together.

Philosophy of Garveyism

In the words of the Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey himself (1934): “When will the Black man create his world? When will he blast the hills and conquer the plains? When will he harness the rivers and bring under subjection the seas? When will he negotiate the air and find the mysteries therein? When will he delve into the realm of science and philosophy and pick out independent inventions that transcend that yet known to the world? Not until these things are done by the (Blackman), will he be transformed from the foot of the human race to the top where once he was when he gave light and leading to the world on the banks of the Nile. The greater accomplishments of humanity are well within the possibility of the (Blackman) today, because they were in ages past.”

Garveyism has given Afrikan people a sense of solid pride in their origin. On the other hand, Garveyism was against integration; assimilation and miscegenation (interracial marriage). Garveyism argued “that spiritual and cultural development could best be served by separation from Whites and white ideas.”

Garveyism represents the highest stage in the development of 20th century Pan Afrikan Nationalism. Despite the fact that the Garvey Movement and Garvey himself were attacked by both Blacks and Whites, yet their ability to internationalize the liberation struggle of Afrikan people remains immutable. Garveyism sowed the seeds of financial and economic independence/empowerment and the insistence that Blacks should support Black business. Garveyism taught that political power without economic power is worthless and counterproductive.

Amy Jacques Garvey, wife of Marcus Garvey, sums up the ideology of Garveyism as follows (1972): “Garveyism is not only a theoretical philosophy, but a working idealism, geared to the crying needs of an entire race, many millions of whom were dispersed by slavery to the United States of America, the West Indies, Europe, Canada, and as far as South America.”

Garvey gave to his people a new set of values in a world where race is the criterion of human standards and the White race considered themselves superior men. Garvey gave Black people new dimensions, new horizons that transcend national boundaries, languages and religions. He lifted their spirits to the heights of true manhood and womanhood. Garvey sought to revive the spirit of Black people from despair to hope, from lethargy to positive action, from fear to courage, from inertia to assertiveness, from anti-discrimination dodges to manly confrontation. He gave them goals possible to man, the highest Creation of God, because he believed with all his heart in the innate abilities of the Black Race.” BE PREPARED”, he shouted and the masses followed him for he had awakened in them the real purpose of life – to live as men, or to die like men.

Values of Garveyism

The four basic values of Garveyism are (1) territoriality (2) culture (3) religion and (4) economics.

Territoriality

The concept of territory involves the acquisition of land. A people cannot be totally free without a home base. It is here where they can grow within their own culture, a culture which gives them identity, purpose and direction. If that land has offered freedom – political, economic, social, religious and cultural, then the land, that nation, in a sense will be worshipped. But what happens when that land, that nation, has not historically allowed these “freedoms” to emerge naturally?

It is this observation which led Garvey to articulate: “The Afrikan-American needs a nation and a country of his own, where he can best show evidence of his own ability in the art of human progress.”

Marcus Mosiah Garvey argued for land and thus was the onus on the UNIA “to work unceasingly for the bringing about of a National Homeland for Blacks in Afrika.”

Culture

A people’s culture cannot be external to itself. In order for the culture to have validity, it must be derived from one’s historical experience, one’s historic memory, and not a contrived experience but an experience free from manipulation and control. Since culture helps to transmit value systems, if one practices or accepts those cultural requirements external to one’s specific cultural group, then the possibility exists in accepting a wholesome value system. Because culture is a learned behavior, Afrikan-Americans have often learned its duality. As has been argued: “Black people have been exposed to both a point of view that aims to co-opt Black people into Euro-centric culture and a point of view that aims to exclude Black people.”

The elitist, exclusionist viewpoint tends to find fault with the victim and not those who have helped to perpetuate a negative or unrewarding environment. In other words, the dominant culture can have an everlasting effect upon how a people defines itself.

Garvey understood this when he came to the United States. His first task was to create racial pride among the Black masses worldwide. His pride or “Race-First” philosophy can generally be placed in three categories: 1) the issue of unity 2) the issue of race prejudice and 3) the issue of pride and heritage.

Garvey’s first call to the Black masses was unity. He felt that first racial “purity” was essential to the future unification of the race. And because of his views on “Purity of Race,” some of his critics often labeled him a “racist.”

He states:
I believe in a pure Black race just as how all self-respecting whites believe in a pure white race. I am conscious of the fact that slavery brought upon us the curse of many colors within the Negro race, but that is no reason why we of ourselves should perpetuate the evil.

It was through Garvey’s conception of “Race First” that he tried to push Afrikans toward unity. Critical to Garvey’s conception of race was the issue of race prejudice. For Garvey, this was a two-fold problem. First, he was often accused of creating division by developing and maintaining conflict between lighter and darker skinned Afrikans. Nothing could be further from the truth. Garvey recognized that Afrikan people were victims of “color consciousness” as well as circumstances.

As Garvey argues:
“What about color, it doesn’t amount to anything. It is only an accident. Nature had a purpose. It is hoped that in the new civilization, we will see no [Afrikans] thinking his skin is better than others.”

Garvey’s other concern on race prejudice was directed at Caucasians and their prevailing attitude toward Afrikan people. He felt that race prejudice prevailed not so much because of color of the Afrikans’ skin but toward their predicament under the rule and domination of the White man. As a result, Garvey believed that the problem would not be corrected by laws.

He asserts that:
Within modern times, the (Afrikan) race has not had any real statesman and the masses of our people have always accepted the intentions and actions of the statesmen and leaders of other races as being directed in our interest as a group in conjunction with the interests of others. Such a feeling on our part caused us to believe that the Constitution of the United States was not written for (Afrikans), as well as the Constitution of England, Italy, Germany and other countries where (Afrikans) happened to have their present domicile, either as citizens or as subjects. That we suffer so much today under whatsoever flag we live is proof positive that constitutions and laws, when framed by the early advocates of human liberty, never included and were never intended for us as a people. It is only a question of sheer accident that we happen to be fellow citizens today with the descendants of those who, through their advocacy, laid the foundation for human rights. So this brings us to the point where as a people, we can accept very little from the efforts of the present day statesmen of other races, in that their plans, (as far as advantages to be derived there from are concerned) are laid only in the interest of their own people and not in the interest of the (Afrika).

Religion

Marcus Garvey did not manipulate religion for its own sake but developed it from a Black man’s or Afri-centric perspective, to advance, promote and consolidate his program of “Race First” and “Racial Pride” from a political dynamic.

Garvey, who was raised in the Methodist Church in Jamaica as a youth, later converted to Catholicism. Thus, his slogan became: “One God, One Aim, One Destiny” in his “Back to Afrika” resettlement program.

Economics

Garvey argued that no organization can exist for very long without a sound economic foundation; the ultimate goal at all times is for economic self-determination, collective self-reliance and economic empowerment. Therefore, this quest for equity, self-determination and advancement in the market is crucial for economic growth within both the Black residential and business communities.

Economic growth in turn provides jobs internal to the community and produces “tax payers” as opposed to tax burdens. Unlike the contemporary concept of “Black capitalism”, economic nationalism under the Garvey model does not become dependent upon government “handouts” and/or corporate support.

The primary aim of economic empowerment, therefore, is not for the exploitation of the Black community but the provision of vital resources and skills so as to help curb/eradicate economic discrimination/disparity/victimization.

Failure to do this often results in a poverty-stricken community. Garvey’s position on poverty is: “A hellish state to be in. It is no virtue. It is a crime. To be poor is to be hungry without possible hope of food; to be sick without the hope of medicine; to be naked without the hope of clothing; to be despised and comfortless. To be poor is to be a fit subject for crime and hell. The hungry man steals bread and thereby breaks the eighth commandment; by his state, he breaks all laws of God and man and becomes an outcast. In thought and deed, he covets his neighbor’s goods; comfortless as he is, he seeks his neighbor’s wife; to him, there is no other course but sin and death. That is the way of poverty. No one wants to be poor.”

To combat poverty, Garvey embraced capitalism but with the following stipulations: Capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world and those who unreasonably and wantonly oppose or fight against it, are enemies to human advancement, but there should be a limit to the individual or corporate use or control of it. No individual should be allowed the possession, use or the privilege to invest on his own account, more than a million, more than five million. Beyond this, all control, use and investment of money should be the prerogative of the state with the concurrent authority of the people. With such a method, we would prevent the ill-will, hatred and conflicts that now exist between races, people and nations. Modern wars are generally the outgrowth of dissatisfied capitalist interests either among foreign or strange people or nations.

Garvey’s Programs for Black Economic Development

It was Garvey’s purpose to eliminate chaos, decay and impoverishment within the Black community. To achieve these goals, he established a host of business enterprise such as:

1. The Black Star Line – a steamship company
2. The Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company
3. Liberty Hall – an auditorium and headquarters for the UNIA
4. The Negro Factories Corporation
5. Universal Restaurants
6. United Chain Stores
7. Millinery Stores
8. Laundry
9. Hat factory
10. Moving Company
11. Hotels
12. Printing Plant
13. Production Factories

Garvey’s attempt to ameliorate the economic problems of the Black community was short lived. Two reasons led to the demise of his economic endeavors:

1. He lacked a competent business and managerial staff.
2. He had many dishonest associates in his confidence who hurried the demise of the UNIA’s business endeavors.

Garvey’s lasting legacy

In the final analysis, one of the global posthumous contributions of the Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey to the Afrikan liberation struggle occurred when he presided as chairman at the UNIA’s annual convention held in New York on 15 August 1920. It was at this convention that delegates passed the “Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” whereby the colors of the Afrikan revolutionary liberation flag were formally adopted, namely: “that the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the negro race”.

Red represents the Blood shed by Afrikan people; Black represents our Color of skin; and Green represents our Land. Land represents power.

Conclusion

Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s Pan Afrikan Nationalism has enabled Afrikan peoples to solidify our nationalist ranks so that the “Wretched of the Earth” would all co-exist in the 21st century as a united, solidified, committed, powerful, global majority people.

This is the most pivotal contribution of Garvey to the total unification and liberation of Afrikan peoples. Marcus Mosiah Garvey is OUR international, Pan Afrikan Nationalist icon, pioneer and tireless, selectively and politically persecuted and prosecuted, crucified MARTYR.

In the words of the Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey to his Afrikan peoples: “Up you mighty race; you can accomplish what you will”.

Shem Hotep (“I go in peace”).

Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies and University of the West Indies.