African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic ... - Blackherbals.com

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 7, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER August 2012
FEATURED ARTICLES
Marcus Garvey’s Liberian Dream Deferred
By Althea Romeo-Mark
Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of the most influential
black leaders of the twentieth century, used his printing
and oratory skills and charismatic personality to
organize a Pan-African movement with the intention of
returning disillusioned Black-Americans and recent
immigrant West Indians to Liberia in the 1920s.
The Jamaican born promoter of the “Back To Africa
Movement,” was born on August 17th, 1887 in St.
Ann’s Bay, Saint Ann’s Parish, and died in London,
England, on June 1940. He was one of eleven siblings
born to Marcus Mosiah Garvey and Sarah Jane
Richards.
He had a background in printing and published his first
newspaper, The Watchman, in 1909. He later went on to
edit the newspaper, `La Nacionalè in 1911, Colon,
Panama, before returning to Jamaica in 1912. But he
soon left for London in 1912 where he worked for the
African Times and Orient Review.
According to Charlotte Phillips Fein, Marcus Garvey’s
“Lifelong interest in Negro and African history was
sparked by his acquaintance with African students,
particularly Duse Mohammed Ali (publisher of the
African Times and Orient Review), a half-Negro
Egyptian nationalist . . . Garvey was inspired upon
learning of Booker T. Washington’s plan for uplifting
the Negro race, conceived of himself as a divinely
appointed leader of the black masses. Returning to
Jamaica in 1914, he sponsored the formation of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association.” [1]
In his article “William E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey,
and Pan-Africa”, Ben F. Rogers, states that Garveys’
attempt in 1914 to set up a Universal Negro
Improvement Association in Jamaica had been abortive.
“New York City, however, seemed to have possibilities
far beyond those of the West Indies and so in 1917
Garvey reorganized the U.N.I.A. and in the following
year began publishing the Negro World, a weekly paper
disseminating his Pan-African ideas. Negroes
immediately began to flock to his banner, and there
is little question that Marcus Garvey was the most
popular Negro leader in the United States during the
early 1920s . . . .In part, of course his dynamic
personality, his great oratorical powers, and his
shrewd understanding of psychology.” [2]
Marcus Garvey’s background in printing was a
blessing because his publications became vehicles
for spreading the vision of an African Homeland to
many West Indian and Afro-Americans who
dreamed of a less oppressive life. John L Graves in
his paper, “The Social Ideas of Marcus Garvey”,
mentions that “A large portion of the immigrants to
America after World War 1 were Negro immigrants
of English, French and Spanish tongues . . . Of these
. . . some 10,630 or 86.6 percent of the total were
Negroes from the West Indies. . . The West Indians
were full of hope, as were most immigrant groups.
They were usually very ambitious and intended to
act upon the American ideal of equal opportunity for
all.” [3] These hopes were soon dashed with the rise
of the Ku Klux Klan and empty promises made by
the American government. Black American soldiers
and their families were hoping to reap the rewards of
having fought to defend America in World War I.
“American Negro disillusionment equalled that of
the West Indian Negro and both existed in a plight of
utter hopelessness of ever having full rights to
freedom, let alone happiness, in America . . . Garvey
relied on his stirring heroic propaganda and an
emotional need among his people that amounted to a
Messianic expectancy. This commenced one of the
foremost Negro mass-movements in history.” [4]
Garvey through his speeches and newspaper was
able to propagate black pride, black self-sufficiency
and enterprise. His propaganda was so compelling
Continued on page 35
-34- Traditional African Clinic August 2012