Marcus Garvey and Canada
By Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali
This year 2017 marks the 130th birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey who was born in St. Ann’s Bay, on August 17, 1987.Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)) The UNIA became the largest mass movement of African people in the history of the world. The first branch was organized in Jamaica in 1914 and the second, which was first in the United States, came in New York City in 1917.
Toronto’s Black community has taken notice of this historical event. Political organizations such as the All African People’s Revolutionary Party will commemorate Garvey’s 130th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UNIA in the USA.
Garvey’s UNIA was no stranger to Canada. “In Canada it entrenched itself coast to coast, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia,” as Garvey historian Tony Martin points out in his preface to the Course of African Philosophy. There were 35 branches of the UNIA in the Great White North.Garvey visited Toronto in 1919, 1928, 1936, 1937, and 1938 to meet with his North American followers.
Unlike Black nationalist groups in the 1960s and 70s the UNIA included women in membership and leadership. Dionne Brand,Governor General Award winner and Toronto’s third Poet Laureate pointed out, "Black Torontonians plunged into organizing – the women no less vigorously than the men."
The Eighth International Convention of the U.N.I.A. was held in Toronto from Aug.1 to 17 of 1938.
The late Lennie Johnston who co-owned Third World Books and Crafts with his wife Gwen Johnston told this writer:”Many of us went to work the next day and talked back to our white bosses and got fired. Garvey fired us up”, he said with a big laugh.
Natasha Henry of the Harriet Tubman Institute has documented this historical fact. Says Henry, “The first Canadian branch of the UNIA opened in 1918 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The Toronto branch opened up in 1919 and was visited by Garvey. By the early 1930s there were branches in the Maritimes, one in Montreal, Quebec, four in Ontario, three in Alberta, and two in British Columbia."
The group in Toronto was not “tribal” and reflected African internationalism. The UNIA was headquartered at 355 College St. The Barbados-born Donald Moore (1891-1994), one of the unsung heroes of Toronto’s Black community, discussed the creation of the movement in Toronto in his 1995 autobiography, Don Moore an Autobiography. Says Moore, “Contact was made with the UNIA’s headquarters in New York and arrangements were made to establish a branch in Toronto. Our first open meeting was held in the office of A. Ben Thomas, a Jamaican, who was elected the first president of the Toronto branch. William Otis, an American was treasurer, and I became secretary.”
In 1937 the School of African Philosophy was held for most of the month of September. Garvey put together 22 lessons in London and took them to Canada where from August 24th to 31st he conducted a regional conference for North American members of the U.N.I.A. The immediate purpose of this was to train a group of UNIA leaders to carry on his work after his death.
In Toronto, the UNIA existed for years after Garvey’s death in 1940. I can remember meeting Maurice Bishop at 355 College before the New Jewel Movement seized state power in 1979 in Grenada – peacefully. New Toronto based-groups continued to pay tribute to the St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica born Garvey. The Black Music Association (Toronto Chapter) presented A Tribute to Marcus Garvey, August 16th, 1987 at the Club Blue Note, 128 Pears Ave. That was Garvey’s centenary.
The BMA organized a Seminar & Show in honor of Garvey. The seminar featured Harry Gairey (The Godfather of Toronto’s Black Community). Gairey became a leading crusader against discrimination, helped in the 1950s to organize the Negro Citizenship Association, and worked for changes in Canada’s immigration laws. Gairey was a member of the Toronto branch of the UNIA. Also speaking was Milton Blake, Nana Kafefe, and Norman (Otis) Richmond. Jojo Chintoh of City TV was the moderator.
The show featured Itah Sadu (co-owner of A Different Booklist), Clifton Joseph, Carlton Harrison, Adrian "Sheriff" Miller, Jimmy Reid and Wally Richie. The BMA All Stars provided the music. For whatever it is worth Garvey in 1919 honeymooned in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal.Garvey married Amy Ashwood Garvey. His second wife Amy Jacques Garvey also honeymooned in Canada. This led to a lifelong battle between the two Amy’s. Amy Jacques Garvey Amy edited and published volume 2 of the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.
Garvey became an international icon. He influenced El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Ghana's first president. Kwame Nkrumah and Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.once remarked. “(Marcus) Garvey was the first man, on a mass scale to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny...”
Norman (Otis) Richmond, aka Jalali, was born in Arcadia, Louisiana, and grew up in Los Angeles. He left Los Angles after refusing to fight in Vietnam because he felt that, like the Vietnamese, Africans in the United States were colonial subjects. After leaving Los Angeles in the 1960s Richmond moved to Toronto, where he co-founded the Afro American Progressive Association, one of the first Black Power organizations in that part of the world. Before moving to Toronto permanently, Richmond worked with the Detroit-based League of Revolutionary Black Workers. He was the youngest member of the central staff. When the League split he joined the African People’s Party. In 1992, Richmond received the Toronto Arts Award. In front of an audience that included the mayor of Toronto, Richmond dedicated his award to Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Pratt, the African National Congress of South Africa, and Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba. In 1984 he co-founded the Toronto Chapter of the Black Music Association with Milton Blake. Richmond began his career in journalism at the African Canadian weekly Contrast which was owned by Al Hamilton. He went on to be published in the Toronto Star, the Toronto Globe & Mail, the National Post, the Jackson Advocate, Share, the Islander, the Black American, Pan African News Wire, and Black Agenda Report. Internationally he has written for the United Nations, the Jamaican Gleaner, the Nation (Barbados),the Nation (Sri Lanka), the Zimbabwe Herald and Pambazuka News. Currently, he produces Diasporic Music a radio show forhttp://blackpower96.org/ http://www.theburningspear.com/uhuru-radio and Radio Regent http://www.radioregent.com/ and writes a column, Diasporic Music for the Burning Spear Newspaper.
For more informantion norman.o.richmond@gmail.com
This year 2017 marks the 130th birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey who was born in St. Ann’s Bay, on August 17, 1987.Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)) The UNIA became the largest mass movement of African people in the history of the world. The first branch was organized in Jamaica in 1914 and the second, which was first in the United States, came in New York City in 1917.
Toronto’s Black community has taken notice of this historical event. Political organizations such as the All African People’s Revolutionary Party will commemorate Garvey’s 130th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UNIA in the USA.
Garvey’s UNIA was no stranger to Canada. “In Canada it entrenched itself coast to coast, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia,” as Garvey historian Tony Martin points out in his preface to the Course of African Philosophy. There were 35 branches of the UNIA in the Great White North.Garvey visited Toronto in 1919, 1928, 1936, 1937, and 1938 to meet with his North American followers.
Unlike Black nationalist groups in the 1960s and 70s the UNIA included women in membership and leadership. Dionne Brand,Governor General Award winner and Toronto’s third Poet Laureate pointed out, "Black Torontonians plunged into organizing – the women no less vigorously than the men."
The Eighth International Convention of the U.N.I.A. was held in Toronto from Aug.1 to 17 of 1938.
The late Lennie Johnston who co-owned Third World Books and Crafts with his wife Gwen Johnston told this writer:”Many of us went to work the next day and talked back to our white bosses and got fired. Garvey fired us up”, he said with a big laugh.
Natasha Henry of the Harriet Tubman Institute has documented this historical fact. Says Henry, “The first Canadian branch of the UNIA opened in 1918 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The Toronto branch opened up in 1919 and was visited by Garvey. By the early 1930s there were branches in the Maritimes, one in Montreal, Quebec, four in Ontario, three in Alberta, and two in British Columbia."
The group in Toronto was not “tribal” and reflected African internationalism. The UNIA was headquartered at 355 College St. The Barbados-born Donald Moore (1891-1994), one of the unsung heroes of Toronto’s Black community, discussed the creation of the movement in Toronto in his 1995 autobiography, Don Moore an Autobiography. Says Moore, “Contact was made with the UNIA’s headquarters in New York and arrangements were made to establish a branch in Toronto. Our first open meeting was held in the office of A. Ben Thomas, a Jamaican, who was elected the first president of the Toronto branch. William Otis, an American was treasurer, and I became secretary.”
In 1937 the School of African Philosophy was held for most of the month of September. Garvey put together 22 lessons in London and took them to Canada where from August 24th to 31st he conducted a regional conference for North American members of the U.N.I.A. The immediate purpose of this was to train a group of UNIA leaders to carry on his work after his death.
In Toronto, the UNIA existed for years after Garvey’s death in 1940. I can remember meeting Maurice Bishop at 355 College before the New Jewel Movement seized state power in 1979 in Grenada – peacefully. New Toronto based-groups continued to pay tribute to the St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica born Garvey. The Black Music Association (Toronto Chapter) presented A Tribute to Marcus Garvey, August 16th, 1987 at the Club Blue Note, 128 Pears Ave. That was Garvey’s centenary.
The BMA organized a Seminar & Show in honor of Garvey. The seminar featured Harry Gairey (The Godfather of Toronto’s Black Community). Gairey became a leading crusader against discrimination, helped in the 1950s to organize the Negro Citizenship Association, and worked for changes in Canada’s immigration laws. Gairey was a member of the Toronto branch of the UNIA. Also speaking was Milton Blake, Nana Kafefe, and Norman (Otis) Richmond. Jojo Chintoh of City TV was the moderator.
The show featured Itah Sadu (co-owner of A Different Booklist), Clifton Joseph, Carlton Harrison, Adrian "Sheriff" Miller, Jimmy Reid and Wally Richie. The BMA All Stars provided the music. For whatever it is worth Garvey in 1919 honeymooned in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal.Garvey married Amy Ashwood Garvey. His second wife Amy Jacques Garvey also honeymooned in Canada. This led to a lifelong battle between the two Amy’s. Amy Jacques Garvey Amy edited and published volume 2 of the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.
Garvey became an international icon. He influenced El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Ghana's first president. Kwame Nkrumah and Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.once remarked. “(Marcus) Garvey was the first man, on a mass scale to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny...”
Norman (Otis) Richmond, aka Jalali, was born in Arcadia, Louisiana, and grew up in Los Angeles. He left Los Angles after refusing to fight in Vietnam because he felt that, like the Vietnamese, Africans in the United States were colonial subjects. After leaving Los Angeles in the 1960s Richmond moved to Toronto, where he co-founded the Afro American Progressive Association, one of the first Black Power organizations in that part of the world. Before moving to Toronto permanently, Richmond worked with the Detroit-based League of Revolutionary Black Workers. He was the youngest member of the central staff. When the League split he joined the African People’s Party. In 1992, Richmond received the Toronto Arts Award. In front of an audience that included the mayor of Toronto, Richmond dedicated his award to Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Pratt, the African National Congress of South Africa, and Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba. In 1984 he co-founded the Toronto Chapter of the Black Music Association with Milton Blake. Richmond began his career in journalism at the African Canadian weekly Contrast which was owned by Al Hamilton. He went on to be published in the Toronto Star, the Toronto Globe & Mail, the National Post, the Jackson Advocate, Share, the Islander, the Black American, Pan African News Wire, and Black Agenda Report. Internationally he has written for the United Nations, the Jamaican Gleaner, the Nation (Barbados),the Nation (Sri Lanka), the Zimbabwe Herald and Pambazuka News. Currently, he produces Diasporic Music a radio show forhttp://blackpower96.org/ http://www.theburningspear.com/uhuru-radio and Radio Regent http://www.radioregent.com/ and writes a column, Diasporic Music for the Burning Spear Newspaper.
For more informantion norman.o.richmond@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment