Words to Live By

"Lift yourselves, men, take yourselves out of the mire and hitch your hopes to the stars; yes, rise as high as the very stars themselves. Let no man pull you down, let no man destroy your ambition, because man is but your companion, your equal; man is your brother; he is not your lord; he is not your sovereign master."

Quick history lesson:
Marcus Garvey grew up in Jamaica, and was forced to quit school in his early teen years to help support his family. While living in Kingston and Costa Rica, the disparity between blacks and whites he witnessed moved him to action. Eventually he would become a litmus test for where one stood on the race problem. Garvey's solution to the race problem in the 1920's was for every black man, woman, and child from America, South and Central America, and the West Indies, to move "Back to Africa."

Garvey gained popularity through a group he founded called the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), with a mission of "general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world." Garvey's initial intent was to build schools modeled after the Tuskegee Institute. To raise funds for this goal, Garvey moved to Harlem and became polarizingly influential. It was in Harlem where he began to mobilize UNIA. His downfall was a pet project called Black Star Line. It was a shipping company meant for the employment of blacks, relocation of blacks to Africa, and be profitable. From the root, Black Star Line was not profitable, causing Garvey to attempt to raise money through a mail campaign which resulted in his conviction of federal mail fraud. He served three of his five year sentence before being deported back to his native Jamaica. In 1940, ironically, Garvey died before ever having set foot on African soil.

His position was well reasoned and supported by some American statesmen. A German statesman agreed that this solution would be beneficial for Europe as well, it "might enable France and Great Britain to discharge thier duties to the United States and simultaneously ease the burden of German reparations which is paralyzing economic life" (Dr. Heinrich Schnee, former Governor of German East Africa from 1912 to 1918). Garvey argued that it was appropriate and necessary for blacks to return to Africa: Asians controlled Asia, Europeans (whites) controlled Europe and the Americas, Africans should control Africa.


I am on the fence as to whether or not "Africa by/for Africans" would have solved the race problem. By the 1920's, American, West Indian, South and Central American born blacks had been raised in dramatically different cultures for a minimum of 300 years or ten generations. In addition to the length of time away from the motherland, the geography is drastically dissimilar. Not least to be mentioned, what of the people already living in Africa? What would have been done with them? Were they warmly welcoming of this idea? What then, would the race problem evolve into? Nation against nation? Continent versus continent? Or would racial repose exsist?

The words at the beginning are from Marcus Garvey. In context they are meant for the oppressed blacks everywhere as a call to hold our heads high. I prefer them out of context, where anyone can read them and derive strength.