Summary:
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, was one of the greatest African men to have trod di globe. He was born August 17, 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. The man was as intelligent as he was bold and powerful, making him one of the best orators on record. Mr. Garvey emphasized racial pride. His goal was the total and complete redemption and liberation of African people around the planet. His dream was the unification of Black people into one body that, if truly Inited, could never be defeated. Garvey left school, at only 14 years of age and worked as a printer's apprentice. He participated in Jamaica's earliest nationalist organizations, traveled throughout the world including London, England, where he worked with the Sudanese-Egyptian nationalist Duse Mohamed Ali. In 1916 Garvey was invited by Booker T. Washington to come to the United States in the hopes of establishing an industrial training school, but arrived just after Washington died. In March 1916, shortly after landing in America, Garvey embarked upon an extended period of travel. When he finally settled down, he organized a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. The UNIA & ACL had been formed in Jamaica in 1914. Its motto was "One God, One Aim, One Destiny," and pledged itself to the redemption of Africa and the uplift of Black people everywhere. It aimed at race pride, self-reliance and economic independence. In 1919 Mr. Garvey created an international shipping company called the Black Star Line. By 1920 the UNIA had hundreds of divisions. It hosted elaborate international conventions and published a weekly newspaper entitled the Negro World. No other organization in modern times has had the prestige and the impact as the UNIA & ACL. During the 1920s UNIA divisions existed throughout North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Australia. (Africa Within) |
The Tragedy of White Injustice
(1)
Lying and stealing is the whiteman's game; For rights of God nor man he has no shame (A practice of his throughout the whole world) At all, great thunderbolts he has hurled; He has stolen everywhere-land and sea;
A buccaneer and pirate he must be,
Killing all, as he roams from place to place, Leaving disease, mongrels-moral disgrace-
(2)
The world's history of him is replete,
From his javelin-bolt to new-built fleet: Hosts he has robbed and crushed below;
Of friend and neighbor he has made a foe. From our men and women he made the slave, Then boastingly he calls himself a brave; Cowardly, he steals on his trusting prey, Killing in the dark, then shouts he hoo ray!
(3)
Not to go back to time pre-historic,
Only when men in Nature used to frolic, And you will find his big, long murder-list, Showing the plunderings of his mailed fist; Africa, Asia and America
Tell the tale in a mournful replica
How tribesmen, Indians and Zulus fell
Fleeing the murdering bandit pell mell.
(4)
American Indian tribes were free,
Sporting, dancing, and happy as could be; Asia's hordes lived then a life their own, To civilization they would have grown;
Africa's millions laughed with the sun, In the cycle of man a course to run;
In stepped the white man, bloody and grim, The light of these people's freedom to dim.
(5)
Coolies of Asiatics they quickly made,
In Africa's blacks they built a world trade, The Red Indians they killed with the gun, All else of men and beasts they put to run; Blood of murderer Cain is on their head, Of man and beast they mean to kill dead; A world of their own is their greatest aim, For which Yellow and Black are well to blame.
(6)
Out of cold old Europe these white men came, From caves, dens, and holes, without any fame, Eating their dead's flesh and sucking their blood, Relics of the Mediterranean flood;
Literature, science and art they stole, After Africa had measured each pole,
Asia taught them what great learning was, Now they frown upon what the Coolie does.
(7)
They have stolen, murdered, on their way here, Leaving desolation and waste everywhere; Now they boastingly tell what they have done, Seeing not the bloody crown they have won; Millions of Blacks died in America,
Coolies, peons, serfs, too, in Asia;
Upon these dead bones Empires they builded, Parceling out crowns and coronets gilded.
(8)
Trifling with God's Holy Name and Law,
Mixing Christ's religion that had no flaw, They have dared to tell us what is right, In language of death-bullets, gas and might Only with their brute force they hold us down, Men of color, Yellow, Red, Black and Brown: Not a fair chance give they our men to rise, Christian liars we see in their eyes.
(9)
With the Bible they go to foreign lands, Taking Christ and stealth in different hands; Making of God a mockery on earth,
When of the Holy One there is no dearth: They say to us: "You, sirs, are the heathen, "We your brethren-Christian fellowman,
"We come to tell the story of our God"; When we believe, they give to us the rod.
(I0)
After our confidence they have thus won, From our dear land and treasure we must run; Story of the Bible no more they tell,
For our souls redeemed we could go to hell. Oil, coal and rubber, silver and gold,
They have found in wealth of our lands untold; Thus, they claim the name of our country, all, Of us they make then their real foot-ball.
(11)
If in the land we happen to tarry,
Most of us then become sad and sorry,
For a white man's country they say it is, And with shot, gas and shell, they prove it his: What can we do who love the Gracious Lord, But fight, pray, watch and wait His Holy word: His second coming we know to be true,
Then, He will greet the white man with his due-
(12)
This Christ they killed on Calvary's Cross. After this Person around they did toss: White men the Savior did crucify,
For eyes not blue, but blood of Negro tie; Now they worship Him in their churches great, And of the Holy Ghost they daily prate; "One God" they say, enough for all mankind, When in slavery the Blacks they entwined.
(13)
Their churches lines of demarcation draw; In the name of Christ there is no such law, Yet Black and White they have separated, A Jim Crow God the preachers operated,
Then to Heaven they think they will all go, When their consciences ought to tell them NO. God is no respecter of persons great,
So each man must abide his final fate. (14)
We'd like to see the white man converted, And to right and justice be devoted;
Continuing in land-values to lie and steal, Will bring destruction down upon his heel. All that the other races want, I see,
Is the right to liberty and be free;
This the selfish white man doesn't want to give; He alone, he thinks, has the right to live.
(15)
There shall be a bloody mix-up everywhere; Of the white man's plunder we are aware: Men of color the great cause understand, Unite they must, to protect their own land. No fool's stand on argument must we make; Between Heaven and earth an oath we take: "Our lands to deliver from foreign foes, Caring not of trials and maudlin woes."
(16)
The privilege of men to protect home
Was established before the days of Rome. Many gallant races fought and died,
Alien hordes in triumph thus defied.
Carthage did not crush Ancient Greece
For their believing in the Golden Fleece. No other race shall kill the sturdy Blacks If on their tribal gods we turn our backs.
(17)
From Marathon, Tours, Blenheim and the Marne A braver courage in man has been born;
Africans died at Thermopylae's Pass,
Standing firm for Persia-men of Brass.
The Black Archers of Ethiopia stood
At Marathon, proving their stern manhood; Senegalese held their own at Verdun,
Even though their praises are not now sung.
(18)
In the Americas' modern warfare
The Blacks have ever borne their share; With Cortez, Washington, too, and the rest, We did for the others our truthful best; At St. Domingo we struck a clear blow
To show which way the wind may one day go. Toussaint L'Ouverture was our leader then, At the time when we were only half-men.
(19)
Italians, Menelik put to chase,
Beating a retreat in uneven haste;
So down the line of history we come,
Black, courtly, courageous and handsome. No fear have we today of any great men
From Napoleon back to Genghis Khan;
All we ask of men is "Give a square deal," Returning to others same right we feel.
(20)
With a past brilliant, noble and grand, Black men march to the future hand in hand; We have suffered long from the white man's greed, Perforce he must change his unholy creed. Stealing, bullying and lying to all
Will drag him to ignominious fall;
For men are wise-yes, no longer are fools, To have grafters make of them still cheap tools.
(21)
Each race should be proud and stick to its own, And the best of what they are should be shown; This is no shallow song of hate to sing, But over Blacks there should be no white king. Every man on his own foothold should stand, Claiming a nation and a Fatherland!
White, Yellow and Black should make their own laws, And force no one-sided justice with flaws.
(22)
Man will bear so much of imposition,
Till he starts a righteous inquisition. History teaches this as a true fact,
Upon this premise all men do act.
Sooner or later each people take their stand To fight against the strong, oppressive hand; This is God's plan, raising man to power, As over sin and greed He makes him tower.
(23)
This trite lesson the white man has Dot learnt, Waiting until he gets his fingers burnt. Millenniums ago, when white men slept,
The great torch of light Asia kept.
Africa at various periods shone
Above them all as the bright noonday sun; Coming from the darkened cave and hut,
The white man opened the gate that was shut.
(24)
Gradually light bore down upon him,
This ancient savage who was once dim;
When he commenced to see and move around, He found the book of knowledge on the ground; Centuries of wonder and achievements
Were cast before him in God's compliments; But, like the rest, he has now fallen flat, And must in the Lord's cycle yield for that.
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