"Old Marcus Garvey" by Burning Spear

I first heard about Marcus Garvey through the music of Burning Spear. Of course, it wasn't until I came to America that I learned about Marcus Garvey because he was never a part of my high school curriculum. It was the musicians, the "players of instrumants," as Seeco liked to say, who awakened my curiosity about Old Marcus Garvey, and since then, I have been chanting with the Spear, "Please remember, please remember..."


Remember Marcus Garvey and sign the petition for his exoneration: https://www.causes.com/campaigns/71936-urge-president-obama-to-exonerate-marcus-garvey

Enjoy, sign, & pass it on:

https://www.causes.com/campaigns/71936-urge-president-obama-to-exonerate-marcus-garvey

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Human Rights in the Caribbean: Using Stories and Poems to Discuss Human Rights

When Christopher Columbus set foot on San Salvador, the struggle for human dignity that had begun with Cyrus of Persia (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), and eventually spread across Europe assumed a different context. Out of that initial encounter of a colonizing nation and native peoples, the need to define human rights vis-à-vis the indigenous populations, who were perceived as the Other, became a preoccupation of the English, French, Spanish, and Dutch nations. As commerce developed between the colonial powers and the colonies, in the quest to increase the production of sugar cane and its byproducts, a cheap labor force was needed; this fateful encounter led to the genocide of native peoples.

The Slave Trade and the horrors of the Atlantic Holocaust ensued and in order to maintain colonial domination, a caste system based on race and class was enshrined into law, which effectively transformed New World Africans and indigenous peoples into non-persons. Simply put, in law and customs, New World Africans and indigenous peoples were less than human and therefore did not have any rights.

These patterns of behavior became part of the culture of the Caribbean and long after former colonies gained their independence from the "fatherlands," the legacy of slavery, patriarchy, and colonialism continued in many forms that have had disastrous effects on the psyche of the oppressed.

Jamaica, one of the earliest sites of rebellion against the inhuman legacy of slavery and colonialism, has had an enduring history of preserving human dignity in the figures of Queen Nanny, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle, and Marcus Garvey. In nearly every aspect of Jamaican culture, the struggle for human rights has become a raison d'être for the creation of art. In popular music, musicians/songwriters such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, and Bob Andy, have made the cause of human rights an integral part of their work.

This is also true in the literary arts where writers such as Claude McKay, Roger Mais, and Orlando Patterson laid the foundation for many of the writers from the Caribbean Boomer generation to continue the struggle in poems, short stories, and novels.

Here is just a partial list of Caribbean writers (some of whom have been featured onthis blog) whose work explores the issues of human rights:

Robert Antoni
Opal Adisa
Julia Alvarez
Reinaldo Arenas
Edward Baugh
James Berry
Neil Bissondath
Dionne Brand 

Kamau Brathwaite
George Campbell
Jan Carew
Patrick Chamoiseau
G. Cabrera Infante
Alejo Carpentier 

Martin Carter—
Adrian Castro
Colin Channer
Michelle Cliff
Merle Collins
Afua Cooper 

Christine Craig
Fred D’Aguiar
Edwidge Danticat
Rene Depestre
Oscar Dathorne
Kwame Dawes
Junot Diaz
Zee Edgell
Garfield Ellis
Frantz Fanon
Rosario Ferre
Brenda Flanagan
Rawle Frederick
Marcus Garvey
Thomas Glave
Edouard Glissant
Lorna Goodison
Jean Goulbourne
Nicolas Guillen
Wilson Harris
John Hearne
Nalo Hopkinson
Slade Hopkinson
Cynthia James
Janet Jagan 

Anthony Kellman
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Dany Laferriere
Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool
Earl Lovelace
Roger Mais
Bob Marley
Paule Marshall
Anthony McNeill
Edgar Mittelholzer
Pamela Mordecai
Mervyn Morris
Felix Morriseau-Leroy—

Mutabaruka
VS Naipaul—
Oku Onoura
Orlando Patterson
Sasenarine Persaud
Caryl Phillips
Velma Pollard
Patricia Powell
Jennifer Rahim
Jacques Roumain
VS Reid 
Elaine “Jamaica Kincaid” Potter
Walter Rodney
Andrew Salkey
Dennis Scott
Mikey Smith
Malachi Smith
Virgil Suarez
Michael Ekweueme Thelwell
Ana Lydia Vega

Derek Walcott
Anthony Winkler

***

Courtesy of: http://www.blogactionday.org

“Garveyism Is An Outdated Ideology”: A Rebuttal

"The greatest weapon used against the Negro is DISORGANIZATION." 
~ The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.


After I read the article in The Gleaner, Garveyism Is An Outdated Ideology, I'd decided that I wasn't going to write a response. The letter is riddled with inaccuracies and demonstrates that Mr. Lipton possesses only a cursory knowledge of Marcus Garvey's work. It is also clear that Mr. Lipton has no sense of the historical contribution of Marcus Garvey to the formation of nation states in the Caribbean and Africa and his influence on the political thought of the following leaders:


Kwame Nkrumah
Nelson Mandela,
Julius Nyerere
Leopold Sedar Senghor
Henrietta Vinton Davis
Martin Luther King Jr.
Alhaji Ahmed Sekou Toure
Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Amy Jacques Garvey
Jomo Kenyatta
M. L. T. De Mena
Paul Robeson
Malcolm X
Steve Biko
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael)
Patrice Lumumba
Frantz Fanon


But then, a dear friend of mine reminded me that I should not let the letter go unanswered. So, I've chosen my blog for a partial rebuttal. For although The Gleaner has published the press release of the Marcus Garvey Celebrations Committee, Institute of Caribbean Studies, and the Rootz Foundation,


Caribbean Groups Want Obama To Pardon Marcus Garvey, they censored the most important part of the press release:


http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897.


Of course, The Gleaner did not censor comments such as, "Look Guys, this is an election year in the United States, don't you think President Obama has enough on his plate right now, Marcus Garvey is dead now for years, get real, lets deal with the problems at hand. May his soul rest in peace," which again displays historical ignorance. President Obama in his first election bid invoked Marcus Garvey's famous words in Dreams from my Father, "Rise up ye mighty race" (199).


Candidate Obama's intent was clear. He used Marcus Garvey's words to shore up his reputation as someone who understood the historical significance of Garvey's work and to secure his political and philosophical lineage in the struggle for human rights. By using Marcus Garvey's words, Mr. Obama was also sending a signal to the African American community, who were still learning about this young politician from Chicago, that he was an inheritor of the struggle for civil rights in North America.


Two questions also emerge from the comment, "Look Guys, this is an election year in the United States, don't you think President Obama has enough on his plate right now, Marcus Garvey is dead now for years, get real, lets deal with the problems at hand."


Why are we always apologizing for politicians who were elected to carry out the "will of people"? 


What's the use of a hero if he or she doesn't inspire your present actions?


I could go on and on, but Kwame Piankhi provided an excellent rebuttal: "Mr. Lipton which part of Garveyism is outdated? Indigenous control of a land's natural resources and local economy so the Black population as a whole can benefit?  The teaching of our true history preceding the slavery era so our people can gain confidence to create and govern without the aid and handouts of others and thereby love ourselves? Obtaining a scientific education so our people can demonstrate technological leadership and excellence as we do in sports? Creating culturally uplifting entertainment and music so our people, especially the youth, can be inspired to create the highest order of civilization that reflects our divine nature and divine order?"


Marcus Garvey urged New World Africans to take control of our destiny and most importantly to validate our experiences through the memorialization of our heroes--seeing the world through our own eyes: "We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind."


Further, the proof that Garvey's message is not an "outdated ideology" or as Burning Spear sang, "Garvey's old yet young" is seen on the streets on Kingston every day. Marcus Garvey and the UNIA were trying to repair the bonds between Africans and New World Africans and restore the trust that was broken among New World Africans. He was calling us to love ourselves.


Mr. Matthews, if Garveyism is outdated, explain to me why after winning our independence from England with the lives of Sam Sharpe, George William Gordon, and Paul Bogle many Jamaicans still favor the monarchy? If we really loved ourselves, why do we have one of the highest murder rates in the world? If we loved ourselves, why are we bleaching our bodies into whiteness? And if we really saw ourselves as noble people and as Marcus Garvey imagined us, why do we "dagger" each other in the streets?


Finally, Marcus Garvey's words offer the final rebuttal: 

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." ~ The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.