It is however, a measure of the man that Garvey remains even today largely misunderstood in some quarters; regarded as of little importance in others, and little known to an entire generation of Black people. Part of the enigma of Garvey is the fact that he had limited tolerance for those he considered enemies of the Black race, and he was no slow coach when it came to criticizing many Black intellectuals whom he considered to be selling out their race. In fact, I submit that one of the reasons why Garvey was treated the way that he was, was because of his amazing ability to see those who were “playing games” in his day. And his sharp and blunt tongue publicly indicted, exposed, and ridiculed those who were working against his people. Here’s one example of Garvey’s caustic tongue lashing of those “Blacks” that he despised:
“The present day Negro or “Colored” intellectual is no less a liar and a cunning thief than his illustrious teacher. His occidental collegiate training only fits him to be a rogue or a vagabond, and a seeker after the easiest and best by following the line of least resistance. He is lazy, dull and uncreative. His purpose is to deceive the less fortunate of his race, and, by his wiles ride easily into position and wealth at their expense, and thereafter agitate for and seek social equality with the creative and industrious whites. To every rule, however, there is the exception, and in this case it must be applied.”
Firstly Garveyism saw the Black problem as having to do with the cultural, economic and psychological degeneration of the Black race. Garvey believed that Blacks lacked knowledge and pride in their African ancestry and therefore were easy prey to the ravages of white racism. This philosophy gained immense popularity in the early twenties when Garveyism was the most popular form of Pan-Africanism among Caribbean-Americans and African-Americans. It was an ideology that would find wide acceptance among Black leaders in Africa waging an anti-colonialist struggle for independence and freedom.
Garvey’s movement appealed strongly to ordinary Black people. It appealed, that is, to the ‘field Negro’s’ - to the residents of the northern US ghettos, and to the southern class of poor Black farmers and workers. It likewise appealed to the oppressed and impoverished Black people of the third world. Its appeal was less effective with the ‘house Negro’s’ of the Black educated classes. This stratum was generally more attracted to the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the work of activists such as Dr. W.E.B. Dubois.
As a progressive ideology and philosophy one of Garveyism’s greatest appeals to ordinary Black people, an appeal which Black liberation groups of the 1960's were unable to duplicate, lay in fully combining within one organization ‘Black political liberation’ (liberation concerned with institutional change and the struggle for Black social, political, and in the case of Africa anti-imperialist liberation) with "Black cultural liberation’ (liberation concerned with Black identity, Black personal life, and Black contributions in the arts).
For example, the ‘educated’ “Negro” organizations’ tended to spurn the new popular Black cultural forms such as jazz seeing this as one more mark of Black ignorance. They saw musical cultural legitimacy as those standards set up in a Eurocentric context. But Garvey’s organization embraced those very forms that they spurned - jazz was frequently played at U.N.I.A. meetings - as a means of building the new positive Black identity. Moreover, the central "Liberty Hall’ of the movement, located in the Black Neighborhood of Harlem, was closely tied to jazz.
But also central to the teachings of Garveyism is the issue of race. Marcus Garvey felt that the Black man was universally oppressed at the hands of the white power structure and that any program of emancipation would have to be developed around the question of race first. By establishing a clear perspective on the racial question Garveyism outlined a comprehensive program of political, social and economic action aimed at the total liberation of the Black race.
So in 1916, the same year that he brought the UNIA to Harlem, Garvey convened the First Black Parliament which had an international flavor. In an historical context the principles outlined by Garvey and which form the basis of Garveyism today set the guidelines for all succeeding Pan-Africanist organizations all over the world and though-out the Black Diaspora.
(1) Garveyism's cultural principles. Garvey used the UNIA newspaper "The Negro World" to combat the negative propaganda of white supremacist groups who held that the Black man was biologically inferior and therefore should be happy to remain enslaved. He waged a constant campaign against all forms of racism from whatever quarter they came - white or Black.
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