Marcus Garvey's birthday

The Birthday of Marcus Garvey is celebrated within the Rastafari Movement with a Grounation or Bynghi - a special religious occasion to honour a great event.

Marcus Garvey was born on 17th August 1887 in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica and became a pivotal figure in the struggles against colonialism in the early part of the 20th century, becoming a National hero of Jamaica. He was born into a Methodist family and later became a Roman Catholic, which is surprising, considering his influence on others.

Little is known of Garvey’s early life, but it is known that he worked in various jobs in the Caribbean before travelling to London, UK in 1912, where he worked for the African Times and Orient Review, published by Duse Mohamed Ali. Garvey is also known to have been a speaker at Hyde Park’s Speakers Corner from time to time. It would appear that during this time Garvey formed opinions which would not only influence the remainder of his life but also the lives of many others.

Garvey became convinced that uniting black people was the only way to improve their living and social circumstances, so back in Jamaica he formed two bodies: the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League (ACL). His goal, as their first President-General was to "unite all people of African ancestry… to establish a country and absolute government of their own". Garvey wanted Africans to "redeem" their ancestral lands from the colonial powers (the British, French, Germans, Portuguese, Belgians and Spanish). This was clearly interpreted as a "Back to Africa" campaign, which encouraged Afro-Caribbeans to return to their ancestral homelands.

In later years these thoughts and concepts would inspire the Nation of Islam and the Rastafari Movement, who view Garvey as a Prophet, and revere him for his philosophical ideology almost as much as they do Haile Selassie I as the Jah (Jehovah).

Garvey ventured from Jamaica to the USA, and also launched a series of notorious and ill-fated business ventures including the Black Star Line Steamship Company and the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company, which were intended to transport African Americans back to their roots. There was also the Negro Factories Corporation and other ventures.

When these all failed to achieve their objectives, Garvey tried to develop Liberia, where he wanted to build educational establishments, railways and factories, but this faltered in the mid-1920’s when European-based businesses with interests there objected.

It is about this time that Garvey was said to have proclaimed, in response to a question: "I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there".

Garvey was not a believer, per se, in black supremacy and even had a conference with Ku Klux Klan representatives, regarding them as being open and honest about their intentions, as opposed to the white groups who said one thing, and then actively worked to ensure that their words were just rhetoric.

J Edgar Hoover led an investigation into the Black Star Line, and Garvey was found guilty of a minor fraud (basically on technical grounds). Many believe that the whole case was politically motivated. In 1925 he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, but President Coolidge commuted the sentence and Garvey was released in 1927 and deported to Jamaica.

On arriving at Orrett’s Wharf in Kingston, Garvey was greeted by a huge crowd who then paraded through the streets until he was back at the UNIA HQ building. It must be said that at the time UNIA was about 1 million members strong, which made it larger as a Pan-African movement that the US Civil Rights Movement at its peak.

arvey had a mutual antagonism with W E B du Bois, leader of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and neither man trusted the other.

Garvey presented a Petition of the Negro Race to the League of Nations in 1928 and a year later founded Jamaica’s first modern political party, the People’s Political Party which focused on workers’ rights, education and aid to the poor.

After serving as an elected Councillor for a while and being involved in other business ventures, Garvey moved to London in 1935 where he remained relatively active and in touch with matters.

Garvey died on 10th June 1940, reportedly after reading a negative obituary to himself which had been erroneously published. His memory is kept alive through schools, colleges, roads and buildings around the world which have been named in his honour. His Red, Black and Green UNIA flag became the Black Liberation Flag.

Although he never proclaimed himself a supporter of the Rastafari Movement and openly criticised Emperor Haile Selassie I on occasions, Garvey is seen as a prophet in the religion, some believing that he was the reincarnation of John the Baptist.

In the 1920s he is said to have said "Look to Africa, for there a King will be crowned", which is interpreted as foretelling the arrival of Haile Selassie I as the living Jah.

His UNIA and Back-to-Africa work was very close to early Rastafari thinking and a pro-Rasta movement called the Afro-Athlican Church also revered Garvey as a Prophet.

To this date Garvey and his work is mentioned in reggae music, cementing the influence that he had upon the Movement.