St. Maarten was blessed with three powerful speakers last night at the WIFOL Building in Philipsburg. The topic was the life and legacy of Marcus Garvey. Jamaican poet Ras Takura, social economist Emilio Kalmera and union leader Theophilus Thompson brought forth the power of this man who lived from 1887 until 1940.
Marcus Garvey was born in St. Anne’s Bay, Jamaica, and later moved to Kingston. In time he would be a world traveller and leave his mark on many societies. He is known for many things, including influencing the early Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica, the Civil Rights Movement of the United States and many similar risings in Africa, Europe and South America. Garvey lived his life to the fullest, and served humanity with his personal energy and drive. His gift for words and his insight into the human condition have lived long after he was laid to rest.
There are schools and parks, streets and monuments named in his honour across the globe. His life inspired others to act for the betterment of all people. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that Garvey "was the first man of colour to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny, and to make the Negro feel he was somebody." Jamaica named him the first National Hero of that nation.
Founding the UNIA
Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 in Kingston, Jamaica. Initially, with only a few members, UNIA grew to more than 8 million followers by August 1925. It had more than 900 branches in 40 different countries. The phenomenal growth of the UNIA was due in part not only to Garvey’s genius and magnetic personality, but also to the principles of the UNIA which focused on empowerment and self-worth.
The UNIA’s stated goal was that of uniting all members of African diaspora. Garvey was an ambitious planner. He corresponded with Booker T. Washington, the American educator who founded Tuskegee Institute and then travelled to the United States in 1916 to raise funds for a similar venture in Jamaica. He settled in New York City and formed a UNIA chapter in Harlem to promote a separatist philosophy of social, political, and economic freedom for blacks. In 1918, Garvey began publishing the widely distributed newspaper Negro World to convey his message.
Economic Vision
By 1919, Marcus Garvey and UNIA launched the Black Star Line, a shipping company that would establish trade and commerce among Africans in America, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Canada and Africa. At the same time, Garvey started the Negros Factories Association, a series of companies that would manufacture marketable commodities in every big industrial centre in the Western hemisphere and Africa.
Controversy
In August 1920, U.N.I.A. claimed 4 million members and held its first International Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Before a crowd of 25,000 people from all over world, Marcus Garvey spoke of having pride in African history and culture. Many found his words inspiring, but not all. Some established black leaders found his separatist philosophy ill-conceived. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent black leader and officer of the NAACP, called Garvey "the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America." Garvey felt Du Bois was an agent of the white elite.
But W.E.B Du Bois wasn't the worst adversary of Garvey. History would soon reveal F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover's fixation on ruining Garvey for his radical ideas. Hoover felt threatened by the black leader, fearing he was inciting blacks across the country to stand up in militant defiance. Hoover would use the same methods decades later to obtain information on black leaders like MLK and Malcolm X.
Deported
In 1922, Marcus Garvey and three other UNIA officials were charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line. The trial records indicate several improprieties occurred in the prosecution of the case. It didn't help that the shipping line's books contained many accounting irregularities. On June 23, 1923, Garvey was convicted and sentenced to prison for five years. Claiming to be a victim of a politically motivated miscarriage of justice, Garvey appealed his conviction, but was denied. In 1927, he was released from prison and deported to Jamaica.
Final Chapter
Garvey continued his political activism in Jamaica, and then moved to London in 1935. But he did not command the same influence he had earlier. Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940 after several strokes. Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred in London.
In 1964, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica's first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park. But his memory and influence remain. His message of pride and dignity inspired many. The country of Ghana has named its shipping line the Black Star Line and its national soccer team the Black Stars, in honour of Garvey.
