Pebbles and Ripples: Hubert Harrison and the Rise of the Garvey Movement

The paper seeks to present new information concerning the activities of the West African branches of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. The author has included biographical profiles of the British West African Garveyites to integrate the Garvey movement into the history of West African nationalism and Pan-Africanism.It is argued that Garveyism was welcomed in British West Africa by the older cultural nationalists who saw Garveyism as an extension of Blyden's ideas. Pan-African sentiments of racial unity and solidarity of African and American blacks, pride in the history of the race, and self-help projects had wide circulation in West Africa from the latter part of the nineteenth century, as a result of Blyden's influence. Joining the branches of the U.N.I.A. was a practical demonstration of a long-standing commitment to cultural and racial nationalism among the West African elite.The Garvey movement also marked the beginning of a new era in West African nationalism. Garvey's radical pronouncements on freeing Africa from colonial rule were unacceptable to the older cultural nationalists who dominated the Garvey groups. They disavowed any interest in organizing a central nation for the race. However, Garvey's ideas may have had long-term effects. By the 1930s the idea of independence from colonial rule seemed more attractive to the West African nationalists. Garvey was one of the first to speak out boldly for freedom from colonialism.The concrete achievements of the West African branches of the U.N.I.A. were small indeed. Nigeria had the most Garveyite activity in British West Africa. There was an agent for the Black Star Line in Lagos and a branch of the U.N.I.A. and A.C.L. The Gold Coast had the least Garveyite activity, probably because of their involvement in the National Congress of British West Africa and also because of their more critical attitude towards co-operation with American blacks. They believed that Africans were best qualified to lead any joint efforts for intra-racial co-operation.

Download Full-text

Afterword

The Age of Garvey ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691157795.003.0010 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Adam Ewing

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Universal Negro Improvement Association ◽

The Caribbean ◽

Labor Radicalism ◽

Political Association ◽

The Impact ◽

Garvey Movement

This concluding chapter reflects on the success of Garveyism in both the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. It considers how the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) had offered a powerful ideological and political vehicle for African activists during the dark years of interwar European rule, and how the impact of Garveyism continues to be felt in the continent. In the United States, as in Africa, the efforts of American Garveyites to construct vibrant organizational containers during an inauspicious decade resonated through the years. Finally, in the Caribbean, the return of labor radicalism in the mid-1930s both eclipsed established modes of Garveyist political association and boasted a leadership that had been nurtured within the Garvey movement.

Download Full-text