-FILE
In this July 1987 file photograph, Prime Minister Edward Seaga (foreground) applauds after unveiling the bust of Jamaica's first National Hero, the Rt. Hon. Marcus Garvey, at the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) Secretariat on Trafalgar Road in St. Andrew. The bust was sculpted by local artist, Curtis Johnson, at a cost of $25,000 which was funded by the SBAJ.Edward Seaga, Contributor
As a tribute on the 119th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey which was commemorated last week, I reproduce here some of what I said in 1988 on the 25th anniversary of the conferment on Garvey the singular honour of the first National Hero of Jamaica.
Arguably, Garvey was the most important Jamaican in our history. The breadth and depth of his message had an impact which continues to challenge humanity today.
Marcus Garvey benefited from the work and example of those who broke down barriers which prevented people of African descent from having equal rights and opportunities. such enlightened men as William Knibb, Sam Sharpe, Edward Jordon and Robert Love worked relentlessly and without apology to overcome the beliefs, prejudices, distortions, bigotry and half-truths which had threatened and denied the humanity of people of African descent.
Misconceptions and errors
It was not just a case, said Garvey, of freedom, acceptance, tolerance or political rights, or of simple social justice. It was a case of having to flush out 100 years of misconceptions and errors.
The total product was wrong because the initial formula, equation or prescription was wrong. The conclusions were incorrect because the assumptions were faulty. There could be no compromise.
The New World had been built on a belief in the second-class character of the people of Africa: That they were a cheaper model made by God, a second-rate product devised from inferior materials and therefore not expected to give first-class performance, a less carefully designed instrument created specifically for menial work requiring little thought or skill.
And because every agency of education and communication in the new world tended to be tainted by this belief in inequality, the people of African descent themselves received a distorted image of their own humanity, directly or implied, in books, pictures, lectures, sermons and on social occasions, whether in school, at home, at the workplace, or in places of recreation and worship.
Being thus conditioned, there was a natural desire on the part of aspiring people of African descent to attempt to conform to the system of inequality. By adopting its mores, even when these were at odds with their own physical appearance, they hoped for some degree of acceptance. But Marcus Garvey would have none of that.
Having a clear insight into this dilemma, Marcus Garvey focused his campaign, not only on the oppressive system and those who ran it, but on the so-called victims as well. "You will be victims as long as you believe that you are less than others. No matter how respected the fount of information may be, if it tells you that you are less, it is lying to you. Cast it out; flush out every vestige, suggestion or insinuation that your colour is a badge of inferiority," he counselled.
Self-employment
"Don't seek for acceptance at the expense of your self-respect, your soul. Why hammer at gates where you are not wanted? Build your own mansions, enterprises, nations and governments. Build them so powerfully that the world will have no choice but to acknowledge them and take them seriously.
"Take this beam out of your eyes, rid your system of it, purge it from the mother's milk upon which your children are fed; do not tolerate, countenance, accommodate or acknowledge it. What are titles but names that give distinction or honour to some thing or person? What are uniforms but clothing designed by human beings to give special force and meaning to an individual or group and to capture the imagination? What are symbols but signs and objects which human beings invest with a special significance to evoke feelings of awe, loyalty and respect?
"There is no need to bow to these things when they are part of systems which reduce your humanity to second or third rate. Create your own titles, symbols, uniforms, ceremonies and rituals, based on those things which uplift, ennoble, refresh and dignify your humanity and which glorify your achievements."
Put thoughts into action
This was Garvey's thinking and he put his thoughts into action. Marcus Garvey saw clearly that if 95 per cent of the people of Jamaica considered themselves inferior, then the country was doomed. He began the process of flushing out the impurities and poisons from the collective consciousness, from the speech and beliefs, stories and images of the society.
In Jamaica, Marcus Garvey preached to people who were in the majority and, therefore, whose sheer weight of numbers would be a deciding factor in development. But in other places where people of African descent were in the minority, his message had equal force and validity.
Influence spreads
Beyond the shores of Jamaica, he organised millions, and his influence spread to the Americas to Africa and Asia, wherever people were imprisoned by false doctrines of race and colour. But it was the message rather than the organising that was most successful.
On the surface, for a time, it seemed that Marcus Garvey had failed; certainly here in Jamaica. But, as the Bible says, "Unless the seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bring forth fruit."
Marcus Garvey's message sought to liberate minds from mental slavery, even as his predecessors had sought to remove physical shackles and to change the written laws and unwritten customs.
In spite of ridicule and antagonism, people inspired by Garvey's uncompromising words began to work for the removal of visible and invisible barriers.
In the 1930s and 1940s, campaigns were launched by teachers, politicians and trade unionists, among others, to make available all levels of opportunity and employment to people of black or dark complexion, who now began to be openly employed in banks, stores, hotels, insurance companies, offices, etc.
Exclusive clubs based primarily on colour began to adopt more liberal policies or else to disappear. Hotels whose management and staff had once shuddered at the approach of black guests were forced to open up their doors to all paying customers who were prepared to obey their rules. Schools where colour had been a silent factor were pressured by the new spirit into abandoning discriminatory postures.
Black relatives acknowledged
All this went hand in hand with the growth of trade union and political activities, and the broadening of the franchise to all adults, developments which men like Jordon and Love had advocated. Fair-complexioned people began to be less embarrassed at having to acknowledge black relatives. They began to feel less constrained to explain the presence of black friends.
Black people were now able to rise to top positions in the police force, the army and the civil service. It began to be felt that human beauty could be manifested in a variety of forms, colours and features, and was not confined to what was once assumed to be preferred European standards.
Colour and racial biases which had been deliberately implanted and cultivated in the artificially created colonial society of Jamaica, in order to legitimise and bolster the system of African slavery, were being rooted out.
Liberating words
Behind all these changes were the liberating words of Marcus Garvey. Let me quote: "Man is able to shape his own character, direct his own life and shape his own ends. When God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, and bestowed upon him the authority of 'lord of creation', he never intended that the individual should descend to the level of a serf or a slave, but that he should be always man, in the fullest possession of his senses and with the truest knowledge of himself.
"Remember that you are men, that God created you lords of this creation. Lift up yourselves, take yourselves out of the mire and hitch your hopes to the stars; yes, rise as high as the very stars themselves. Let no man pull you down; let no man destroy your ambition; because man is but your companion, your equal; man is your brother, he is not your lord; he is not your sovereign master."
Marcus Garvey responded vigorously to the challenge of his times, to the human problems of the first half of the 20th century. Some of those problems have been alleviated since his death.
But, most of all, we are indebted to him for his uncompromising, unrepentant frontal attack upon racial prejudice everywhere, that wasting social disease that has crippled generations and sapped their vitality. Garvey stood in its path and struck it a lethal blow.
Knew no half measures
Garvey knew no half measures. Because of the conditions which existed in the first 40 years of the 20th century, he felt that people of African descent would only have a chance for maximum development on the continent of Africa. It was only there, he thought, that they would be allowed to build the strong nations and enterprises that would compel the rest of the world to respect them wherever they might be.
One may take issue with this today, many years after Garvey's death, as many people did while he was still alive. But, no well-thinking person can fault the powerful demand made by Garvey upon his people, to stand up in this world with heads held high, proud of themselves as created, bestowed by a loving God, even as their ancestors had been.
Garvey shattered the mental prison that developed in this part of the world over some 400 years, to let in the fresh winds of liberty and equality which we now breathe today. For this, we made him the first National Hero of Jamaica.
Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a distinguished fellow at the University of the West Indies. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm.
