The second powerful image on the cover of Oneness of the Blacks is that of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
The sisters and brothers who read the SCOOP newspaper are well aware that I am a student of Garveyism and an active, dues-paying member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). This Great Association was founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914 and continues to promote racial uplift and the symbolic universal raising of the Red, Black, and Green Flag!
The image of Marcus Garvey is a universal symbol of a successful example of Pan-African Nationalism. Marcus Garvey and the membership of the UNIA-ACL showed the Black man and woman how to build an independent Black government in the best interest of ALL BLACK PEOPLE worldwide! His impact is still being felt today.
Our courageous freedom Fighter and living General Sundiata Acoli, who is now a free man after unjustly serving over (50) years in the penitentiary, informs us that “the U.S. government set Garvey up to imprison and deport him, and they used everything in their power to wipe out the record of his most phenomenal life as a Black freedom fighter. As a result, whole generations of African children grew up and never knew of him or saw his name in history books. They could wipe him out of history books, but they couldn’t wipe out the impact of his work, his spirit, and the influence on the many people he inspired. Many would go on to become leaders of their people, like Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Godfrey Binaisa, and even Ho Chi Minh, the great Viet Nam Nationalist, who, as a young merchant seaman, attended UNIA meetings in Harlem whenever his ship docked in New York.”
Sundiat Acoli brings to our attention that “at a time when we were despised throughout the world and ashamed of Africa, he taught us to love ourselves, to be proud of ourselves and Africa, to believe in ourselves and to depend on ourselves.”
I am most honored and extremely fortunate to have lived in a region so rich with the history of Marcus Garvey and Pan-African Nationalism. In the early 1920’s Marcus Garvey made the city of Philadelphia a model for the organization and structure of the UNIA-ACL. Black men and women in Philadelphia who were UNIA members and supporters were very disciplined and loyal to Marcus Garvey and his vision of a United States of Africa.
The Honorable Thomas W. Harvey (5th President-General of the UNIA-ACL) informs us that, “It will be a long time before we ever realize the full impact of Mr. Garvey on the Black world. Slowly, it is coming out. Africa might be attempting to disassociate with what is happening with Marcus Garvey. Africa is going through what you might call growing pains, but she will righten herself after a while. It began with Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Nyerere, and the rest of them, who led the main thrust in Africa, and it all came from Mr. Garvey, every bit of it. I am talking about people who were actually members of the UNIA.
Azikiwe of Nigeria, when he first came to America to start school at Lincoln University, used to come here every weekend when we were at 2109 Columbia Avenue (Cecil B. Moore Ave). He decided to come to America only after reading Garvey’s Negro World–that is where his inspiration began.”
Choosing the image of Marcus Garvey for the book cover was indeed paramount. The personal inspiration I have absorbed and continue to receive has culminated from the teachings and examples of extraordinary UNIA-ACL giants.
THE BLACK WOMAN
The last and most essential symbol on the cover of ONENESS OF THE BLACKS is the Beautiful, Intelligent, Righteous Black Woman!
MA’AT has and will always be symbolized by the Black woman. The Black woman is truth, righteousness, order, reciprocity, balance, harmony, justice, and morality. We have abandoned our ways and have been in ignorant compliance with pulling our Black Goddess off her throne. We, as a race, are so far removed from our traditional and natural order of praising, respecting, honoring, admiring, and loving our Black women.
The cover of ONENESS OF THE BLACKS depicts our Black Goddess holding up and supporting the Black man and a foundation of the solution to the challenges of our Black Nation. The Black woman has always been the foundation of the Black nation. The heavenly womb of the Black woman has given breath to the life of all African civilizations and has nourished each one to reach its fullest potential. For the last 1,000 years, the spiritual, emotional, biological, and unconditional space that has developed between us as a whole people and our African Goddess has rendered us weak and incapable of building strong, sustaining Black families and nations to light the entire universe once again.
Our limitations rest only in our ignorance as a people. Our disconnect from our mother has even cast a veil over the eyes of our beautiful Black women themselves. Not only has the Black man lost his identity, but the Black woman has lost her confidence and historical memory of leading Black civilizations and Empires.
“When we peruse antiquity’s record, we discover that man’s greatest empires rest on foundations constructed and created by the genius of women; this has especially been the proven standard in African-derived civilizations. Civilization itself was born, nurtured, and brought to maturity among the matriarchal African cultures of Kush and Egypt.”
Wayne Chandler ‘Ancient Future’
Marcus Garvey was born and nourished from his Black mother’s womb. Queen Makeda, David Walker, Hubert Harrison, Betty Shabazz, Robert Mugabe, Richard Allen, Ramona Africa, Frances Cress Welsing, Martin Luther King, Nat Turner, Octavius Catto, Queen Hatshepsut, Sonny Driver, Winnie Mandela, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Assata Shakur and Dr. Carter G. Woodson are rare gifts to the world and given to us through the empowering, nurturing, and sacred womb of the Black woman.
Once our Black Queens begin to take their rightful place on the thrones of humanity, with the secured support and love of the Blackman, the Black race will reach yet another African Zenith. Because of the Blackman’s collective cowardice toward the white man, the Black woman has shed many tears and has endured untold pain.
At this point and time in history, we, as Black men, have collectively failed our women and our families. In spite of our failure, the Black woman has continued to give unconditional love to the African world. It is only through our love and respect for our Black Goddesses, that we would be redeemed and re-aligned with the self-appointed assignment and Nia of the true revolutionary shift to a magnificent ONENESS OF THE BLACKS!
Baba Khabyr Hadas is a teacher, historian, and author of numerous books on the African experience. He is a member of UNIA-ACL, founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914. khabyrhadas@gmail.com
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