Heritage

Garvey’s influence on Africa was huge

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Marcus Garvey is an important part of African history in several ways. He led the largest ever black political movement in history, and his slogan “Africa for Africans” exemplified the primary mission of African politico-economic liberation, black control of religious, educational and cultural institutions and an audacious view that linked the destiny of Africa and its diasporas.

Garvey was part of a centuries-long history of diasporic blacks that sought re-connection with, and return to, the African continent akin to the biblical return to Canaan of the Jews. For continental Africans, Garveyism became a vehicle to express popular discontent with white rule, to animate and, in some cases, reinvigorate their political organisations, trade unions to create and control black-led churches and schools and to spark a prophetic liberationist Christianity that placed godly black people at the centre of a divinely-ordained historical drama that would lead to African redemption.

The biblical prophesy “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon spread her hands unto God” (Psalms 68:31) was a centre piece of Garvey’s message.

Garvey was known by some as “The Negro Moses” but just like Moses in the Bible did not reach Canaan. Garvey in all his travels did not reach Africa. Nevertheless, it is on record that Garvey influenced many future African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Nnmadi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela.

Born on 17 August 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, was the youngest of 11 children and one of only two to survive to adulthood in a family which was well off by the standards of the time. His father had a large library and Garvey developed a love for reading at an early age.

While attending elementary school Garvey came face to face with racialism. At 14, he left school and became a printers’ apprentice. In 1903, he travelled to Kingston, Jamaica where he soon became involved in union activities, later taking part in an unsuccessful printers’ strike which gave him a passion for political activism.

In 1910, Garvey left Jamaica and travelled to the Central America region where he had a maternal uncle. He worked for two newspapers before returning to Jamaica in 1912. By now Garvey had been influenced by many civil rights activists of the time, in particular, the economic nationalist ideas of Booker T. Washington.

In 1912, he went to London where he attended Birkbeck College taking classes in law and philosophy. He also worked for the African Times and Orient Review published by the Sudanese-Egyptian actor and activist who had a considerable influence on him. He sometimes spoke at London’s Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner.

Garvey returned to Jamaica in 1914 where he formed the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute of Alabama and a national African-American leader, he travelled by ship to America arriving on 23 March 1916 aboard the SS Tallac.

He intended to make a lecture tour and raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modelled on the Tuskegee Institute. Later that year he moved to New York where he found a job as a printer by day. At night he would speak at street corners, like he had done in London. Garvey formed the view that there was a leadership vacuum among African Americans and he vainly considered it was his destiny to fill that vacuum. On 9 May 1916, Garvey held his first public lecture in America at New York City’s St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery and subsequently undertook a 38-state tour. He had the gift of oratory and showmanship and he was soon to become one of the most powerful speakers in America, attracting large crowds.

Along with 13 others, Garvey formed the first branch of UNIA outside of Jamaica in May 1917. Garvey worked to develop a programme to improve conditions of ethnic Africans “at home and abroad” under UNIA auspices.

On 17 August 1918, Garvey began publishing the Negro World newspaper in New York which was widely distributed. He used the newspaper to propagate his views to grow UNIA into a world body controlling black businesses, schools, churches and cultural programmes. It is claimed that by June 1919 UNIA had more than one million paid up members. Our very own Harry Thuku was greatly influenced by this publication.

In September 1919 UNIA acquired its first ship the SS Fredrick Douglass. Due to mismanagement the over-optimistic shipping project soon failed as did other commercial undertakings. There was also rancor within the ranks of UNIA and the militant leadership style of Garvey did not endear him to many.

Garvey also sought to co-operate with the Ku Klux Klan because they shared the same belief on miscegenation, with a view to raising funds from them. In1921, Garvey’s black nationalism reached a ludicrous peak when, clad in scarlet robes and a gold-tasseled turban, he was “inaugurated” as president of Africa. Surrounded by a Ruritanian bodyguard, presiding over the secession of the “Negro Court” in a feathered hat and gold epaulettes, he cut a ridiculous figure!

Garvey’s disagreements with W.E.B du Bois were well known. Du Bois considered Garvey’s programme of complete separation a capitulation to white supremacy; a tacit admission that blacks could never be equal to Whites.

Du Bois once described Garvey as “a little, fat black man, ugly but with intelligent eyes.” Garvey returned the compliment describing du Bois as “purely and simply a White man’s nigger, a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro, a mulatto, a monstrosity”

The activities of Garvey had attracted the attention of the FBI and a youthful Edgar Hoover had him jailed for mail fraud. Eventually, he was deported to Jamaica in 1927. He moved to London in 1935 where he later met Jomo Kenyatta. Garvey also influenced many musicians. He died in London on June 10, 1940, at the age of 52.