Rasta Lessons: Marcus Garvey

My goal here is to feature certain profiles of influential people that precipitated the rastafarian movement. Once we've talked about the different profiles we can tie it all together in the end.

Marcus Garvey: 1887 - 1940

Garvey was a Jamaican who was influential in advancing the idea of Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is a philosophy based on the concept of the unity of the African race in Africa and the Diaspora. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Garvey's intentions were noble in that he wanted the colonial powers to leave Africa, the Caribbean and other places where colonialism still existed at the expense of African descendants. He wanted African and Caribbean nations to rise up to the level of the first world countries and excel as nations. He conceived of a unifying of African countries into a United States of Africa, based on the same idea that governs the United States of America. His concept of unity was fierce, "Our unity must know no clime, boundary or nationality... let us hold together under all climes and in every country..." (taken from an editorial in the Negro World entitled "African fundamentalism").  Garvey was a bit of a mixed bag in that while he wanted independence from colonial systems where Africans are subservient to the colonizers, he wanted to adopt the structure once free because the systems have proven to work well. 

Marcus Garvey was raised as a Methodist Christian and later declared himself as non-denominational. He advocated a reading of scripture that challenged the Eurocentric interpretation of scripture say in effect, "we will read the scriptures through the lenses of Ethiopia". His philosophy was that just as God is white to the Europeans, necessarily God is Black to the Africans. 

Marcus Garvey did not accept the assertion that the newly coronated king of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I was the messiah. Selassie's divinity was asserted by Leonard Howell. Garvey was, however, inspired by the coronation because to him it represented a rising up of an African nation to the world stage. This was his dream coming to fruition and I'm sure as other African and Caribbean countries came to independence, self-rule and prosperity he would rally around their leader as well. In his Jamaican newspaper, The Blackman, Garvey asserts his support but is often taken out of context in declaring Selassie as the messiah with this phrase, "The Psalmist prophesied that Princes would come out of Egypt and Ethiopia would stretch forth her hands unto God. We no doubt that the time is now come. Ethiopia is now really stretching forth her hands. The great kingdom of the East has been hidden for many centuries, but gradually she is rising to take a leading place in the world and it is for us of the Negro race to assist in every way to hold up the hand of Emperor Ras Tafari."

My commentary on the full text and this last paragraph was that Garvey was simply excited about what Selassie represented and his potential. Ras Tafari was crowned king in 1930 and took on his name of Haile Selassie I

By 1937 the dream was over. Garvey was critical of Selassie all along but by this time as a result of the Italo-Ethiopian war. The Italo-Ethiopian war had begun in 1935 and was Mussolini's attempt at claiming more land for Italy to expand their empire. Italy controlled neighboring Eritrea and Somaliland and Ethiopia was one of the few independent African countries at the time and was ripe for imperialist invasion. Italy succeeded in defeating Ethiopia and it was annexed into the empire of Italian East Africa. Garvey was disgusted. His criticisms stabbed at Selassie that he was not prepared and that he resorted to fasting and praying instead of equipping his armies. Ethiopia would later be liberated by the East African Campaign in World War II. 

Garveyites protested the war in Ethiopia from the start and held demonstrations in Jamaica and the US. under the pan-africanist philosophy many Jamaicans wanted to go fight with Ethiopia against Italy. Jamaica was still an English colony at the time however and England looked down on the Jamaicans seeming willingness to serve two masters.

One of Garvey's crowning ambitions and disasters was the incorporation of the Black Star Line shipping company. Repatriation was a strong ideal for Garvey and he believed that just as Africans were plucked off the continent, some day all Africans will return to the continent to help build the empire. Black Star Line was repatriation in the most real sense and was incorporated to eventually take everyone back to Africa. (This is a different approach than some early Rastafarian leaders who after a rousing demonstration, marched to the sea expecting ships to materialize and take them back to Africa)

In short, the ships bought by the company were in poor condition and bought for more than they were worth. There was also corruption in the management and sabotage and infiltration by the US Bureau of Investigation (the forerunner to the FBI). 

Through all this - what Garvey contributed to what would become the Rastafarian movement was a philosophical and ideological approach to thinking of African and those in the diaspora as people who are overdue to become great. He advocated for Black Supremacy as well as the Back to Africa movement which were embraced by the Rastafarians who still consider Ethiopia as an ancestral and metaphorical home. He also contributed the concept of reading the Bible as an African and what it means to look at it through different lenses. As a person living during colonialism he advocated for decolonization which is still an active part of the Rastafarian mentality. 

At the same time Garvey differed from the Rastafarians, particularly on his loyalty to Christian beliefs and rejecting Selassie as the messiah. He also rejected the concept of using marijuana as a sacrament. He saw it as destructive and represented an ungluing of society. 

Nonetheless, Marcus Garvey is hailed as a prophet by the Rastafarians and is immortalized in reggae music especially by Burning Spear (a long time Garvey-ite). Garvey has been called "John the Baptist" because at one point he pointed to Africa for the messiah to come. I have also heard of an obscure rastafarian trinity that consists of Selassie, Marcus Garvey, and Leonard Howell. Garvey himself never identified with the Rastfarian movement but provided the ideological framework for its existence.

Garvey died in June 1940 of two strokes after putatively reading a mistaken and negative obituary of himself in the Chicago Defender. He was buried in London and was later exhumed and buried in Jamaica whereupon he was declared Jamaica's first national hero.