Greetings!
I was asking myself that if you are a sincere seeker of truth, then why stir up old 1930's strife or Get into a division because of 1930's thinking??
The fact remains too that Garvey's popularity declined as following of the Emperor grew, as well as financial aid that was sent to Ethiopia instead of to London where Garvey was located at the time. Allot of UNIA members disagreed with this new route Garvey was walking on, in the spirit of PanAfrikanism it's useless to critizise an Afrikan leader faced with an Impossible mission.Namely, beating the war-like Europeans at their own game, while being out-gunned, and overpowered by millitary might and strenght. What would you do, how would you as a HEAD OF STATE govern you're nation?
Does it bother you that Rastafari still continue to love and uphold MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY tot the FULLEST??
Afrikan Unity is the key, and bringing or reliving a 70 year old arguement is a waste of peoples time.....
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Afrika for the Afrikans no matter what!!------------------------------------------------------------[/shadow]
Marcus Garvey
by Tony Martin
Professor of Africana Studies, Wellesley College,
Massachusetts, USA
Several of the founders and early members of
Rastafarianism came out of Garvey's Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA). As the UNIA began to
decline in the 1930s several of Garvey's erstwhile
followers founded new organizations inspired to
greater or lesser degrees by ideas they had picked up
in the UNIA. The Nation of Islam of the Hon. Elijah
Muhammad also fits within this category.
The Rastafarians were influenced by Garvey's interest
in the regeneration of Africa and his advocacy of at
least selected repatriation to Africa. They also liked
Garvey's idea that people should see their God in
their own image, so that Black people should not
worship white gods. That idea was contracted into the
statement that God is Black.
When Haile Selassie was crowned emperor in 1930
Garvey's Jamaican newspaper, The Blackman, gave the
affair considerable prominence and this helped. So
great was the reverence of the early Rastas for Garvey
that they ascribed several prophetic pronouncements to
him. They said, and continue to say, for example, that
Garvey said "Look to Africa, where a Black king will
be crowned," and that the coronation of Emperor
Selassie fulfilled that prophecy.
All of this is despite the fact that there was
considerable pique felt by early Rastas at Garvey's
criticisms of Haile Selassie at the time of the
Italian Fascist invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36). Garvey
thought that Selassie had allowed Ethiopia to become
weak and fall easy prey to Italy. (Ethiopia had
defeated Italy at the Battle of Aduwa in 1896). Garvey
was fiercely supportive of the Ethiopian struggle,
though critical of Selassie. Clearly, all has been
forgiven, for Garvey is now second only to the Emperor
in the Rastafarian pantheon.
You can see more on Garvey's ideas on religion in Tony
Martin's book, Race First. There is also some
information on Garvey and the Rastafarians in his
short Garvey biography, Marcus Garvey, Hero.
Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance. Tony Martin. $12.95 (paper).
The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey. Tony Martin, Ed. $17.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).
Marcus Garvey, Hero: A First Biography. Tony Martin. $12.95 (paper).
The Pan-African Connection. Tony Martin. $12.95 (paper).
Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy. Marcus Garvey. Ed. by Tony Martin. $22.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).
Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Tony Martin. $14.95 (paper).
The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Amy Jacques Garvey, Ed. $14.95 (paper).
Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Wife No. 1. Tony Martin. Forthcoming.
African Fundamentalism: A Literary and Cultural Anthology of Garvey's Harlem Renaissance. Tony Martin, Ed. $14.95 (paper).
THE BLACK WORLD