A major highlight of the Black History Month celebrations in Liverpool was a visit from the son of a key campaigner in the fight for civil rights.
Organised by the Liverpool Culture Company, renowned vascular surgeon Dr Julius Garvey MD, the son of the late civil rights activist and campaigner The Rt Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, visited the city.
Dr Garvey gave a talk at Liverpool John Moores University's Redmonds Building, with students and invited guests, including the Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson. He visited community organisations and individuals at the Caribbean Centre, Mandela8 and the Kuumba Imani Centre in Toxteth, before finishing the day with a discussion with community artist Maxine Brown at the International Slavery Museum.
The 89-year-old, accompanied by UK tour organiser Eddie Capone from the Marcus Garvey Legacy Foundation spoke about his father's legacy and teachings that still inspire people all over the world. He died in London in 1940 after moving to the UK in 1935. His final home in Hammersmith has an English Heritage blue plaque in commemoration of him and his work.
READ MORE: Black History Month 2022: 21 of Liverpool's Black unsung heroes
Dr Garvey said his father's message was still important and told the ECHO : "My father came 100 years ago, but laid a foundation for Pan Africanism, certainly in terms of the diaspora understanding its African roots and that we are not completely influenced by a colonial mentality. He reconnected us to our history.
"Our history is important in that it means what our elders, shall we say, had done before is passed on to us in the future. Because the past makes the present and the present makes the future.
"He said, ‘a people without the knowledge of their past history and culture is like a tree without roots’. So he laid that kind of foundation for us to anchor ourselves in terms of our African identity, because that's what was taken away from us during the period of enslavement."
Mayor Anderson said: “It was an honour and privilege to welcome Dr Julius Garvey to Liverpool as part of the city’s Black History Month programme.
“He has inspired thousands with his fierce commitment to racial equality and free speech. It was an honour to listen to him speak so profoundly and it is an experience that will stay with me for a long time.”
Garvey's teachings have inspired many African and Caribbean leaders in their fight to gain independence from the 1950s and beyond, such as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah and Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta. He was an inspiration for Malcolm X and still is for many people across the world. He is mentioned in songs by the likes of Bob Marley, Burning Spear and many more.
Dr Garvey said: "There has been progress in terms of African people in the diaspora and on the (African) continent, meaning that, in this period we were all under colonial rule. Now we have independent countries in Africa and the Caribbean, so there is a degree of progress, but there is still work to be done.
"We have the hegemony of a Eurocentric perspective and we need to move towards the Afrocentric perspective, which is a flowering of our traditions and cultures in terms of modernisation. So that is what is left to continue on my fathers legacy".
Dr Garvey spoke about what needs to be done to continue to dismantle the impact on Black people of colonial rule and how his father would have viewed the situation since the murder of George Floyd. Dr Garvey said: "The message would be the same thing, basically what he told us was to be independent, to have our own identity and to build our own systems.
"I think a lot of what we do is to point the finger at the people who have oppressed us and therefore we have become victims and we adopt a victimisation perspective. Whereas my father taught us to stand on our own two feet of self reliance, self determination and be independent of the systems out there that exist and are based on our exploitation".
Maleka Egeonu-Roby, on behalf of the Caribbean Centre, spoke about the importance for them to have Dr Garvey's visit. She said: "It really reaffirms the effort of the grassroots group at the Caribbean centre for the last couple of years to have someone of his stature and calibre to come and share space with us. It reaffirms the need to have a centre that is culturally appropriate.
"Garvey's teachings really kind of enrooted in people knowing the knowledge of their origins, their history and where they come from. Dr Julius Garvey reinforces why we have to keep this centre and what it genuinely means to the community, especially the Black community".
The Marcus Garvey Legacy Trust began after a visit by Dr Julius Garvey and Eddie Capone of the trust said: "Everywhere we went in 2013 Dr Garvey said to me ‘Eddie, everywhere I go everybody said Garvey, Garvey Garvey, but I can't see him anywhere. Like a bunch of chickens in a coup going yap yap yap and can't lay no eggs'.
"I said a statue of Marcus Garvey has got to be paramount, he died here, a lot of his works were done here, Canada, Jamaica and New York. How come we have a statue of everybody and not him?
"As much as I have the highest respect for Mr Mandela, he is the grandchild of the right honourable Marcus Garvey. Before him there was nobody that had that international impact.
"That's why J Edgar Hoover (the controversial head of the FBI in the USA for almost 50 years) wanted to crucify him because they knew if he was able to unite the Black community in the diaspora they are in trouble.
"You want to come and take back Africa that we the West depend on, we can't have that. When he went to the American government they asked Hoover what is the greatest threat to America, he said ‘Marcus Mosiah Garvey, that means we have to get rid of him'."
Garvey was deported from the USA after allegations of being set up by the FBI who had members of his organisation betray him which saw him imprisoned in the 1920s. His family are still fighting to have these charges exonerated and await a reply from the Joe Biden administration.
He became the first national hero of Jamaica and has been depicted on various bank notes and coins over the years since their independence in 1962. One of his most famous says is; “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
For information visit: https://www.3gtreatment.com/ or Culture Liverpool here :
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