By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

#Jamaica, February 9, 2023 – Born in Saint Ann, Jamaica in 1887 Marcus Mosiah Garvey was one of the most influential Black leaders of the 20th century; his influence is recognized throughout the Caribbean as well as in the United States.

Garvey, born into a middle class family had the opportunity to travel extensively as a young man in the early 20th century, visiting places like Costa Rica and the UK where observed the conditions of the black working class, who were often poor and disenfranchised.

This awakened the activist in the man who believed Africans would be better off in Africa, as a unified nation, with one leader living and working and dreaming in solidarity.

A Pan-Africanist at heart; after seeing the reality of Black people globally and reading black scholars like Booker T Washington he returned to Jamaica and at 28 years old, in 1914 Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League UNIA-ACL more commonly known as the UNIA with his wife Amy Ashwood.

Only two years later he moved to Harlem, often described as a Black cultural Mecca at the time and began to share his ideas with the Black people there.  The idea grew and soon, his newspaper Negro World was born.

Needless to say his writings ruffled feathers and drew strong opposition from powerful groups in the United States.  History chronicles that Garvey became the target of repeated raids from US investigators at the hand of the Director of the then Bureau of Investigation Edgar Hoover.

Garvey would marry a second time in 1922; Amy Jacques, a Jamaican journalist who remained his partner until death.

Marcus Garvey had several specific goals and beliefs that he hoped the Black community globally would adopt including:

• The end of colonial rule (which at the time was still prevalent)
• Unity between Africa and the African diaspora
• The Back-to-Africa movement which encouraged Black people to go back to their ancestral homes instead of settling where they had been forced

After being charged and convicted in a US court on mail fraud charges, he was deported to Jamaica. There he continued his work with the UNIA.

He passed away in England in 1940 and was posthumously named a Jamaican national hero.

Marcus Garvey was a controversial figure not least of all because of his belief in black separatism and while his launch pad for a global black economy based off of trade, a shipping company called the Black Star Line, eventually failed he was a powerful symbol of what black people could do, had they the right means.

He constantly refuted long-held stereotypes about Black people, and planted the seeds of black equality that civil rights leaders would build on in the years following, a true contributor to the black diaspora.

Curiously, despite this burning passion about Africa and its far flung descendants, it continues to stun lovers and followers of Garveyism that this great advocate never had the opportunity to step foot on – that is to say, visit – the mighty motherland, the Continent of Africa.

Today, streets and monuments are named and erected in his honour in the various countries of Africa, including Namibia and there is a voice that will not be quieted; calling for the civic leader to be cleared of all charges as the campaign to have Garvey publicly exonerated, builds momentum.

He is saluted here during Black History Month, where we share the stories of those who have proven that Black is Beauty.