THE PAN-AFRIKAN LIBERATOR

This month marks the 108th anniversary of the birth of the greatest Afrikan emancipator of the 20th century, the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Garvey's vision was to link Afrikan peoples globally through their cultural, ethnic and historical commonality.

Focusing his energy on Afrika, the Caribbean, and the Americas, he projected a unified Afrikan power block.

Working together from the power base of a unified Afrikan continent, he stated that Afrikan people could reconstruct a magnificent civilization, and regain the holistic knowledge-base that had allowed us to establish and maintain long lasting civil societies.

Garvey synthesized and built upon the legacy he inherited through the written works, oral lectures and revolutionary activities of Afrikan leaders who preceded him.

Some of these leaders included: Prince Hall, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, Bookman Dutty, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Henri Christophe,

Jean- Jacques Dessalines, Gabriel Prosser, Paul Cuffe, Chaka Zulu, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, John B. Russwurm, David Walker, Samuel "Daddy" Sharpe,

Henry H. Garnett, Frederick Douglas, Martin R. Delaney, Harriet Tubman, E.W. Blyden, JA JA, Paul Bogle, the Fanti Federation, Sojourner Truth, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner,

Samory Toure, "the Mahidi," Hubert Harrison, Dr Robert Love, Prempeh, Ya Asantewa, Booker T Washington.

(A brief chronological history of the above-named people follow.)

In the era that preceded the Hon. Marcus Garvey (1787-1887) the imposition of slavery, dehumanisation and oppression was an integral part of the life of the kidnapped Afrikan.

The enslaved Afrikan community had already established more than 250 years of continuous organised resistance to the people whose priority was to debase and destroy human beings so as to turn them into objects.

The tool used by the european from the days of slavery right into the early 20th century for the physical and mental to control of Afrikan people was FEAR.

Through public displays of physical brutality the system managers decapitated, burnt, quartered, hung, maimed and whipped Afrikan women and men who demonstrated that their warrior spirits could not be broken.

The brutal and torturous deaths of these brave and defiant warriors were used as examples to coerce the others into submission.

This, however, could not suppress the will to resist or the right to be human. As leaders were eliminated, new leaders emerged.

By the 1820's the european could no longer sustain the financial burden of insuring the safety of its privileged minorities.

The perseverance of dedicated individuals were now paying dividends. Mass resistance had become a way of life.

By the time of the Hon. Marcus Garvey, the fear of physical brutality still played a significant role in the control of the now "emancipated" Afrikan.

The use of economics, however, had now become the dominant tool by which the system and its managers controlled Afrikans.

Working in the printing industry in his early years, made the contradictions of the society that Garvey lived in more vivid.

The information-base to which he was exposed brought him into contact with the traditional Afrikan intellect.

Garvey's later work in London as a journalist with Duse Mohamad Ali, publisher of Africa Times and Orient Review, gave him a greater understanding of world affairs and put him in direct contact with the Afrikan intellect globally.

This played a major role in allowing Garvey to recognize the continuity between his revolutionary predecessors, his radical teachers, himself and his contemporaries.

As he travelled the world over, the Hon. Marcus Garvey noticed that wherever he went, Afrikans occupied the lowest positions in the system's structure.

They had no self esteem and no economic might. They had no power base and no one in the power structure to represent them.

Garvey developed and used his great oratory powers, journalistic ability and organizational skills to mobilize the masses of "emancipated" Afrikans.

He harnessed his energy and travelled ceaselessly to speak, write and disseminate information to his people in order to change their mental view of themselves.

He singlehandedly caused Afrikans throughout the world to stand up and resist the post-slavery oppressive machinations of the former slave masters. The Hon. Marcus Garvey was a powerful and charismatic figure with exceptional organizational ability.

He has no rival in our history for the scale on which he was able to organize the masses by establishing units of his organization, the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), worldwide.

At its height, the UNIA had established chapters in 41 countries and in 38 states in the U.S.A., with a worldwide membership of approximately 10 million. Up to the period of the Hon. Marcus Garvey, Afrikans in leadership positions had little or no exposure to the formal education system and the distorted indoctrination of european and american universities.

This lack of exposure to documented european distortions allowed them to use their intellectual capacity in the holistic Afrikan tradition.

They demonstrated a willingness to develop and use their respective talents for the best interests of their people.

The Hon. Marcus Garvey was the epitome of that type of Afrikan leadership. This was no accident.

Tradition dictated that one's physical, mental and spiritual capacity be used to question, think, analyse, and implement solutions in the best interest of the people regardless of the consequence.

The tradition of leadership that preceded him dictated the path that he was bound to follow.

The Hon. Marcus Garvey followed that path to its logical conclusion. He paid the price: incarceration, heartbreak, loneliness, rejection, vilification, obscurity and premature death.

Today, his ideological children and their children's children sing his praises.

Such is the Afrikan tradition as we honour the supreme sacrifice of our ancestor.

As the dedication and sacrifice of our ancestors in the era of slavery paid its dividends in the physical freedom of the majority of enslaved Afrikans, so too, will the dedication and sacrifice in the post slavery era of the Honourable Marcus Garvey pay its dividends in a unified Pan- Afrika.

In the tradition of our ancestors, we honour the spirits of our ancestors.

During the era of slavery, our Ancestors were able to resist, design and implement plans for their freedom even though the application of brutal physical torture and death were the instrument through which the power structure and its managers controlled kidnapped Afrikans.

In the post-slavery era, economics added to the psychological damage that 400 plus years of brutality had imposed upon the Afrikan genetic memory pool were the instruments used to control the no longer kidnapped but economically trapped and psychologically damaged Afrikans.

Marcus Garvey, with his emphasis on Afrikan Nationalism, Afrikan Pride, Do-for-Self Economics, Afrikan Culture and History, was able for a short period to carry through the second stage of the total emancipation of Afrikan people.

The dynamism of Garveyism caused the controllers of western christian countries to take a closer look at their control factors and examine the solutions that Marcus Garvey was able to impress on the minds of his people.

Waging war by any means is an inherent part of the caucasian man's savage culture.

In order to maintain its fragile minority domination, the western world declared war on Garveyism and began to seek new weapons for its destruction.

One of their scientists, Pavlov, had shown in an experiment with dogs, that a conditioned response could be implanted in the mind.

The power structure's research and development and think tank departments lost no time assessing this information on how the mind functions.

They lost no sleep over their application of this knowledge to wage psychological warfare upon the minds of the people they feared and despised the most.

Here was an easier and much more subtle way of conditioning and thereby controlling the oppressed.

Brutal psychological warfare could now be waged without the physical savagery of the slavery era.

By exposing a selected group of the more docile and complacent Afrikans to this newly discovered understanding of stimulus and conditioning, the former slave master once again began to train and condition at a higher level his house servants.

The conditioning stimulant that the european used is centered upon a specific information base placed in the mind of the individual.

The laboratory used for the implant were the institutions of higher learning.

Once exposed to the formal education system and its eurocentric views, university miseducated Afrikans began to be projected by the power structure as leaders.

From the schools and universities they brought with them their psychological baggage.

They accepted the myth of their inferiority. They conceded that exposure to the european's religion and education made them almost as good as their teachers and better than their parents, relatives and friends.

With able assistance from their trainers, they soon began to appear on the scene as puppets and figureheads.

They could not, however, reconcile the obvious contradictions of the real world with the mental distortions that they had been conditioned to accept.

Because of the division in their psyche they could no longer perceive themselves as Afrikans or implement Afrikan solutions to Afrikan problems.

They began more and more to identify with the controllers of the system. They discarded their ethnic identity and started to assume pseudo national identities.

New names and terminologies were created to fit in with the false image and identity that were given to them to disguise themselves in.

The power structure received ample help from its university-educated lackeys as it sought to destroy the network and information base that Garvey's UNIA had spread across the globe in a few short years.

They quickly came to recognise the power of the media as the main organ through which to implant stimuli and condition minds.

Through the use of the newspaper and the radio, they manipulated, controlled and disseminated information in such a way that the literate and illiterate could only draw the conclusion the power structure desired from the information they received.

As the technology advanced, the means of disseminating information tailored to condition the minds of the receiver also advanced. Schools, colleges and universities reinforced the myth of caucasian superiority and creativity in all their subject disciplines.

Religious institutions reinforced the myth of chosen, whiteness and purity and the image of a european created in the image of God.

The newspaper, radio and television magnified these myths on a daily basis.

As the technology for communication advanced, so too did the use of the media for the intent of conditioning the minds of the oppressed advance.

Today there exists, newsprint, radio, telephones, television, satellite, fax machines, microwave, fibre optics, computers, interactive systems and information highways.

In the education system there is a well designed communications program that trains its servers in the art of information dissemination mainly for the subtle psychological control of the oppressed.

Fifty five years have passed since Ancestor Marcus Garvey took his place of honour with our Ancestors.

At the height of his dominance on the Afrikan mind-set, the mental onslaught of the oppressor was in its infancy.

Within a few short years, skillful and planned application of Pavlov's concepts had relegated Garveyism to the outer fringes of the Afrikan mind.

Mental warfare, through information implant, economics, and genetic fear, are the instruments that currently enslave us.

Afrikan leadership today faces a system that has geared its technological advances towards insuring that the white male minority maintains its position of control and dominance by any means.

Afrikan leadership has lost its way. Since the era of Garveyism no Afrikan leader has come to the front with a comprehensive program that deals with the shackles that bind us.

The western power structure with its savage cultural norms makes no bones about assassinating potential leaders that demonstrate traditional Afrikan leadership traits.

The sorry excuse for current leaders is that they are overdosed with their masters' information stimuli.

They speak only to please their benefactors while they pretend to serve the oppressed.

The mere fact that they are alive and highly visible in a tightly controlled media industry speaks for itself.

These are the lines to a song that used to be known and sung by all Montserratians to celebrate the 1st August 1838, when all Afrikans in the island were no longer supposed to be slaves.

From 1838 until 1960, August Monday was the single most important holiday celebration in the english speaking Caribbean.

As reactionary governments assumed the role of leadership on the attainment of flag independence, the day began to loose its significance.

In island after island government attempted to hide or bury the fact that the people were Afrikans who were just now emerging from the most repressive, brutal and Savage period of man against man.

The reactionary government of Montserrat has now followed the herd. Without consultation they have decided to use the designated Emancipation Day which encompasses the supreme sacrifice of 350 years in ancestral blood and demonstrates the courage and perseverance of continuous warfare, generation after generation, to be called national achievers day.

While we are happy to see the bureaucracy praise itself by rewarding its supporters with medals and certificates, August Monday, Emancipation Day, is not the day for this.

The only man in this country to have done something of NATIONAL worth was the first Chief minister of Montserrat, The Hon. William H. Bramble.

On 31st May 1952, three months after receiving a mandate from the people to put the Labour Party in office, W.H. Bramble tabled the motion to dismantle the system of slavery in Montserrat.

If government desires to reward national achievers, the day on which the leader who was brave enough to honour his promise to the nation and truly free the masses from slavery should be so designated in his honour.

Prince Hall. Born in 1748, started the Afrikan Lodge in 1776. Fought against the Massachusetts slave trade.

Olaudah Equiano & Ottobah Cugoano. First Afrikans to write books in english in 1789 promoting emancipation of Afrikans.

Bookman Dutty. Originator of the Haitian Revolution, 1792.

Toussaint L'Ouverture and Henri Christophe were military leaders (generals) in Haitian revolution.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Declared Haiti free in 1804.

Gabriel Prosser. Organized rebellion of 40,000 slaves in Virginia in the 1800s.

Paul Cuffe. Formed Friendly Society for the Emigration of Free Afrikans in 1811 and transported Afrikans to Sierra Leone at own expense.

Chaka Zulu. Greatest Afrikan warrior, general, military genius. Started consolidation of Southern Afrika in 1812.

Richard Allen. Formed Afrikan Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.

Absalom Jones. Founder of the Free Afrikans Society and The Sons of Afrikans Society.

John B. Russwurm. Founded and edited 1st black newspaper in US, The Freedom's Journal in 1826. Repatriated to Liberia in 1829.

David Walker. 1829 wrote book titled, Appeal to the "Coloured" Citizens of the World. Philosophical & spiritual father of all who followed the revolutionary path of radical resistance.

Samuel "Daddy" Sharpe. Leader of one of the greatest rebellions in Jamaica, the Baptist War in 1831-32 which contributed to emancipation. Executed in 1833 by british.

H.H. Garnett. Founder of African Civilization Society. 1843 convention called for slaves to revolt.

Frederick Douglas. Greatest spokes-person of his day for abolition of slavery. Autobiography written in 1845, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave.

Martin Delaney. Father of Black Nationalism, co-edited the North Star with Frederick Douglas and in 1859 lead an exploratory party of free Afrikans to Afrika. Made agreements with Nigerian kings for the resettlement of Afrikans.

Harriet Tubman. Born a slave to become leader of underground railroad in 1850s.

E. W. Blyden. 1832-1912; Returned to Afrika in 1851. President of Liberia College. Wrote in 1887, Islam, Christianity & the Negro Race.

JA JA. Merchant prince of Nigeria. Deported from Nigeria in 1860 by the british because he controlled the palm oil industry.

Paul Bogle. Leader of rebellion in Jamaica in 1865.

The Fanti Federation. 1865, Ghana. Wrote constitution and petitioned the british for the independence of the Gold Coast.

Sojourner Truth. Preacher, abolitionist and lecturer. Fought for better educational opportunities for Afrikans following american civil war until death in 1883.

Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. Greatest advocate of repatriation before Garvey. 1870.

Samory Toure. Brilliant military general who fought successfully against the french in Sudan for 18 years. Died in exile in 1900.

"The Mahidi", Mohammed Ahmed. Freed Sudan from the british before his death in 1885.

Hubert Harrison. Founder of the Liberty League and influential on Garvey's philosophy.

Dr Robert Love. Publisher of the Jamaica Advocate 1894-1905, militant journalist. Gave Garvey elocution lessons. Anti-colonial fighter. Promoted race-consciousness.

Prempeh. King of the Ashanti; exiled by british in 1896.

Queen Asantewa. Lead the Ya Asantewa War in 1900 against the british in Ghana.

Booker T. Washington. Founder of Tuskegee Institute. Wrote, Up From Slavery, published in 1901.