Margus Garvey a True Role Model

The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Born in the
island of Jamaica Aug. 17th 1887, he has left us
with a very rich legacy in commitment, justice,
honesty, hard work and devotion. Garvey cared for
all humanity and gave his life’s work to that section
of humanity that needed him the most, the African
people of the world from whom he was descended.

Garvey grew up in St Ann's Jamaica and later moved
to the capital Kingston at the age of 16, filled with
dreams, vision, inexperience and youthful exuberance.
Many of his later ideas had already begun to be
formalized in his head and he left for Central and South
America five years later at the age of 23 in 1910. There he
saw more of the suffering and oppression of African people
which had earlier stirred his emotions and imaginations
and his life's journey was well under way, leaving for
England in 1912 to join his sister there.

It is in England that Garvey honed his Political skills, getting
involved in public oratory, journalism and political activism.
From there he visited several other European countries, which
strengthened his resolve to seek the Blackman's redemption.
He left England in June 1914 and headed back to Jamaica his
head brimming with ideas and full of possibilities. It was on the
ship back to Jamaica that his Covenant and his Mission dawned
upon him like a bolt of lightening and his life's purpose was
forged in the crucible of the reality of the times and that night
as he lay in his bed on the high seas he asked himself aloud
"Where is the Blackman's Government?", "Where is his King and
Kingdom?", "Where is his President, his Country, his Ambassador,
his Army, his Navy, his men of Big Affairs". He immediately realised
he woud have to do it, if it was to be a reality and set himself the
motto "Up you Mighty Race, Accomplish What You Can" and this he
did with all his might and strength and resolve.

The Rastafari movement developed together with Marcus Garvey
and the UNIA and his prophecy before he left for England in 1928
was to "Look to the East a King would be crowned and that
would be your sign" and so the Coronation of
His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Sellassie of Ethiopia took
place on November 2nd 1930 and so began in it's modern
incarnation our beloved and blessed RASTAFARI NATION.

The simple message of Marcus Garvey to each and everyone of us is
thus "Each man is entirely responsible for his own fate. His success or
failure in life depends solely on the extent to which he applies his
intelligence and industry. He has no one else or a superior being, God
for example, to blame but himself. What is true of the individual
applies also to a race." God and Man 1929.