Martin Henry, Contributor

Today marks the 121st anniversary of the birth of the most influential black man of modern times, and by modern times, I mean the last 500 years, the Age of Globalisation. Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, at 32 Market Street in St Ann's Bay. There is more Garvey memorabilia and more attention given to Garvey overseas, particularly in American centres of Afro-American and African studies, than in the land of his birth.

IRIE-FM, that brash roots radio station broadcasting from his parish, and which has adopted Garvey, is staging commemorative activities today on the grounds of the station. One of their disc jocks has done an excellent imitation of Marcus Garvey in the promo of the event. Yes, Garvey's voice has been preserved on a 78 rpm long-playing record. He spoke seamlessly at the speed of an automatic weapon on rapid fire, but with crisp clarity. Like his live audiences, I was electrified when I first heard a playback of that voice.

Garvey was a man of immense action, most of which ultimately failed. I am not convinced that those failures can simply be marked down to the hostility of the white and colonial establishments. Garvey had his deficiencies as leader and manager and seemed to have been quite impractical about many things. But more important, Garvey was a great man of great ideas and was an exceptionally mature thinker from early in life.

,b>World-class philosopher

This man, amazingly with only an elementary-level formal education, was a world-class philosopher. Garvey has been included in the book Fifty Major Political Thinkers. Garvey scholar Rupert Lewis notes in reviewing the book, "With the external recognition being given to Garvey, it may be that more of his own people will begin to appreciate what an enormous intellectual legacy he has left the world." The point, to adopt a Marxist dictum, is not to agree with Garvey or to worship him, but to critically understand him and to learn from him.

One of the major problems with black people, and with the post-colonial Caribbean in particular, is that we are not sufficiently in love with wisdom (which is what 'philosophy' means in the Greek: philos, love; sophia, wisdom). We do not cultivate our own lovers of wisdom. And we do not invest sufficiently in the enterprise of reflection. We worship sports and entertainment. We push politics and social activism. We don't back thought. We want results. There is not, to my knowledge, a single Jamaican private foundation or other entity dedicated to investing in thought.

Public Opinion ran an obituary on Marcus Garvey on June 15, 1940, five days after his death in London at only 53. That balanced obituary reflects my own more distant assessment of the man: "No Jamaican, except perhaps Bustamante, has exercised so astonishing an influence over the masses as the late Marcus Garvey. That influence was not always wisely exercised, and the most superb showmanship could not prevent this from being seen. Nonetheless, Garvey never lost his hold. Even when he was 4,000 miles away, his name still had power. With this knack of attracting and holding loyalty, Mr. Garvey combined more solid qualities which were never put to their full use. He remained too much of the adventurer. The political backwardness of the people he wished to help prevented him from ever climbing into that effective power which mellows the adventurer and knocks off the sharp corners of his personality."

Clear prose

Few, if any, Jamaicans have written as much as Marcus Garvey. Garvey thought about almost everything and wrote up his ideas in grand, clear prose - reflecting "the sharp corners of his personality", Garvey wrote, for example: "The Negro has become his greatest enemy. Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from Negroes ... The Negro fights himself too much. His internal conflicts constitute the puzzle of our age ... Every other day he is smashing up what he has made ... He never permanently constructs."

Garvey vindicated his bluntness by declaring: "I have done my duty. I will still continue to do that duty, not by deceiving the Negro, but by telling him the truth - the cold, blunt truth, so help me God."

How much of Garvey's 'blunt truth' has been learned is an open question. We have a distinct preference to pick from his copious words that which makes for flattering race pride while burying his utterances of chastisement hurled from "the sharp corners of his personality". I hope those who want Garvey taught in schools also mean this side of the man. Devon Dick, himself a Bogle scholar and now armed with a Warwick PhD in Caribbean cultural studies, I know, is working with the University of Technology towards establishing a research fellowship in National Heroes studies.

The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union is often spoken about as the country's first trade union, as some think the People's National Party is the first political party, forgetting Garvey's trade union and his People's Political Party (PPP) going back to the 1920s.

Marcus Garvey presented a remarkably progressive manifesto for the times for his PPP - and went to prison for it. Garvey articulated self-government, labour reform, including an eight-hour day, an insurance scheme for workers, and a minimum wage. He advocated building "native industries", land reform, justice reform and prison reform, a library and high school in every parish capital for free education, and a 'Jamaica university and polytechnic', and an academy of music and art. Garvey proposed city status for Montego Bay and Port Antonio [the leading banana ports of the time], a national park like Hyde Park, public health and housing, and an electricity system. This is 1929!

Hauled before the courts

Garvey was hauled before the courts for item 10 of the manifesto: "A law to impeach and imprison judges who, with disregard for British justice and constitutional rights, dealt unfairly. He was fined £100 and sentenced to three months in the Spanish Town District Prison. And he lost the election for the St Andrew seat in the Legislative Council, as one sympathetic commentator described it, "a rum war [and] money scramble".

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail,com or columns@gleanerjm.com.