EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC
By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill (April 30, 2008)
In this present
era of economic and educational onslaught against the African
Community in
We must free the
“African mind” through African Centered Educational activities so that we might
better understand the importance of economic self-reliance.
One model that we
draw strength from in pursuing economic and educational liberation is the model
established by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) in the 1920s.
The more I read and study about Marcus
Garvey, the more I am amazed at the great contributions he made to African
people to become a self reliant and self sufficient people. At the core of
Marcus Garvey’s program was his urging of African people to acquire education
and economic power. As he always started, “A race without power is a race
without respect.”
When we examine
the economic condition of Africans in
This was one of
the major problems that the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey addressed during his
lifetime and that Minister Louis Farrakhan continues to address.
As Dr. Tony Martin writes in his book Race
First, which is one of the best books written on the works of Marcus
Garvey, “Marcus Garvey, unlike his major rivals in the United States, built a
mass organization that went beyond civil-rights agitation and protest and based
itself upon a definite, well thought out program that he believed would lead to
the total emancipation of the race from white dominion.”
To implement his program, Garvey set up
the Negro Factories Corporation (NFC). Its objective was to build and operate
factories in the big industrial centers of the
Mr. Garvey also established a steamship
company, The Black Star Line. He envisioned a fleet of steamers carrying
passengers and establishing trade among African people of the
In the summer of 1920, Garvey launched
his full blown program at the First Annual Convention of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) of which he was the founder and first President
General.
On August 2, 1920, after a massive
parade of thousands of well drilled, uniformed ranks of the UNIA, 35,000
delegates from allover the United States and some twenty-five countries
convened at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. It was, according to the New
York Times, one of the largest gatherings in the history of the hall.
Dr. Martin explains that, “Central to
the ideological basis underpinning Garvey’s program was the question of race.
For Garvey, the Black man was universally oppressed on racial grounds, and no matter how much people try to
shy away from this issue, the fact is, this is still true today.”
As Malcolm X used
to say, it was our Blackness “which caused so much hell not our identity as Elks,
Masons, Baptists or Methodists.” If we are ever to become a liberated people
this idea must be deeply rooted in the day to day organizing and mobilizing of
our people as we seek economic and educational liberation. Far too many
Africans in
Mr. Garvey
understood that the foundation of our liberation was economic and educational
independence based on racial solidarity. There are numerous lessons we can
learn from the legacy of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Without economic
independence tied to the acquisition of political power, African people in
In this regard,
Garvey said, “...you can be educated in soul, vision and feeling, as well as in
mind. To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of
man... Develop yours and you become as great and full of knowledge as the other
fellow without entering the classrooms.”
Conrad Worrill
National Chairman
National Black United Front (NBUF)
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