National Hero of Jamaica (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940 ) was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Prior to the twentieth century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as Garveyism. Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam, to the Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet). The intention of the movement was for those of African ancestry to “redeem” Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave it. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the Negro World titled “African Fundamentalism” where he wrote:

“Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… let us hold together under all climes and in every country…”

Shortly after returning form a long tour of the Caribbean and Central America in July 1921, Marcus Garvey recorded two brief speeches on a 78 rpm record. The first speech, “Hon. Marcus Garvey on His Return to the U.S.A.,” comments on his problems obtaining a re-entry visa. The second, “Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” is an extract from a much longer UNIA membership appeal. Although Garvey was famous for his oratory, these speeches are the only known recordings of his voice

• Hon. Marcus Garvey on His Return to the U.S.A.
  1.6 MB WAV sound file
  1.6 MB AU sound file

• Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
  1.7 MB WAV sound file
  1.7 MB AU sound file

MORE GARVEY QUOTES…

MORE GARVEY QUOTES…

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
Marcus Garvey

A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
Marcus Garvey

Africa for the Africans… at home and abroad!
Marcus Garvey

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
Marcus Garvey

God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.
Marcus Garvey

I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.
Marcus Garvey

I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.
Marcus Garvey

I like honesty and fair play.
Marcus Garvey

I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.
Marcus Garvey

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
Marcus Garvey

Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.
Marcus Garvey

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.
Marcus Garvey

Look to Africa, for there a king will be crowned.
Marcus Garvey

Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
Marcus Garvey

Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.
Marcus Garvey

Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.
Marcus Garvey

The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
Marcus Garvey

The whole world is run on bluff.
Marcus Garvey

There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.
Marcus Garvey

There shall be no solution to this race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.
Marcus Garvey

Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
Marcus Garvey

Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do.
Marcus Garvey

With confidence, you have won before you have started.
Marcus Garvey

You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.
Marcus Garvey