Marcus Mosiah Garveys Movement - Essay Example

Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s Movement Marcus Garvey Mosiah, a black man from the West Indies and born in Jamaica on August 1887, was the youngest child in a family of eleven. He attended a local elementary school until the age of fourteen when he became apprentice in the printing trade, where he worked to gain experience. Marcus moved to Kingston in 1903; he worked as a printer and became involved into public activities as well as those of the Printers Union, which is also the first trade union in Jamaica. In 1907, Garvey took part in an unsuccessful strike by the printers, where organized workers declined to work pending certain demands. The above experience is what influenced Garvey in both his journalistic and political passions (Chapman 336). He soon commenced publishing a periodical known as the watchman. This study, therefore, seeks to explore Garvey’s political beliefs, practices, his organization and its appeal, as well as its downfall. Political beliefs and practices Marcus Garvey is one of the most authoritative and influential leaders, of Black Nationalism, in the twentieth century. By establishing the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Garvey wanted to build-through enterprise as well as mass education, a unified nation of people with African blood. As a powerful writer, orator and organizer, Garvey succeeded in recruiting close to one million UNIA members from all over the world. However, in 1910, he commenced a series of travels that changed him from the average person concerned with problems of people with less opportunity to an African nationalist, determined to uplift entire race from bondage (Satter 49). Garvey visited Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama, where he worked as an editor for some radical newspapers, during the early moments of service. Garvey’s keen interest in Africa and that of its history came about after his visit to England, where he mingled with several African nationalists. In a number of the countries that Garvey visited, he acknowledged that the black man was on inferior levels, subject to the continuous changing ideals of stronger races. The writings of Booker T. Washington on “Up from slavery” also contributed greatly to the interventions that Garvey sought to bring. His endeavors got a boost after meeting a Sudanese-Egyptian supporter of Africa self-rule, Duse Mohammed Ali, who employed him, thus ensuring his interaction with other black activists (Satter 68). Garvey’s Organization and Appeal Garvey established a Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Community League (UNIA-ACL), an organization that its key mandate was to work for the overall uplift of the Negro individuals of the world. The formation of this organization was in 1914, when he returned to Jamaica from England. In order to acquire funds for his Jamaican organization, Garvey moved to the United States in 1916, where he established a branch of his UNIA. Despite burning of the Negro world by white rulers in certain parts of Africa, it reached out to the black race over the world and even penetrated the interior of Africa (Chapman 364). The organization appealed to the black community to return to Africa for the development of a great nation. However, he knew that until this was attainable, Africans had to make themselves economically stable and independent in their respective areas of residence. He further encouraged black communities to start their own business in the various ghettos that they dominated. In accordance to his basic principle and the belief that each race had to see God through its own racial eyes, Garvey together with Archbishop George McGuire started the African Orthodox Church. Official announcement of the Black Madonna and the Black Christ then took place in the UNIA convention of 1924. In 1919, He charted Black Star Shipping Line, also known as B.S.L that promoted the black cross-continental trade. Beneath his red, black and green banner of Pan-Africanism, a commitment of solidarity by all blacks, Garvey championed the worship of a black god and the study of black history. Devoted to separating black and white races, a position that he believed was critical to cultural development and racial prosperity, Garvey cautioned black workers against possible manipulation by the white trade unions (Chapman 402). Garvey’s Organization Downfall The Black-Star Shipping Company, as well as Negro Factories Corporation, were to be commercial strengths to Garvey’s movement. However, the failures of the shipping venture Garvey’s enemies a chance to destroy him. Following the loss of his shipping line investments, Garvey was sent to prison while in the United States in 1925 for approximately two years after which he was deported to Jamaica. Moreover, his Liberia colonization plans were no longer valid due to the pressure mounted on the Liberian government by the colonial powers. Another contributing factor that enhanced the downfall of this movement was that American Industrialist Harvey Firestone then took the land that had been initially allocated to Garveys organization for settlement of overseas Africans (Lewis 150). Besides the above factor, most of the expensive equipment’s shipped by Garvey to Liberia for his colonial mission did not get to serve their purpose. His dreams for the black community suffered another major blow when he attempted to enter politics, with the limitations of time that never allowed voting of the black masses. Left with no other viable options, Garvey proceeded to England to continue with his duty of social protest, as well as his calls for the liberation of Africa. With the capture of all his potential resources for the liberation of the blacks, the organization could neither sustain itself leave alone fulfilling its mandate (Lewis 156). The Protests to Garvey’s Activities In spite of his emerging popularity, Garvey received opposition and protest from both white and black labor, religious and political organizations. The above rejection was as a result of a rise in the communist and socialist conspiracies that resulted to a number of people to view Garvey’s movement as a harbinger to radical black power. The harshest resistance was among the black leaders, including A. Philip Randolph, the then spokesman of Socialist Labor Party, and Cyril V. Briggs, who was the African Blood Brotherhood. The above riots were as a result of Garvey’s economic policies and ideologies that appeared to take the line of segregation. The bone of contention between Garvey and his fellow blacks was in the different views that each party had. Garvey on his side was acting in the best interest of the African communities, trying to liberate them from the bondage of slavery by the whites. The other segment of the blacks who opposed his ideologies, in their individual capacities, were championing for the progress of the black community. As a result, the two parties got embroiled into a bitter dispute over which issues was to take precedence over the other, that is, between the black progress and African liberation. This move greatly undermined the progress made by Garvey towards African liberation processes (Satter 72). Despite the limited success in his lifetime, Garvey has become an international symbol for the black freedom. His legacy acted as an integral force to the “Black is Beautiful” consciousness in the 1960s. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., referred to him as “the first man, on a large scale to give millions of Negros the sense of destiny and dignity.” UNIA claimed, during its heyday, the membership of Black Muslim leader Elijah Mohammed as well as the father of Malcolm X. Garvey, a proclaimed national hero by the Jamaican Government in 1964, became an inspirational statue within the Jamaican Rastafarian religious movement. Indebted to the dedication and perseverance of Garvey’s Pan-Africa struggle, Malcolm X wrote, “every time you see an independent nation in the African continent you acknowledge Marcus Garvey is alive.” References Chapman, Thandeka K. "Foundations of Multicultural Education: Marcus Garvey and the United Negro Improvement Association." The Journal of Negro Education 12.2 (2014): 334-424. Satter, Beryl. "Marcus Garvey, father divine and the gender politics of race difference and race neutrality." American Quarterly 48.1 (1996): 43-76. Lewis, Rupert. "Marcus Garvey and the early Rastafarians: continuity and discontinuity." Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader (1998): 145-158. Read More