SOUTH FLORIDA – The empowering message of Marcus Garvey comes to the Miramar Cultural Center on February 27 with an event titled, ‘Celebrating Garvey and Reggae’.
Several speakers including Olivia “Babsy” Grange, Jamaica’s minister of culture, entertainment and sports, will address the function which is a joint project between Oliver Mair, Jamaica’s Consul General to Miami, and Miramar City Commissioner Maxwell Chambers.
Marcus Garey
Steven Golding, president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which Garvey founded in Jamaica 109 years ago, is also among the speakers.
“Our (Jamaica’s) first National Hero’s message is a timeless one. To borrow the RESPECT acronym from my good friend (Jamaican poet and playwright) Geoffrey Philp, Garvey’s powerful message of R – Redemption, E-Entrepreneurship, S-Self Reliance, P-Purpose, E-Education, C-Community and T-traditions is key,” said Mair. “This event is very important as we celebrate Black History Month and Reggae Month here in the United States where Garvey’s name is sometimes not even mentioned. This Roy Anderson documentary will help to educate our community on the life and work of our great world leader.”
Garveywas born in 1887 in St Ann parish, northeast Jamaica. He left Jamaica in the 1900s and eventually ended up in Harlem, New York which had become a mecca for black thinkers like writers Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
He became a leader of the Harlem Renaissance but, hounded by United States law enforcement, he was imprisoned on dubious fraud charges in 1925. Three years later, he was released and deported to Jamaica.
Garvey died from a stroke in London in June, 1940 at age 52. His body was exhumed and shipped to Jamaica in November, 1964 where he was given an official funeral.
Five years later, he was made the country’s first National Hero.
