The Marcus Garvey Story – Part IV

WITH ALL his efforts after he came to Jamaica from leading the UNIA in the USA, financial setbacks, some by way of lawsuits, caused Garvey to lose his printing press, Edelweiss Park, and his family home. He was also frustrated by the aggression and general negative attitudes towards him and the lack of support from some black and brown people.

Garvey decided to leave Jamaica, once again, and set sail for England aboard the SS Tilapa on March 16, 1935, in an effort to rebuild the global influence of his fledgling organisation. He left Jamaica a “broken man, broken in spirit, broken in health, and broken in pocket”, in his own words, and vowed never to return.

LECTURE-AND-FUNDRAISING TOUR

On his return to England, Garvey rented a flat not too far from the UNIA headquarters in London. His wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, and their two sons joined him in 1937. Eventually, he set off on a lecture-and-fundraising tour in Canada and the Caribbean. He also inaugurated the School of African Philosophy at a conference in Toronto, Canada, with the purpose of training future officers of the UNIA.

On his last night in Canada, October 1, 1937, in Sydney, Nova Scotia, he gave a speech in which the immortal line, “We must emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free the mind”, was uttered. It was a line that Bob Marley introduced to the world in Redemption Song.

Because of his elder son’s serious illness, his wife and the boys returned to Jamaica in 1938. Garvey was devastated and heartbroken. Though he communicated with his children over the next year, the relationship between himself and his wife was strained. He felt quite lonely in London and more isolated than ever. By then, membership in his organisation had dwindled significantly.

PARTIALLY PARALYSED

Marcus Garvey had a stroke in January 1940, which seriously affected his speech and left him partially paralysed. Not too long after, George Padmore, a writer for the Chicago Defender, erroneously reported Garvey as being dead. Newspapers around the world picked up on that article and falsely announced his death. Garvey was not amused. He suffered a second debilitating stroke. He subsequently fell into a coma, from which he did not recover.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey died on June 10, 1940 at age 52. He was buried in St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in London. Through the initiative of Edward Seaga, then culture minister of Jamaica, the two Garvey wives, and the UNIA, Marcus Garvey’s remains arrived in Jamaica on November 10, 1964.

His body lay in state for five days at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, where thousands came to pay their final respects. Following a state funeral, his remains were re-interred in National Heroes Park. An estimated 30,000 people gathered to witness the reburial of the man that Seaga once referred to as the greatest black man who ever lived.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS

Even in death, Garvey’s philosophy and teachings have inspired many social and political movements around the world – from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States to the socio-political advancement in the Caribbean and the nationalist struggles in Africa. His legacies transcend international borders, inspiring, influencing and touching people and organisations from all walks of life.

In a fitting tribute, Martin Luther King Jr, former leader of the US civil rights movement, once said, “Marcus Garvey was the first man of colour in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement … and to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity … to feel that he was somebody.”

MALCOLM X

The parents of Malcolm X were both local UNIA leaders in Omaha, Nebraska and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s was replete with Marcus Garvey symbols and ideas. Elijah Muhammad, former head of the Nation of Islam, was a member of the UNIA in Detroit.

The philosophies and opinions of Marcus Garvey were a major focus at the Fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester, England in 1945. Some of the attendees, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), at that conference would return to Africa and lead their respective countries to independence.

Ghana’s shipping line was named the Black Star Line, patterned after the maritime dreams of Marcus Garvey, and the country’s flag has a black star emblazoned on it. A modified version of the red, black, and green flag can be seen in the national flag of Kenya and the flag of the African National Congress in South Africa. Right here in Jamaica, his likeness, in various forms, is on show all over the country.

RASTAFARI

Garvey’s teachings also have a great influence on Rastafari, a movement which was started in Jamaica in the 1930s by UNIA members Leonard Howell and Robert Hinds. It adopted Garvey’s promotion of race pride, African liberation and the religious philosophy that black people should see God in their own image. This group has been very instrumental in sharing Garvey’s teachings.

In a Gleaner article, ‘Who was Marcus Garvey?’, published on August 27, 2017, Edward Seaga wrote inter alia, “Garvey’s movement grew out of a burning passion to overcome the beliefs, prejudices, distortions, bigotry, half-truths, fears, conceits and propaganda of vested interests which had progressively threatened and denied the humanity of people of African descent in this region for some 400 years.”