"Our peoples vigor and labor will only bear fruit
when communication networks are afforded them."
Qadamawi Haile Selassie.
To Honor Marcus Garvey and Amy Garvey is to Honor What is Great and Noble in Ourselves, as Black People, as Human Beings.
In May of this year, 2013, the Organization of African Unity, the representative body which has developed into the African Union of today, will mark and celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1963.
At the numerous and varied events marking the OAU’s Golden Anniversary over the course of the year, the Ancestral Spirits, as embodied in the name and meaning of the words “Marcus Garvey” will certainly hover over and among the celebrants, participants, and observers worldwide.
And, it will be clearer than ever that Marcus Garvey is alive –whether actively and openly recognized, or only quietly acknowledged.
As in the 20thcentury, which he dominated and permanently changed, for the benefit of African people, and all humanity, the name of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, whether spoken loudly, whispered, or un-uttered, will nonetheless be recognized, honored, and celebrated by all credible African leaders.
Undoubtedly, this will be the case far into the future as well.
Often Marcus Garvey’s Name will be mentioned along with the name of the organization he founded in 1914, namely the Universal Negro Improvement Association & African Communities League (UNIA-ACL); the largest-ever mass organization of Blacks; one which was, above all, the organization with more Blacks advocating and working for Black self-emancipation, self-reliance, self-determination, self-esteem and success than any other, before or since.
Similarly, and at the same time, aware and sensitive women (and men!) worldwide will recognize, honor, and celebrate the names and works of Amy Ashwood-Garvey and Amy Jacques-Garvey, the First and Second wives of the Great Man, who worked for their entire lives, like him, for the redemption and progress of Africa and Africans.
Meanwhile, here in the United States , in the year leading up to the May 25 OAU50 celebrations… specifically in South Florida …
THE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE TO HONOR MARCUS GARVEY IN MIAMI GARDENS
More than a year has passed since the City of Miami Gardens was approached and asked —via its Caribbean Affairs Advisory Committee/Board (CAAC/B)— to honor Black Icon Marcus Garvey and his wife Amy by renaming a street (specifically NW 7th Avenue) in recognition of their contributions to the development of society in the USA, the world, the Caribbean, and his native country, Jamaica, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Great Man, and the 50th Independence anniversary celebrations of Jamaica.
Supporters of such recognition and honor, and the Proposer of such, may be forgiven for assuming a relatively easy passage and approval of such a seemingly unquestionable and unimpeachable proposition.
After all, they reasoned, why would a proud city such as Miami Gardens, which —when it was socially or politically expedient— prides itself on being “the largest Black-majority municipality in the state of Florida,” with a city council consisting of all African-Americans, and moreover, a city with a sizeable Caribbean-American component, NOT want to do something so, well, easy, so obviously appropriate?
To the Proposer and supporters of the honor, it seemed like a ‘slam dunk’, a ‘no-brainer’; an easy win-win situation. Surely it would be a feather-in-the-cap for the CAAC/B, the City Council of Miami Gardens, the citizenry and electorate of Miami Gardens itself, the Jamaican and Caribbean communities (”at home and abroad”), and of course, the USA (in the midst of its ‘post-racial’ Obama exultation ‘to the world’). After all, the proponents reasoned, who would conceivably NOT see the right-ness and the timeliness of the idea of helping to remove the stigma deliberately and (admittedly) wrongfully attached to a legendary international hero for almost a century, and instead honoring him and his wife?
Moreover, they reasoned, since both his first wife and his second wife were named Amy, they would be honoring two women who are historically significant in their own right; a fact easily proven. The Garvey advocates assumed that the civil and political decision-makers of Miami Gardens would recognize and grasp the ‘three-for-one’ bargain.
As it has turned out, the assumptions of the supporters and promoters of the idea were, well, quite wrong…apparently.
It has turned out that neither the CAAC/B nor the City Council of the City of Miami Gardens have been particularly enthused about the idea. In fact, it appears from the evidence that a substantial portion of the two decision-making bodies have been clearly unsympathetic, and even hostile, to the suggestion.
WHO HONORS MARCUS GARVEY
In the face of the strange —even bizarre— reactions, actions, strategic inactions, maneuvers, statements and explications of the City of Miami Gardens’ Caribbean Affairs Advisory Committee (or Board) and the City of Miami Gardens City Council regarding the matter-at-hand, here are but a few of the countless tributes paid to Marcus Garvey:
Worth Tuttle, journalist, newspaperman:
“I found him surprisingly unassuming, even modest, with a rare use of the perpendicular pronoun. He is a forceful speaker with a sincerity in his voice that is convincing.”
(The World Tomorrow, September, 1921)
Editorial, The Hilltop, Howard University student newspaper, February 4, 1924:
“Out of the vast mass of students at Howard, every one should be a potential leader…be a factor in the organizations for the advancement of the Negro and humankind…
a leader should come among us to make Marcus Garvey’s dream a reality.”
Dr Martin Luther King Jr., Dreamer of a Better World:
Marcus Garvey was the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man, on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny, and make the Negro feel that he was somebody…let us pledge ourselves to continue the struggle in the same spirit,” (Speech at Garvey Shrine, Jamaica,1965)
James Weldon Johnson, author and composer, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”
“He (Marcus Garvey) had the daring and the energy of the Napoleonic personality that draws masses of followers. He stirred the imagination of the masses as no other leader ever had.”
(From a recorded tribute to Marcus by Amy Ashwood Garvey)
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Black Liberation Icon:
“It was Marcus Garvey’s philosophy of Pan-Africanism that initiated the entire freedom movement which brought about the independence of African nations”
(Gleaner, Jamaica, 1964)
“Every time you see another nation on the African continent become independent you know Marcus Garvey is alive…had it not been for Marcus Garvey and the foundations laid by him, you
would find no independent nations in the Caribbean today…(t)he freedom movement that is taking place right here in America today was initiated by the work and teachings of Marcus Garvey.”
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Congressman:
“Marcus Garvey was one of the greatest mass leaders of all time. He was misunderstood and maligned, but he brought to the Negro people, for the first time, a sense of pride in being Black.”
(“Marching Blacks”)
Kwame Nkrumah, 1st President of Independent Ghana :
“Of all the literature that I studied, the book that did more than any other to fire my enthusiasm was (the) ‘Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey’. Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, Marcus Garvey fought for African national and racial equality.”
(The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah)
Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Pan-African Historian:
“The reappraisal of Marcus Garvey went on for years –until some of his original critics and opponents became defenders of his movement.”
(Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa )
W.E.B.Dubois, African-American Intellectual leader:
“Garvey was an extraordinary leader of men. Thousands of people believe in him. He is able to stir them with a singular eloquence, and the general turn of his thought is on a high plane.”
C.L.R. James, Scholar and Activist:
“…with a phenomenal energy (Marcus) Garvey conveyed the idea that Africa should belong to Africans. On this the literate Kenya Native (and 1st president of Independent Kenya) Jomo Kenyatta, nourished his soul and mind.”
(Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution).
Despite the foregoing, it nonetheless appears that the lack of interest, let alone enthusiasm, on the part of the city council of the ‘largest majority-Black city in Florida,’ may have been, and still continues to be, fueled by what appears to be a willful and strategic ignorance about Marcus Garvey, and/or –hopefully not— a barely veiled personal antipathy, even hostility, towards this man, and these women, whom so many millions worldwide openly recognize and honor.
Since that presentation and proposal to honor the Garveys was first made to the City of Miami Gardens via its CAAC/B (it is unclear whether it is a committee or a board) in March of 2012, a variety of things have been made manifestly clear:
- That the demonization of Marcus Garvey, his movement, and those associated with them, which started almost a century ago, has been very effective in enforcing and reinforcing the very same denigration and self-denigration of Black peoples that Amy and Marcus Garvey devoted their lives to ending. That the demonization has been particularly effective and long-lived among many in the Black civic, economic, and political leadership.
- That such self-abnegation is especially evident among the very people who would normally be expected to be better informed, and therefore more receptive to the simple nobility of supporting what is clearly deserved, just, and appropriate.
- That it is a mistake to assume that the ‘better educated’ and ‘informed’ among the leadership and citizenry of Miami Gardens would be eager to show that they have not lost their sense of direction, nor respect for their true history, on their journey to their present lofty positions.
- That to instead assume the opposite to the above is a relatively safe conjecture.
- That the appearance that there has been a genuine desire to create mechanisms to enable fair and respectful reflection of the interests of the entire population of the city is merely an illusion.
- That moreover, in this particular case, the civic and political leaders of Miami Gardens have no real commitment to sensitively reflecting the interests, values, and decisions of those in the African/Caribbean/American/African-American/Jamaican communities, locally and globally.
Nor do they seem interested in reflecting the interests of those who are in favor of recognizing and honoring Our Own Greatness, by way of honoring those who symbolize Our Greatness,
such as Amy and Marcus Garvey.
- That City of Miami Gardens politicians are just as willing to, like most other politicians, to mis-appropriate and use (even mis-use) the cultural, spiritual, philosophical, socio-political properties and other artifacts of the community they supposedly serve; to suit their own personal, social, and political ends – even to the disadvantage and disrespect of the community and individuals in whom such properties and other artifacts are properly vested.
THE LATEST…
But the City Council of Miami Gardens has not been idle in its relationship to the issue of honoring the Garveys. At least one city council member has convened a town hall meeting (for April 18, 6:00 to 8:00 PM, at the Pentecostal Tabernacle Hall, 7th Avenue & Miami Gardens Drive, Miami Gardens) for what he is calling ‘A Conversation’ to apparently see whether his counter-proposal –i.e. to NOT honor Amy Garvey along with Marcus Garvey, and maybe not even Marcus himself, and to that end repeating wild, outrageous, and libelous allegations that Marcus Garvey was a bigamist (a ridiculously false, and easily disproved, accusation).
That particular city council member, acting in accord with, he says, the general thinking of the entire city council, has at the same time been maneuvering to further change the original proposal, which was agreed to and recommended by the Caribbean Affairs Advisory Committee/Board –which was: to honor the Garveys via the renaming of the length of a particular avenue (NW 7th Avenue).
That council member has expressed his desire to change the original request instead; to a proposal sponsored by him, to rename a section of a different, almost peripheral street, a throroughfare, which most drivers and citizens of the local Miami Gardens community avoid when they can, because of its location and its use and busy-ness as a main commuter corridor.
It is entirely possible that the city council member will be trying to effect a “Conversion” (to his and the city council’s way of thinking) through the use of his proposed town hall ‘conversation.’
FINALLY…
So, in the final analysis, the City of Miami Gardens, as represented by its City Council, and in particular, as represented by new council member, Dr. Erhabor Aghodaro --like with the CAAC/B –- is apparently interested in the proposal (a proposal which they, for the most part, have never liked or supported or encouraged) as it comes from the community; BUT ONLY INSOFAR AS the proposal can be hijacked, misappropriated, co-opted, and finally changed to suit the personal, social, and/or political interests of the City Council, or particular members of the CAAC/B or the City Council.
We shall see…
in the interim…
TO THE COMMUNITY OF MIAMI GARDENS, AND TO THE NATIONAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNITY – WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT THIS MATTER:
Telephone: 305-622-8063 or 305-622-8000 ext 2795
Or write to:
City of Miami Gardens, 1515 N.W. 167th Street, Bldg 5, Suite 200, Miami Gardens, FL 33169
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies