Messrs. Andrew Wilson, Philip Smith, Thomas Joseph Love, Dr. Julius Garvey and Mr. Kenny Love pose with a bust of Dr. Joseph Robert Love, an early mentor to Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The Messrs. Love are relatives of Dr. Love.
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Nassau, Bahamas - When Pan-Africanist Dr. Julius
Garvey speaks about the dislocation of African people, the breach they have
endured and the African diaspora, people listen.
It was no different on Friday
night, when Dr. Garvey, the son of Negro rights activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey –
the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association – gave a lecture at
The College of The Bahamas’ Performing Arts Centre that traced the history of European imperialism, chattel
slavery, colonialism and its impact on African people.
The audience was riveted to Dr.
Garvey’s message, given in an address entitled “To Repair the Breach” in which
he provided perspective on the cause for reparatory justice within the context
of the historical enslavement and genocide of Africans.
“We, as a people, have had a breach
in our continuity and we have to restore that breach by understanding our
story,” he asserted at the outset.
Dr. Garvey was deliberate in
outlining the 500-year history of European imperialism and colonialism, the
socio-economic, cultural and physical domination of Africa and the impact on the
Western world.
“By physical violence, psychological
dislocation and spiritual coercion, we have become the pawns of Euro-American
civilization that dominates the world. Western concepts of social democracy,
capitalism, socialism, communism, progress and development have universal
preeminence,” he lamented.
“We are incarcerated by a
materialist vision of the world that has the status of secular religion. The
capitalist entrepreneur is our savior, the multinational corporation is our
employer, greed is our god, money our only value, and Heaven is where the
profits pile up.”
Dr. Garvey is an avid proponent of
Pan-Africanism, an ideology of his father that advances the solidarity of
African people around the world. During his lecture, he explained that
Pan-Africanism is the continued legacy of a struggle to repair the vision of
the redemption of Africa or what is now termed the African Renaissance. The
African Renaissance is rooted in the historical fact of Africa being the cradle
of mankind and the birthplace of human civilization, he said.
Dr. Garvey’s sentiments add further
perspective to the national and regional discussion about reparations for
slavery and the formulation of a comprehensive response.
He asserted that there is currently
an unprecedented opportunity to galvanize the Caribbean as an integral part of
the 'Sixth Region of Africa' made up of the African Diaspora.
“We have to unite politically and
become federated states. This is the only way that we can resist the changes
that are coming down and the debt slavery that we are already in,” he said,
calling for elected officials and a Pan-African Parliament to begin dialogue on
the development of legal structures, think tanks and appropriate proposals.
“It is up to each of us, the
organizations and governments to which we belong, to bring about the personal,
institutional transformations necessary to move us towards our goal of economic
freedom, true democracy, peace, prosperity and happiness. We are one billion
people strong… There is no reason why we cannot make the 21st
century the century of African Renaissance and accomplishment.”
Dr. Garvey’s address to the
inaugural reparatory justice lecture came at the invitation of Mr. Philip Smith,
who Co-Chairs the Bahamas National Reparations Committee with College Council
Chairman Mr. Alfred Sears. Both of them attended the lecture on Friday.
Long before scholars and academicians championed the cause of
reparations, members of the Rastafarian community issued a clarion call for it.
The community has insisted that repatriation is an essential aspect of
reparation and has advanced the argument that petitioning Queen Elizabeth was
only fitting given the historic legacy of the British monarchy and its direct
involvement in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
In his remarks at the reparatory
justice lecture, House of Rastafari Priest Philip Blyden hailed the
contributions of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA.
“This year, August 1, 2014, we
celebrated the centenary of the UNIA and truly speaking, there has never been
another model of African reparations than that of the UNIA which is the golden
standard of African reparations,” he said.
The Bahamas National Reparations
Committee, The College of The Bahamas and the House of Rastafari hosted the
lecture which also featured a traditional African Libation Ceremony in honour
of Marcus Garvey, performed in part in the Yoruba language, and a cultural drum
presentation.
The CARICOM Reparations Commission
has called upon the former slave-owning nations of Europe - principally
Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark -
to engage Caribbean governments in reparatory dialogue to address the living
legacies of these crimes. According to the Commission, reparatory democracy and
diplomacy should focus on public health, education, cultural institutions,
cultural deprivation, psychological trauma and scientific and technological
backwardness.