Marcus Garvey: Finding the Identity of African People

The book entititled “Marcus Garvey” is a life story that tells about him. Sarah Jane Richards and Marcus gravy senior the parents of Marcus Garvey who was born in St.ann’s bay Jamaica on the 17 of august 1887,Marcus Garvey was a social activist, protestant of the black nationalism and panafricanism movement he was also president general of the universal negro improvement association. Marcus Garvey was self educated he did not obtain certain level of education. Early up in his life at age fourteen he became a printers’ apprentice, Garvey took part in a printer’s strive and he develop this passion for political activism because f the experiences he had. While he established the ideology pillars of twenty century, the panafricanist movement was to promote self determination and self reliance for the independence of Africa.This book Marcus Garvey” was authored by Rupert Lewis and published in 2018. Rupert Lewis is a professor of political thought in the department of government he was the associate director of center for Caribbean thoughts, associate dean for graduate studies in social sciences at the University of the west indies, he edited and authored book mostly on Garvey movement, Walter Rodney and other articles. Rupert is valid credible and reliable since he has experiences in the different areas of studies and an expert in the field of research, because of how knowledgeable he is, the information he gathered and wrote a book on Marcus Garvey it allows readers to be able to review and report on this book because of how logical it is. Marcus Garvey made contributions to the development of Caribbean people post colonial identity; it is evident through the major themes of racism, marginalization, identity, double consciousness

Marginalized is treating a group or race insignificant or peripheral and this was what has append the black and the afro-Americans they were marginalized because of where they came from, their race, colour and ethnicity. The afro-Americans were double conscious this affects how they look at them self through the eyes of the racist white society. The center of interest on marginalization was universal thought the seven chapters of the book, Garvey did not appreciate this, during his life time this was one of his major concern and most of what he did was to fight against this.. Africans was regarded as sub human if the white’s eyes the white’s thought they were superior and the black’s were inferior this contributed to racism,, because of this racism the Africans were enslaved.. racism can also twist social life and relationships, Garvey has been exposed and experiencing racism from his early age at 14, where he had a childhood friend who was white, but they had to end the friendship because Garvey was black and her parents was racist and they did not appreciate their daughter having a black friend.(lewis,13) the black people and the negro went through the hardship of racism. The existence of racism was so horrible that, interracial unions and miscegenation was the only solution to black people oppression(Lewis 31). Garvey was a part of a club called the national club and this club was to fight against racism. Racism has poisoned the minds of people in modern society and this has been passing from one generation to the next, because of what happen when afro Americans and the blacks where colonized it affect the generation now because people are bleaching out their skin because they don’t appreciate how people look down on them and this leads to identity. Erick Williams stated that racism is a consequence of slavery; the blacks were relentlessly beaten and abused frequent riots stated to occurred, Garvey wanted Africa as a continent so they could escape the racism from the new world. The only way these people could escape all this they were facing was to educate them. Garvey studied at brickbeck college, because of his passion for reading he went on to the British library and read about African history.

The children are the future and Garvey develop a movement the universal negro improvement association (UNIA) he thought that this could help empower and uplift Africa in the movement on e of his major objective was to establish universities, colleges and secondary for further education and culture these young girls and boys. (Lewis 11) being educated helps an individual to get status and help you to move through the and go up the social mobility pyramid. Garvey has seen this as a means and way of controlling what the blacks facing, so by extension he opened a reading room in Kingston, with this people had the privilege to read and reading maketh a full man (Bacon) in this they would have a chance to be knowledgeable and contribute to their intellectual development and this would now allow them to appreciate and take pride in their colour. Even though some black where educated than the white they still could not pass a certain level in the social mobility pyramid the uneducated whites where still above them and privilege to get jobs because of their colour and race. Marcus Garvey was tired of this situation he was not pleased he was disgusted about the situation so he did everything in his power just to stop all this racism. Deep down the white’s knew that the blacks were superior. Because even with the black star line ship which was his contribution back to the African movement, this contributed to the caused Marcus Garvey to be in prison was because of the whites did not want the blacks to have anything over them and the black star line ship allowed Marcus Garvey to fill up a lot a gaps. They started to sabotaged Garvey saying he’s selling fraud stocks, and the ship went bankrupt but In today ‘s society racism still exist in some countries but it is not that prevalent any more is just in certain job in the Caribbean, today black men are owning a lot a big business, they are privilege to do whatever the whites did and are doing, now every white women need a black men, the whites are even tannin in the sun.

Garvey loves his race and people so much he had a space in his heart the black. All he wanted was for them to have little pride in their identity.the blacks did not accept their identity, they played a hypocrite of who they are, they were more into self-denial and using other colonizer to define themselves. they had a mental, a story was shared in the book about a negro and a white man where the negro had his foot out in the way and the white man intentionally stepped on his foot but because of how inferior they were to the whites that even though the white man was wrong the negro but the negro saw it fittingly appropriate to apologize “sorry boss for having my foot in the way” thus was how deep the Negros lost their identity. Garvey was so disgusted about these and he did not like it so he created movements that could have empower, brainwashed and uplift the Negros and these Negros would be classified or called new negro. In the same story that was shared further down a man passed and stepped on the new negro the negro was so upset the did not apologized like the old negro instead he ask the man “what the hell do you mean by that”(Lewis 16). Garvey’s development might have been such a huge accomplishment should him he felt incredible around himself what's more entryway the blacks off should look on the world, they didn't permit those white on treat them such as they were subpar. Garvey divulges that “America is likewise considerably Negro’s similarly as white men. Yet the white men asserts might prevail not main due to the demography Anyway in light those Americans might have been on the groundwork for conquest, genocide Furthermore combination of the budgetary social Also political framework of the white energy.(Lewis 31-32) Garvey In any case battled for as much dark kin foundation he needed Africa will be An landmass for its own Furthermore need political positioning, Garvey might have been with the goal nausea by those white he implored those blacked to centered on their country so that they might have political position What's more every last one of privileged those whites needed those will bring that privileged done their country. Garveys hypothesis was that he think in the repatriation of Africa they were lied to about their identity. Historically identity has always been a problem but ancestors and people like marcus garvey fought acidulously for one to know and take pride in his identity. Garvey work contributed highly to repatriation to Africa which helps with post colonial identity. Even though cultural barriers exist people who were from united did not cast America side. With everything said and done that had to do with identity everything has now developed and can be classified as Eurocentric.

Eurocentric is the focus on the European culture to the exclude of wider culture, Europeans and most African can be grouped as Eurocentric. European contributed to the issues the blacked faced. The whites thought that they were the only Europeans because of how the blacks were treated back in slavery days it is instilled in their minds that they were inferior to he white because of their race and human social behavior, they still have his mental slavery mentality about them. The whites trying to act to act inferior to the black is coming from slavery days when the whites where the plantation owners and the blacks were the workers, so they feared them and they were not privileged to do as they please, in early 20th century, the blacks had portraits of the British crowns in their peasant homes, an idea perpetrated by the British crown (Lewis 16). They had to obey and comply to the rules regulation and culture of that country and forget about all the rituals and civilization of their country even after the emancipation act, the black still portray some of the European culture because of how they were brained washed by the Europeans and they had no identity they accept anything, this is coming from when they were colonized after all Marcus Garvey’s movements the blacks somewhat appreciated their colour but they still held on to some of the European mentality, because of this mentality it lead to double consciousness.

Discrimination, prejudice, harshness, brain wash and racism led to double consciousness and this is the conflict between who you really are and what people see you as (conflict between identities) the black became double conscious when Garvey founded the UNIA in 1917, where the blacks felt bad to be called “NEGRO”(Lewis 9) in the big news paper headline Garvey was written up because of his movements and the blacks lost their identity and was so brained washed and was shamed about who they are and did not want to be called negro the classified him as “crazy” and he lost his head. Double consciousness brought out a lot as it relates to identity. The blacks were double conscious they started to deny themselves; they were being an hypocrite and trying to define themselves to the colonial British because of this the blacks think that the lighter they are it will shield them from the racial discrimination hence persons bleach just to get lighter skin or to be white, this can also lead to self consciousness.

This book about Marcus Garvey authored by Rupert Lewis and to the memory of Amy Jacques Garvey(1896-1973) his second wife who gave the information was so informative and educational. I would recommend every Jamaican, African and Africa Diaspora to read this book; it educates you about where everything in society came from and the things that contributed to it. This book has credible and relevant information as it relates to Garvey’s life and his movements in trying to allow Africa and the black to have pride and appreciate their identity and do not feel inferior to the whites, he fought tirelessly against marginalization and racism. Garvey allow the black to overcome all racism and double consciousness they faced, Marcus Garvey went through hardship, discrimination and everything that was negative against black people just for the blacks could emancipate themselves from mental slavery and appreciate their identity now it is evident that race consciousness was developed after his movements that he fought persistently with because of the contributions he made to the post colonial identity and to Africa and other countries he was merited a national hero.. These themes has contributed and highlighted how the development of post colonial identity came about. I would strongly recommend this book as a apart of Caribbean civilization material and also apart of cultural course. “People without knowledge of their past history and culture is like a tree without root” a lot of historical base has been unfolded in this book that a lot of Jamaican and African Diaspora did not know.