1. RBG BLAKADEMICS January , 2010
Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist and
the Father of Contemporary Black Nationalism
The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Play Hon. Marcus Garvey —
Look for Me in the Whirl Wind
Black nationalism originated in the
1850's. While the origins of the
movement are most commonly
associated with Marcus Garvey's
Universal Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA) of the 1920s,
Garvey was preceded and influenced
by Martin Delany, Henry Sylvestre-
Williams, Dr. Robert Love and Edward
Wilmot Blyden. Even though the
future of Africa is seen as being
central to Black nationalist ambitions, some adherents to Black nationalism are intent on
the eventual creation of a separate black nation by Africans in American.
See: A Brief History of Black Nationalism and RBG's Current Academic
Contribution
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Link to companion video documentary
THE MARCUS GARVEY STORY, NARRATED BY OSSIE DAVIS
Biography
Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus Garvey was the youngest of 11
children. Garvey moved to Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a printshop, and became
acquainted with the abysmal living conditions of the laboring class. He quickly involved himself
in social reform, participating in the first Printers' Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting
up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island to earn money to finance his projects, he
visited Central and South America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were
victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and saw the conditions under
which the West Indians lived and worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia
and Venezuala. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great hardships.
Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central America, and appealed to
Jamaica's colonial government to help improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central
America. His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the groundwork of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association, to which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of
enthusiasm for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in search of additional financial
backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While
working for Ali's publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey began to study the
history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation of black peoples by colonial powers. He read
Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, which advocated black self-help.
In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and its coordinating
body, the African Communities League. In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New
York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem's Lenox Avenue. That evening,
before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York
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City his ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the UNIA. He began
publishing the newspaper The Negro World and toured the United States preaching black
nationalism to popular audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association
boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of these branches were located in
the United States, which had become the UNIA's base of operations. There were, however,
offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most. Branches also existed in places
such as Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and
South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures, notably the Black Star
Shipping Line.
In the years following the organization's first convention, the UNIA began to decline in
popularity. With the Black Star Line in serious financial difficulties, Garvey promoted two new
business organizations — the African Communities League and the Negro Factories
Corporation. He also tried to salvage his colonization scheme by sending a delegation to appeal
to the League of Nations for transfer to the UNIA of the African colonies taken from Germany
during World War I.
Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal entanglements (based on charges that he
had used the U.S. mail to defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey's
imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term. In 1927 his half-served
sentence was commuted, and he was deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin
Coolidge.
Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning on a platform of self-
government, minimum wage laws, and land and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the
polls, however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary voting qualifications.
In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died on June 10, 1940, in a
cottage in West Kensington.
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Marcus Garvey’s lessons in learning
It is quite clear that African people in America continue to be miseducated.
This problem is discussed in a variety of ways in conversations everyday in
our communities throughout America.
From time to time we should consult the wisdom of those who have
addressed this problem whom we may have forgotten. One such person
who addressed this problem is the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey,
when he presented his formula for learning in his courses on African
Philosophy in the 1930s. I think it is only appropriate to review Mr. Garvey’s
formula for learning as we continue to build the Reparations Movement and
seek specific guideposts to our development as a people.
These lessons and guideposts in learning can be found in Marcus Garvey, Message to the
People, The Course of African Philosophy, edited by Dr. Tony Martin.
Lesson 1: One must never stop reading. Read everything that you can read, that is of standard
knowledge. Don’t waste time reading trashy literature. The idea is that personal experience is
not enough for a human to get all the useful knowledge of life, because the individual life it too
short, so we must feed on the experience of others.
Lesson 2: Read history incessantly until you master it. This means your own national history,
the history of the world, social history, industrial history, and the history of the different sciences;
but primarily, the history of man. If you do not know what went on before you came here and
what is happening at the time you live, but away from you, you will not know the world and will
be ignorant of the world and mankind.
Lesson 3: To be able to read intelligently, you must first be able to master the language of your
country. To do this, you must be well acquainted with its grammar and the science of it. People
judge you by your writing and your speech. If you write badly and incorrectly they become
prejudiced towards your intelligence, and if you speak badly and incorrectly, those who hear you
become disgusted and will not pay much attention to you, but in their hearts laugh after you.
Lesson 4: A leader who is to teach men and present any fact of truth to man must first be
taught in his subject.
Lesson 5: Never write or speak on a subject you know nothing about, for there is always
somebody who knows that particular subject to laugh at you or to ask you embarrassing
questions that may make others laugh at you.
Lesson 6: You should read four hours a day. The best time to read is in the evening after you
have retired from your work and after you have rested and before sleeping hours, but do so
before morning, so that during your sleeping hours what you read may become subconscious,
that is to say, planted in your memory.
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Lesson 7: Never keep the constant company of anybody who doesn’t know as much as you or
(is) as educated as you, and from whom you cannot learn something from or reciprocate your
learning.
Lesson 8: Continue always in the application of the things you desire educationally, culturally,
or otherwise, and never give up until you reach your objective.
Lesson 9: Try never to repeat yourself in any one discourse in saying the same thing over and
over again except when you are making new points, because repetition is tiresome and it
annoys those who hear the repetition.
Lesson 10: Knowledge is power. When you know a thing and can hold your ground on that
thing and win over your opponents on that thing, those who hear you learn to have confidence
in you and will trust your ability.
Lesson 11: In reading books written by white authors, of whatever kind, be aware of the fact
that they are not written for your particular benefit of your race. They always write from their own
point of view and only in the interest of their own race.
Garvey had many other lessons of learning, in his formula that journalistic constraints will not
allow me to elaborate at this time. However, I encourage you to read Marcus Garvey, Message
to the People, The Course of African Philosophy, and as we celebrate begin to internalize and
incorporate these “Lessons In Learning.”
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MAXIMS OF MARCUS GARVEY
1. There is nothing in the world common to man, that man cannot do.
2.The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself; but the ends you
serve that are for all, in common, will take you even into eternity.
3. Education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own
particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race.
4. The masses make the nation and the race. If the masses are illiterate, that is the judgment
passed on the race by those who are critical of its existence.
5. Every student of Political Science, every student of Economics knows that the race can only
be saved through a solid industrial foundation. That the race can only be saved through political
independence. Take away industry from a race; take away political freedom from a race, and
you have a group of slaves.
6. Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in days of yore. We have beautiful history,
and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world
7. So many of us find excuses to get out of the Negro Race, because we are led to believe that
the race is unworthy—that it has not accomplished anything. Cowards that we are! It is we who
are unworthy, because we are not contributing to the uplift and upbuilding of this noble race.
8. For over three hundred years the white man has been our oppressor, and he naturally is not
going to liberate us to the higher freedom—the truer liberty—the truer Democracy. We have to
liberate ourselves.
9. Let us prepare TODAY. For the TOMORROWS in the lives of the nations will be so eventful
that Negroes everywhere will be called upon to play their part in the survival of the fittest human
group.
10. The evolutionary scale that weights nations and races, balances alike for peoples; hence we
feel sure that some day the balance will register a change for the Negro.
11. The world ought to know that it could not keep 400,000,000 Negroes down forever.
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12.There is always a turning point in the destiny of every race, every nation, of all peoples, and
we have come now to the turning point of Negro, where we have changed from the old cringing
weakling, and transformed into full-grown men, demanding our portion as MEN.
13. A race without authority and power is a race without respect.
14. The only protection against injustice in man is power—physical, financial and scientific.
15. Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
16. Change has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
17. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the
oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.
18. Any sane man, race or nation that desires freedom must first of all think in terms of blood.
Why even the Heavenly Father tells us that "without the shedding of blood there can be no
remission of sins." Then how in the name of God, with history before us, do we expect to
redeem Africa without preparing ourselves—some of us to die.
19. LEADERSHIP means everything—PAIN, BLOOD, DEATH.
20. Let Africa be our guiding Star—OUR STAR OF DESTINY.
21. How dare anyone tell us that Africa cannot be redeemed, when we have 400,000,000 men
and women with warm blood coursing through their veins? The power that holds Africa is not
divine.
22. The power that holds Africa is human, and it is recognized that whatsoever man has done,
man can do.
23. All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishment of an African Empire—so strong and
powerful, as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our life-time can so work and act as to
make the dream a possibility within another generation.
24. Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free,
redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations.
25. No one knows when the hour of Africa's Redemption cometh. It is in the wind. It is coming.
One day, like a storm, it will be here. When that day comes all Africa will stand together.
Reference: Marcus Garvey Edited by E. David Cronon.
(He quotes from Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, vol. II by Amy Jacques Garvey,
Editor.
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The RED, BLACK and GREEN FLAG was unveiled to the world by the Honorable Marcus
Mosiah Garvey and the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and
African Communities League, of the World at it's first international convention on August
13, 1920. The UNIA-ACL knew that Africans at home and abroad needed there own flag
as other flags around the world could not
represent the collective of African people.
The use of Red, Black and Green as colors
symbolizing African nationhood was first
"adopted by the UNIA-ACL as part of the 1920
Declaration of Rights as the official colors of the
African race. The question of a flag for the race
was not as trivial as might have appeared on the
surface, for in the United States especially, the
lack of an African symbol of nationhood seems
to have been cause for crude derision on the
part of whites and a source of sensitivity on the
part of Afro-Americans. White derision over this
deficiency was summed up in a popular
American song, "Every Race Has a Flag But the
'Coon.'" A 1912 report apearing in the Africa
Times and Orient Review (for which Marcus Garvey worked) documented the far-
reaching consequences of this song. In 1921 he declared,
Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people
without any pride. Aye! In song and mimicry they have said, "Every race has a flag but
the coon." How true! Aye! But that was said of us four years ago. They can't say it
now....2
The race catechism Garveyites used explained the significance of the red, black, and
green as for the "color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and
liberty", black for "the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong," and
green for "the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland."3
A flag must represent the standard by which it's people live. Thus, the Universal African
Flag, the 52nd Article of the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World
was ratified in convention.
There has been a great deal of talk and controversy over the origin, creation and use of
the Red, Black and Green. The UNIA hopes that this controversy can be clarified once
and for all.
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There was no Red, Black and Green
Flag prior to the coming of the
Honorable Marcus Garvey and the
founding of the UNIA. Today there are
many African Nations that have
adopted the colors Red, Black and
Green after the great Marcus Garvey
and his program of African Redemption.
Any one claiming the creation of the
Red, Black and Green is historically
incorrect. The UNIA organization will
make every attempt to clear up any
misunderstandings about the matter
concerning the Red, Black and Green.
Further confusion can be misleading to
the masses of Blacks throughout the
country and the world.
The following paragraph is the official historical creation and usage of the Red,
Black and Green:
Notice to the General Public
The UNIA in 1920 in international convention adopted the Red, Black and Green
as its official colors and emblem of the Black people of the world. This flag has
been flown upside down contrary to the intention of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
who gave it to the world. It is unlawful, disrespecful and traitorous for any
individual or group to add any other colors to the Red, Black and Green for any
other purpose. Individuals or groups doing so are not true nationalist, and should
not be recognized as such.
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Respect and honor your flag as it stands...a
Universal banner for African People.
1) RACE FIRST: The Ideological and
Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey
and the Universal Negro Improvement
Association
2) Negro World, March 19, 1927 (reprint of a
1921 speech)
3) Universal Black Men Catechism (n.p., n.d.)
p.37
4) Garvey's Voice, July 1974
Sources/ further study link out to:
UNIA Ode to The Flag
UNIA Pledge to The Flag
The Offical Website of the UNIA and ACL and
The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project at UCLA
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IMAGES BELOW FROM:
RBG NALT (New Afrikan Leadership Training) Center
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