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Who Was Marcus Garvey?
Tuesday 7th February 2017 | Tali
Self-educated and a prominent civil rights activist, Marcus Garvey spread a message of pride, dignity and integrity that goes much deeper that his title of black nationalist.
Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887 and first found his passion for activism in 1910 when he travelled to South and Central America. It was there that he worked as a newspaper editor and wrote about the exploitations of migrants who worked on the plantations. Soon after, he attended Birkbeck College now known as the University of London where he worked for the African Times and Orient Review. Publications that promoted the strengthening of bonds and unity between people of African descent, also known as Pan-African nationalism.
Feeling discontent yet inspired, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A) and African Communities League in 1912, when he returned back to Jamaica. In 1916 he travelled to New York to initiate another U.N.I.A, with this he wanted to establish a community of black people who had knowledge of and pride in their African roots.
Through his work, Garvey created a global mass movement, known as Garveyism which was born out of the social and political oppression amongst the black population and aimed to develop the African continent into a modern network of nations. Recognised as an integral black activist, Garvey was pronounced Jamaica's first national hero with his philosophy of the social, political, and economic freedom of black people still holding prominence today.
