LONDON, United Kingdom — Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Seth George Ramocan, says the message of National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey, is one of liberation that brought dignity and upliftment to oppressed people around the world.
He was speaking at the first annual Marcus Garvey Pan-Africanism Presentation at the Willesden Green Library in North London to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the National Hero’s birth.
The event, held on August 17, was organized by the Friends of Marcus Garvey Bust Collective.
Ramocan said Garvey, Jamaica’s first National Hero, was among some of the most prominent and important freedom fighters emerging in the Caribbean and globally.
Others, he said, included Jamaica’s sole National Heroine, Nanny of the Maroons; and Maroon Leader, Boukman, who influenced the Haitian Revolution.
“It is in this tradition that Garvey walks. Garvey was not just Jamaican, he was global. It was the gospel of Marcus Mosiah Garvey that brought liberation to many people in Jamaica and around the world. The work of Marcus Garvey goes beyond the African people to the peoples of the world. It’s a message that needs to be told,” he said.
Ramocan noted that the late United States (US) civil rights leader, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, also acknowledged Garvey’s pivotal input in the US civil rights movement.
The High Commissioner also underscored that reggae music helped to promote the works and teachings of Marcus Garvey globally.
The Marcus Garvey Pan-Africanism Presentation also included presentations from the Deputy High Commissioner for Ghana, Rita Tani Iddi, who highlighted Garvey’s influence on her country’s independence movement and the need for the engendering of racial and social equality and justice across the world.
Historian, Everol Wilson, provided a synopsis of the publication, ‘Reframing Marcus Garvey’, while founder of the Friends of Marcus Garvey Bust Collective, Kwaku, hosted a screening of the production, ‘Highlighting Marcus Garvey, UNIA and Garveyism through Film’.
The event was attended by members of the Friends of Marcus Garvey Bust Collective, staff and members of the Willesden Green Library and members of the local community.
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