Title: 76 King Street, Journal of Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey

Publisher: Arawak Publications

Reviewer: Mel Cooke

The name of the publication is a bit unwieldy, but locates its origins precisely and gives a strong indication of the 160 pages' content. Of course, 76 King Street is the address of Liberty Hall in Kingston and while 'The Legacy of Marcus Garvey' is actually a part of the building's name, the 10 articles, a book review and a compilation of recent publications on Garvey examine his legacy from a number of angles.

This is an academic journal, but by and large not written in the 'academic language' which can be (for the uninitiated as well as the neophyte) torturous at best and indecipherable at worst. So 76 King Street, the first of what is intended to be an annual publication, is written by persons with academic authority and is accessible to those who seek the education Garvey insisted on through the informal routes editor Nicosia Shakes mentions.

no quick Garvey fix

At the same time, it is not a text for those seeking a quick Garvey fix, á la Wikipedia. If the reader's intention is to find a few basic facts and a couple of quotes from Garvey, this is not the place to get it, although the chronological data and his words are woven into the various articles.

Marcus Garvey is put in the context of political and social events that preceded and were concurrent with his life by Digna Castaneda Fuertes in 'Marcus Garvey's Work: An Exposition of His Historical Time', focusing mostly on political and social changes in the Caribbean. On the other hand, Rupert Lewis takes a figurative perch on Garvey's shoulder, looking at the world from his viewpoint in 'Marcus Garvey's Global Vision'. Donna McFarlane's 'The Making of Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey' is a nuts and bolts, concrete and window frame recounting of the building at 76 King Street's history, while Herbie Miller follows the muse of music that went past mere amusement in the US in 'Marcus Garvey and the Radical Black Music Tradition'.

Cuba plays a significant role in the journal, Samuel Fure Davis contributing 'Interpretations of Garveyism over Time in Jamaica and Cuba' and Walterio Lord Garnes writing 'Marcus Garvey and the UNIA in the Memory of West Indian Residents in Cuba'. A particularly fascinating article in a publication chock-full of informative entries is 'The Jamaican Community in Banes: Its Institutions, the UNIA and the Defence of its Cultural Identity'. Written by Yurisay Perez Nakao, historian of the city of Banes, Holguin, Cuba, it speaks to how Jamaican immigrant workers retained their distinctive identity in what they made "a semi-closed community", including the establishment of a Liberty Hall and a Jamaica Club.

critical food

Food was critical to the process. A 4-H club organised to instruct the young women in the culinary arts resulted not only in the preservation and transfer of culinary practices, but a sort of 'colonisation in reverse' at the dining table in homes where the women were employed as domestics.

The hand that stirs the pot may not necessarily rule the world, but it certainly determines the composition of its diet.

In 'Marginalisation in The Caribbean: Marcus Garvey - First Proposal for Analysis', Bessie Griffith Masao asks, "What is the meaning of Garvey's ideas in a context of postcolonial marginalisation?" The answer follows immediately: "His ideas mean a wake-up call for the anti-imperialist consciousness of middle-class labourers amidst the world political order. It is the starting point of a complex vision of history, the boom of new narratives, literatures and political discourses, the rescue of symbolic forms of national identity."

I find Davis' inclusion of Tanya Stephens' Come a Long Way from her Rebelution album a refreshing acknowledgement of intellectual value in the latest stage of Jamaican music by a superb songwriter. In her mournful roll call of black heroes and heroine (Rosa Parks) whose ideals and examples have been betrayed, Stephens says, "Do you see me now Marcus? We still not unified, no we're not."

There will be a few disappointments for those who have knee-jerk support of Garvey without truly examining his work. In Lewis' article (he also wrote the introduction to 76 King Street), he states that Garvey "did not advocate a mass repatriation to Africa", supporting his statement with a quote from The Negro World newspaper of November 13, 1920:

"Understand this Africa programme well. I am not saying that all the Negroes of the United States should go to Africa; I am not saying that all the Negroes of the West Indies should go back to Africa ... ."

Conspiracies Against Garvey

And while the 'Conspiracies Against Marcus Garvey' were many, vicious and ingenious, Lopez does not outright clear Garvey of responsibility in the train of events which led to his conviction, imprisonment and deportation. A summary of a letter by a sympathiser is presented as "maybe the most lucid opinion about this". Parts of the summary state:

"Garvey did not have the intention to commit fraud. The problem is that his visionary pushed him to convince himself of his own ability to rescue the shipping company, even if nearly in ruins, so he continued calling the blacks in the US to make small investments.

"It is true that he allowed the sale of shares when it was practically disintegrated, but his ego and his daring spirit did not perceive the failure.

"In short, Garvey was imprisoned because he was more courageous and less cunning than the others."

In other terminology, 'more courageous and less cunning' would be couched in less sympathetic terms, perhaps hard-headed being the gentlest.

Yazmin Ross' 'The Black Moses' is a creative-writing take on Garvey, an excerpt from a novel, while Beverly Hamilton reviews Suzanne Francis Brown's Marcus Garvey (Ian Randle Publishers), which she describes as "more like a supplementary reader. It is a storybook".

It is what 76 King Street, Journal of Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey' isn't, the journal essential reading for those interested in Garvey - which should be the vast majority. As Lewis reminds us - "the Garvey legacy is an indispensable reference point. Failure to consult this intellectual tradition is to perpetuate mental slavery."