Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert A. Hill is Associate Professor of History at UCLA and director of the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project [African Studies Center], for which Barbara Bair serves as associate editor.

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Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers

By Marcus Garvey

University of California Press

Copyright © 1987 Marcus Garvey
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0520062140
African Fundamentalism

African Fundamentalism
Editorial by Marcus Garvey

Fellow Men of the Negro Race, Greeting:

The time has come for the Negro to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of other races, and to start out immediately, to create and emulate heroes of his own.

We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history. Sojourner Truth is worthy of the place of sainthood alongside of Joan of Arc; Crispus Attucks and George William Gordon are entitled to the halo of martyrdom with no less glory than that of the martyrs of any other race. Toussaint L'Ouverture's brilliancy as a soldier and statesman outshone that of a Cromwell, Napoleon and Washington; hence, he is entitled to the highest place as a hero among men. Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves?

Ours the Right to our Doctrine

We must inspire a literature and promulgate a doctrine of our own without any apologies to the powers that be. The right is ours and God's. Let contrary sentiment and cross opinions go to the winds. Opposition to race independence is the weapon of the enemy to defeat the hopes of an unfortunate people. We are entitled to our own opinions and

not obligated to or bound by the opinions of others.

A Peep at the Past

If others laugh at you, return the laughter to them; if they mimic you, return the compliment with equal force. They have no more right to dishonor, disrespect and disregard your feeling and manhood than you have in dealing with them. Honor them when they honor you; disrespect and disregard them when they vilely treat you. Their arrogance is but skin deep and an assumption that has no foundation in morals or in law. They have sprung from the same family tree of obscurity as we have; their history is as rude in its primitiveness as ours; their ancestors ran wild and naked, lived in caves and in the branches of trees, like monkeys, as ours; they made human sacrifices, ate the flesh of their own dead and the raw meat of the wild beast for centuries even as they accuse us of doing; their cannibalism was more prolonged than ours; when we were embracing the arts and sciences on the banks of the Nile their ancestors were still drinking human blood and eating out of the skulls of their conquered dead; when our civilization had reached the noonday of progress they were still running naked and sleeping in holes and caves with rats, bats and other insects and animals. After we had already unfathomed the mysteries of the stars and reduced the heavenly constellations to minute and regular calculus they were still backwoodsmen, living in ignorance and blatant darkness.

Why Be Discouraged?

The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization. They stole our arts and sciences from Africa. Then why should we be ashamed of ourselves? Their MODERN IMPROVEMENTS are but DUPLICATES of a grander civilization that we reflected thousands of years ago, without the advantage of what is buried and still hidden, to be resurrected and reintroduced by the intelligence of our generation and

our prosperity. Why should we be discouraged because somebody laughs at us today? Who to tell what tomorrow will bring forth? Did they not laugh at Moses, Christ and Mohammed? Was there not a Carthage, Greece and Rome? We see and have changes every day, so pray, work, be steadfast and be not dismayed.

Nothing Must Kill the Empire Urge

As the Jew is held together by his RELIGION , the white races by the assumption and the unwritten law of SUPERIORITY , and the Mongolian by the precious tie of BLOOD , so likewise the Negro must be united in one GRAND RACIAL HIERARCHY . Our UNION MUST KNOW NO CLIME, BOUNDARY , or NATIONALITY . Like the great Church of Rome, Negroes the world over MUST PRACTICE ONE FAITH , that of Confidence in themselves, with One God! One Aim! One Destiny! Let no religious scruples, no political machination divide us, but let us hold together under all climes and in every country, making among ourselves a Racial Empire upon which "the sun shall never set."

Allegiance to Self First

Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths. Let no influence but your own raise you in time of peace and time of war. Hear all, but attend only that which concerns you.

Your first allegiance shall be to your God, then to your family, race and country. Remember always that the Jew in his political and economic urge is always first a Jew; the white man is first a white man under all circumstances, and you can do no less than being first and always a Negro, and then all else will take care of itself. Let no one inoculate you for their own conveniences. There is no humanity before that which starts with yourself. "Charity begins at home." First to thyself be true, and "thou canst not then be false to any man."

We Are Arbiters of Our Own Destiny

God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own creative 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. There is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our own minds. Mind creates, and as much as we desire in Nature we can have through the creation of our own minds. Being at present the scientifically weaker race, you shall treat others only as they treat you; but in your homes and everywhere possible you must teach the higher development of science to your children; and be sure to develop a race of scientists par excellence, for in science and religion lies our only hope to withstand the evil designs of modern materialism. Never forget your God. Remember, we live, work and pray for the establishing of a great and binding RACIAL HIERARCHY , the founding of a RACIAL EMPIRE whose only natural, spiritual and political limits shall be God and "Africa, at home and abroad."

Source Notes

Printed in the Negro World, 6 June 1925, as a front-page editorial; written in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Original headlines omitted. Creed reprinted in slightly revised form, under the title "African Fundamentalism," as a UNIA poster, sold by mail order through the Negro World by Amy Jacques Garvey, 1925.

African Fundamentalism: Fount of Inspiration
Speeches by Marcus Garvey

Hon. Marcus Garvey Speaks

For the next few Sunday nights, I am going to speak to you from the thoughts contained in "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM ," so that they may be advised, I expected every Negro home at this time to secure a copy of this Creed for the guidance of the Race. Tonight I will speak from the first sentence of "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM "—"THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE NEGRO TO FORGET AND CAST BEHIND HIM HIS HERO WORSHIP AND ADORATION OF OTHER RACES, AND TO START OUT IMMEDIATELY TO CREATE AND EMULATE HEROES OF HIS OWN ."

Have Your Own Opinion

Any race that accepts the thoughts of another race, automatical[l]y, becomes the slave race of that other race. As men think, so they do react above the things around them. When men are taught to think in a certain groove they act similarly. It is no wonder that the Negro acts so peculiarly within our present civilization, because he has been trained and taught to accept the thoughts of a race that has made itself by assumption superior. The Negro during the time of slavery accepted his thoughts and opinions from the white race, by so doing he admitted into his system the idea of the superiority of a master in relationship to a slave. In one instance he was

freed, that is, from chattel slav[e]ry; but up to the time of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, he was not free in mind. "African Fundamentalism" seeks to emancipate the Negro from the thoughts of others who are encouraging him to act on [their?] opinions and thoughts. Any [race?] that has succeeded in the world—speaking of the ancient world up to the present world, will tell you that they succeeded by thinking and acting for themselves. Whether they be the Meads [Medes] or the Persians, the Greeks or the Romans, the English or the Americans, each and everyone, ancient and modern, will tell you that their ability to rise above others and to establish themselves in the world was only made possible through the fact that they thought and acted for themselves. And we who have studied the trend of world events, seriously recommend to the Negro that he can only do this when he starts to think and act for himself. He must create around him his own philosophy—the semblance of everything that he desires for himself. That is what "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM " seeks to do,—establish a creed, as a guide, so that you will make few mistakes, if any, in the world. Because if you act on the thoughts of others, so long will they remain your superiors; for no man is so just, because of the sins of the world, to treat his brother as he would that others treat him. Man will not treat his brother with equity. We have one race pulling against the other, so that it has almost become an axiom. "That no man will think equally for his brother," and so those who have imposed their thoughts upon you, win give you only that thought to let you serve them as slaves.

Accept Something Original

To emancipate yourselves from that you must accept something original, something racially your own, and that is what we want you the Negroes, not only of Edelweis Park, to do—accept a Philosophy entirely your own, serviceable to your actions and cease imitating the thoughts of others. I have often spoken of the heroes of [line missing? ] other races have made their heroes, we have had few names to warrant

my calling them, but not because we have not made many heroes in the past, we cannot start out now. The other races [h]ave made their heroes, we also can create our own heroes and point our people to them as examples because of their noble deeds. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is seeking to put the Negro in his right position. Whatever the criticisms of the Universal Negro Improvement Association may be, above all that has been said about the Organization, it stands for the loftiest and noblest ideals pertaining to the work of man. There is nothing that the black man has done that the Universal Negro Improvement Association has not inspired him to do through its creed that he should stand on his own.

There is nothing that man cannot do if he applies himself rigorously to do it. We are therefore inspiring you to apply yourselves consistent[l]y, in season and out of se[a]son to what you have decided to do. The Creed of "African Fundamentalism" must be maintained and protected every day. It is a Philosophy that is to serve as a guide to the Negro Peoples of the world. The other peoples do not five their lives by chance, they have a Creed to guide them. Our race is the only one that has not done that, and so long as we continue the slack methods, so long will we be the slaves of the world. God intended that you should rise to every occasion; He gave you the same mental reserve as any other race. He blessed you with the same intelligence as others; but your intelligence has been so warped, so abused as to [m]ake you almost the slave of those who have thought more of life and know how to husband it, so as to get the best out of it.

A Splendid Recommendation

The Universal Negro Improvement Association makes the recommendation and I honestly support this recommendation, that there is such glory and honour for the Negro to attain in the world, as have been achieved and attained by any other race before. There is nothing in nature's law so limited as to prevent the Negro enjoying what the other people are

enjoying, which they obtained through method. I tell you, whether it is the thought of Socrates, Plato, or Napoleon; the white race has a system, a method, a code of ethics laid down for the white child to go by, a philosophy, a set Creed to guide its life. When the child comes into the world, this Creed is set out for him to follow and he is trained thereby, so you will not wonder that the white race has reached such a height in civilisation. They will not tell you what is to be found in that Creed, you must find that out for yourselves. We go to the same school that they go to, we study out of the same text books that they study from, yet there are things, many things that the white child knows that you have never seen or heard of. The white child is given private tuition in the knowledge of life. There is no man in the world of one race who will impart to the members of another race the things that would enable that race to launch out successfully in life to compare itself with his race. The Negro must understand that he is

Standing by Himself.

If he is to enjoy the best out of life, he must create for himself, and he can only create for himself when he has given to the world his philosophy and code to guide him. And I can recommend to you nothing more enhancing than the Creed we have laid down in "African Fundamentalism." If you will absorb it you will get inspiration to guide you and your children. Take the Jews for example, they have a set philosophy of life; as the Jewish child is born into the world that philosophy is laid before him; he grows in that philosophy, lives and dies in that philosophy. As of the Jews so of the other people. They have set philosophies, that have not been thought out-doors, but within themselves. You, the Negro, bring children into the world without any policy to guide them, when they should have inherited from their fathers a Creed, a policy to advance the race. You will make excuse that you have been in slavery for three hundred years. We excuse you for that; but you have been emancipated

now one hundred years, and it is time that you were able to stand upon the same level as the other peoples, understanding nature and nature's laws. When you get to understand that, you will no longer be the cringing creatures as others would have you be; but a master. The opportunity is yours, you can lift your selves any height, as others have done; it is only for you to summon the courage and absorb these things, which are at your doors, and so merit the blessing of God. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is opening the door of intelligence to the Four Hundred Million Negroes of the world—the door of inspiration. Go to the fount and drink, and when you do so you will see all honour in your own race, create your own heroes so that in another generation, I will not have to refer to the heroes of another race, but the teachers will recommend to you the heroes of your own race even though they may have passed this way three thousand years ago. The opportunity is yours to play your part as an Alexander did, as a Constantine did, as a Cortez did, as a C[ae]sar did, as a Napoleon did, as a William the Conqueror did, as the great white men are now playing their part in the world.

Lord Birkenhead

just a couple of days ago a great white man passed away in England—Lord Birkenhead—a man who felt the responsibility of Empire, who at every turn stood firm to not only the inspiration of the Empire: but its solidarity; a man who was regarded and respected by the Empire and the entire world; a man who was honoured by his king; a man who contributed to the Empire to make it more solid and firm than he found it. We therefore point you to "African Fundamentalism" a fount of inspiration; so that you too may enjoy the inspiration that made Lord Birkenhead the power that he was. We point you to the inspiration so that you may be a replica of Napoleon and climb your Alps; not of Europe, but of Africa, so that you too may be as able a Statesman as Pitt, as able a man as any that has passed this way, from

C[ae]sar up to the present time. When God Almighty made you, He did not make you with less mentality than the white man; when God Almighty made you, He fashioned you out of the same mould as the other races: He gave you an equality of gray matter: He gave you an equality of superior reserve as He gave the great white men; as He gave the great warriors; as He gave to the great champions; as He gave to the great captains, but the great difference is they found themselves, and you have not yet found yourselves.

An Appeal to the Four Hundred Million Negroes

Tonight we want you to find yourselves, like Constantine found himself, like Darwin found himself, like Napoleon found himself, like George Washington found himself, and left behind them great deeds by which men will remember them and bless them. Get your inspiration right, and it can come to you in no better way than by the common Creed, the common Guide of "African Fundamentalism." Get a copy tonight, hang it up on your wall, point your children to it; let them study it; let them follow it; let it be an inspiration to greater things. That is my message to you tonight. Take to it kindly, understand it properly, and let it be an inspiration to guide you to the level of men, so that you can look men in the face, not as slaves and serfs, but as masters. God made you to be masters, when He placed you in this world above all things visible and invisible.—(Applause).

On Sunday night last the Hon. Marcus Garvey, President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, at "Edelweis Park," continued a discourse on the subject of "African Fundamentalism[."] The week before he promised that he would speak for several Sundays on this topic explaining the real meaning of the Creed of the Negro race.

There was a tremendous crowd that listened to him most attentively; and from all indications were generally edified through the masterly manner in which Mr. Garvey expressed himself Among other things, he said that there is no reason why the Negro should select the martyrs, heroes and saints of other races as their pattern when in their own race they have characters equally as eminent who could be put alongside the greatest of the white race. He said that Sojourner Truth, the greatest American Negro woman, occupied a similar place in history as Saint Joan of Arc, as a pattern, they should look up to St. Sojourne[r] Truth as their pattern.

Heroism of Crispus Attucks

Mr. Garvey said in continuation that all of us know about the history of the American Revolution; and nearly everybody has heard of the great deeds of George Washington; but there is one American who stood out in the early stage of the American Revolution even more prominent than George Washington and he was a black man by the name of Crispus Attucks, who on Boston Commons shed the first drop of blood for American Independence. As Washington has a place in history to be admired by white men then Crispus Attucks, has one equally as great to be admired by Negroes. He said in the Military Field that Toussaint L'Ouverture acquitted himself and demonstrated that he was more brilliant and able a soldier than Napoleon; therefore, while the white man thinks of Napoleon, we should think of the great Negro General who in the plains of Santo Domingo defeated the combined armies of France, England and Spain and made his country free and independent.

Mr. Garvey impressed upon his auditors that it was the duty of every Negro in the world to take a copy of "African Fundamentalism" which is the

Creed of the Race;

and that it should be framed and placed in the home as a

source of inspiration to the members of the family and friends. Every race, he said, has some kind of source of inspiration; and the Negro cannot afford to five without his and it was for [t]hat reason that the Creed of "African Fundamentalism" was given to the world.

The time had come, he said, when the Negro, each and every one, should feel proud of his race and no less so than others feel about themselves. We must treat our heroes, saints and martyrs and great men and women just the same as other races treat theirs; we must elevate them to the same loftiness as others have done. While the Church has given us their Saint Jerome, their Saint Benedict, their Saint Catherine, we of the black race can also give to the world our Saints, men and women who by their pious usefulness and courageous deeds have left behind them such blessings as to make their race thankful for their existence. Then why not honour them equally as the white race honour their benefactors. This is the age when all races should think feelingly of their own and the Negro is now inspired to do so.

Hon. Marcus Garvey Speaks

I am continuing my discourse from the Subject in keeping with what I started to explain thoroughly to each and everyone—the meaning of this Creed of our Race. I am pleased to learn that nearly everybody is securing a copy of "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM ." This Creed should be in the home of every Negro all over the world, and we in Jamaica should not be any different to the other members of the race.

The part of the Creed that I am going to speak from tonight says: "AFRICA HAS PRODUCED C[OUNT]LESS NUMBERS OF MEN AND WOMEN IN WAR AND IN PEACE WHOSE LUSTRE AND BRAVERY OUTSHINE THAT OF ANY OTHER PEOPLE. THEN WHY NOT SEE GOOD AND PERFECT IN OURSELVES? WE MUST INSPIRE A LITERATURE AND PROMULGATE A DOCTRINE OF OUR OWN WITHOUT ANY APOLOGIES TO THE POWERS THAT BE. THE

RIGHT IS OURS AND GOD'S ."

To repeat: "Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women in war and in peace whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other people." In my many discourses recently here and elsewhere, I have, as it was my duty, spoken in a vein or strain to suggest that at the present time as a race, we have not been doing much nor accomplished much to warrant our present existence. Some of you may have taken it to heart, become discouraged and taken it to mean that well, we have not amounted to anything. But again I have tried to encourage you not to ignore your past, but to think that although you have not accomplished and achieved anything in our modern civilization[,] the race has a history, the proudest history of the world. The Negro has a history which enables him to compare himself with any other race. He stands topmost among other men because he was the father of our civilization. This however is no credit to us because we have not lived up to the glories of our fathers. But we ought to feel proud when we remember that our fathers gave the first civilization to the world.

Africa the Cradle of Civilization

Africa, the Scribes tell us today and history has told us, has been the cradle of civilization. When all Europe was in darkness: was only a settlement of cannibals and barbarians. Africa held up the torch of civilization, the Negro was the teacher of the ages, the blessed man of the Continents. Of the many Continents of the world, Africa stands out most prominently as the leader. All other Continents copied their civilization from Africa. And so if not in modern days, in ancient days Africa produced heroes and martyrs that we in any age should be proud of. As I suggested last week we should not accept any exemplary characters from any race because they are only borrowed from Africa when it was great. And if they could have borrowed from our civilization and produced heroes and saints for us to imitate, there is no reason why the Negro should not lean upon his

own shoulders, accepting his leaders from his own men and women who have led the path of civilization for centuries.

Great African Leaders

We have heard of great leaders, but in all times no leaders have stood out as the African leaders. The greatest leaders of ancient days who brought Rome to tears were not white men, they were the father Hamilcar and the son, Hannibal—two great leaders who made the Romans so fearful that at one period of Roman History no Roman could sleep comfortably because he was afraid that he would wake up a slave of Carthage. These are only two examples that have come out of Africa in war; but in Science and in Art, Africa claims a position Par excellence. Whatsoever the German, the Englishman, the Italian boast of they will tell you, if they wish to be truthful, that they take credit for thes[e] things only because they were able [t]o copy them from the Africans. Up to now they are excavating to discover the mysteries that once stood out in Africa in the time of the Pharoahs. During that time Africa occupied a unique position in history. They will try to tell you that the Pharoahs were white, but the mummified characteristics of the Pharoahs were black men. In later years the Pharoahs became somewhat coloured. In all ages, (those who are students of sociology will bear this out that) wheresoever you find a conquering race you will find them impressing their features and their morals upon the particular people conquered, or subdued. And so it is only a question of time when the strong people of any age will reduce the conquered or weaker people of any age and bring about different kinds and colours that were never produced before. As a proof of this I am now speaking to differently coloured people it is because the conquering white man has been able to impress his type upon the weaker people. When the white man held the black man in slavery he was able to reduce his women to his will, thereby impressing his features upon the black race. In the same way when Africa was strong; when Carthage was strong; when the

black man held the reigns of the world in his hands he went conquering in Asia, reducing the morality of the Asiatics; he went conquering in Spain: he went conquering in Northern France reducing their morality, and that is the result of the vast coloured population in the world, proving the blackman's greatness in ages past. Originally there was no coloured race. There were only white and black. The exist[e]nce therefore of a mixed race proves that the blackman was once the conqueror of the world. That is why the black man stands consoled today because he knows that he was once great and that he will again come back into his own.

Africa's Power Wide Spread

Those of you who have travelled must of noticed that the people of Mediterranean Europe are darker than the people of Northern Europe. This is because they have come in closer contact with the people of Africa. The people of Italy are dark; the people of Southern Spain are darker than those of Northern Spain; the people of southern France are darker than those of Northern France; it is bec[au]se when Africa was in her power it was easier for her to cross over to the southern parts of Europe conquering the people of Italy, of Spain and of France. The Spaniard, if he wants to tell you the tru[t]h, will tell you that up to to-day, he respects the black man. And when they talk of Saints, the patron saints of the Spaniard is a black man, for up to that time they had to look up to a black man. Prior to that day Homer tells us that when the Greek[s] were getting out of their swaddling clothes the Africans were the only companions they would keep because they were superior to them in intelligence, and they could gain knowledge from them. And it is said that when a god was missing from Greece he was gone over to Africa to spend time with the Ethiopians. So whatsoever might have been the development in civilization you hold the credit that it was borrowed from your fathers, and if you are a true descendant of Africa you will be able to duplicate the deeds of your fathers. We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

are inspiring you to go forth into the world as others have done in the ages past and are doing now, and if you are courageous and bold you will take kindly to the deeds of your fathers.

A few days after the destruction of the air-ship R-101 a gentleman remarked to me that if I did not think that God had a hand in this disaster. He said that the airship being on its way to India and Africa for the sole purpose of bluffing the Indians, God, in his opinion, did not want this bluff to take place, so He destroyed the airship. I can not see my way to accept this interpretation because I do not believe that God interferes with things like that; but I do believe, as another party said, that it was a mechanical defect in the ship. I do not believe that God puts any handicap upon any people for the exercising of their intelligence and the use of their brains. It was complimentary to the white man to have done what he did, exercising prowess in the law of monopoly over creation and Nature constituting himself so ably to do what he did. The white man has been able to raise his intelligence far above any creature in the world, you are as capable of using your intelligence as any other white man that came here because at one time you were the fathers of civilisation and intelligence, and if you were able to do it once you are able to do it again: but while the white man is thinking in terms of greatness, the Negro is sleeping on his intelligence. The Universal Negro Improvement Association in inspiring you to imitate not the deeds of the white man, but to accomplish over again the deeds of your fathers. You have accomplished them once already, you can do it again, and I do hope that this will be an inspiration to some black man or woman to some black boy or girl to go through the world accomplishing something grand and great as the white man is now doing. Can I repeat: "Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women in war and in peace whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other peoples." Therefore look to the colours of the Race; look to the colours of the Negro for your inspirations; look to the colours of that great Empire of Ethiopia that is now scattered A over the world; select our

leaders from out of our own race; and not from the other races because others look down upon us contemptuously and scornfully when we have to follow them.

Stir Yourselves

We must give up that silly idea of folding our hands and waiting upon God to do everything for us. If God intended that, He would not have given us a mind; He would not have given us intelligence; He would not have given us His soul; He would not have placed us here in the midst of creation, and surrounded us with all the beautiful things of nature. Whatsoever you want in life you must make up your mind to do it for yourself and accomplish it for yourself; whether it is rearing a home, expanding an Empire, if you want to do it, you must do it for yourself and then God will bless the effort because He will realise that you are using your intelligence for the best. That is my message to you tonight and I do hope you have absorbed it because it is only by absorbing it you will be able to mentally and physically rise above the things that environ you. So tonight I am inspiring you to experiment in your own sphere placing in the airships, placing on the sea Titanics. Africa calls you to service; Africa calls you to Empire—a universal Empire. Africa calls you to a universal freedom and until we answer, Africa will never rise from the dust, because we have lost the inspiration of our fathers. (Applause).

Hon. Marcus Garvey's Speech

I shall again speak on the subject Of "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM ." For the benefit of those who have not heard me on this before I will explain, that "AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM " is a written Creed of the Negro race which is now being circulated all over the world, a copy of which is to be placed in every home as an inspiration to the members of the

[fa]mily, because it is only by this accepted Creed—a universal acceptance—that we will be able to unitedly go forward to the great object that we have in view. I am going to speak to you on the second paragraph.

"A Peep in the Past"

If others laugh at you, return the laughter to them; if they mimic you, return the compliment with equal force. They have no more right to dishonour, disrespect and disregard your feeling and manhood than you have in dealing with them. Honour them when they honour you; disrespect and disregard them when they vilely treat you. Their arrogance is but skin deep and a[n] assumption that has no foundation in morals or in law. They have sprung from the same family tree of obscurity as we have. Their history is as rude in its primitiveness as ours; their ancestors ran wild and naked, lived in caves and in branches of trees, like monkeys, as ours; they made human sacrifices, ate the flesh of their own dead and the raw meat of the wild beast for centuries even as they accuse us of doing; their cannibalism was more prolonged than ours; when we were embracing the arts and sciences on the banks of the Nile their ancestors were still drinking human blood and eating out of the skulls of their conquered dead[.] When our civilization had reached the noonday of progress they were still running naked and sleeping in holes and caves with rats, bats, and other insects and animals. After we had already unfathomed the mystery of the stars and reduced the heavenly constellations to minute and regular calculus they were still backwoodsmen living in ignorance and blatant darkness.

The Turning Point in Man's History

This is really the turning point in the history of man in which the Negro plays a prominent part. Men or Man came into this world under the same circumstances. When creation

opened, man was a creature of creation, and in his rude and crude nativity he knew not where to turn in nature for the enjoyment of the best. His mind was young, his thoughts had not then reached the zenith, and so like a child, man crept along with the other creatures of the world, became the companion of the animals around and drank in the crudity of that which he saw. His growth, his development was not sudden. It was gradual. Among the first of men to have gotten the new thought of the higher life was the black man. Out of nature's rudeness, out of nature's virginity, he, the black man in thought, was the first to lift himself to a position of superiority among the other creatures that came with the dawn of creation. (Hear Hear). So while Europe and Asia lagged behind, remained ignorant of the higher thoughts of man, remained ignorant of the higher calling of man; Africa steadily took her growth upwards, and on the banks of the Nile, black men founded Institutions of learning; black men built a civilization on the banks of the Congo that became wonder, not only to men, but to the gods. The black man started to build, and succeeded in building the first civilization the world ever saw, and by contact and by natural prowess and conquest he came in contact with the peoples of the other countries, and imposed their morality upon them, so that they found it a grand and glorious opportunity to be in companionship with the Ethiopians. Even the Greeks who looked towards their gods for counsel and guidance could find no better companionship than that of the Ethiopians. So from the caves of Europe and Asia, they wended their way over to Aftica to

Sup with the Gods of Ethiopia

and learn from the sciences and the arts of the civilization of the black man. They took that civilization back with them to Europe and to Asia, and as the years rolled by, they kept that civilization, built on it and brought it up to the civilization of the 20th century. So whatsoever man has succeeded in

creating from the dawn of civilization up to the 20th century must be traced back to the black man. (Hear Hear). When black men were giving philosophies, literature, and sciences to the world, the other people were living in caves and dens, they were wild men; kept company with the wild animals around, because they had not started to think. We have no cause to hang our heads in shame, because our fathers reached the highest pinnacle of glory first, and so

African Fundamentalism Suggests

if others laugh at you, return the laughter to them, if they mimic you, return the compliment with equal force; for they have nothing over you, because they have come out of no finer mould than you have come out of. You came out of the same mould as they, and you gave light and learning to the white man. (Applause). If they mimic you return it, because you are men. They have no more right to dishonour, disrespect and disregard your feelings and manhood than you have in dealing with them. That is the position that the black man must take up throughout the world. He can be as proud as any other man of any other race. We are not desirous of insulting any one, but if anyone insult us we shall return him the insult.

What Makes a Man a Man

What makes a man a man? The thoughts of man, the soul of man make him a man, and so tonight we want to inspire the Four Hundred Million of black humanity, by the kindling of their souls to rise to the highest in man. Man is a great genius; man is a g[re]at creature, and as your fathers created on the banks of the Nile, so can we too create and so show that we are the offsprings of a worthy ancestry from which we have sprung. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is endeavouring to instill in you the thoughts and the sentiments that make up the principles of the Association—the principles that will one day give

us the promise of Africa redeemed and a race emancipated throughout the world, so that the black race, like the other races of the world will not only stand socially equal, but politically equal to the other races of the world. We have reached a time when the Negro can take no less a position than the other peoples. Everybody is looking towards Empire to insure protection—a protection for their own. "African Fundamentalism" points to Imperialism. Imperialism means that whether we are in Africa or abroad, we are united with one tie of life blood, with one tie of race, and as Four Hundred Million we must stand together, willing to fall together or die together. That is the thought we are echoing throughout the world, and when men realize that you are responsible for such a thought, they will respect you as they respect others. What the white man has done are but copies, replicas, are but duplicates, facsimiles of what the black man originated and endowed civilization with. Who to tell that I am not now talking to a direct descendant of the Pharoahs. We are all related, we have sprung from the same family tree. It is only an accident that has torn us from Africa, but there is a tie of blood in all men black, that we cannot ignore, but think kindly of, and be willing to sacrifice for. They, the other people of the world, their history is as rude in its primitiveness as ours: their Ancestors ran wild and naked. When man first saw in the light of day, they were not garbed as you are, but a naked animal running wild. If it were not for the advanced fashion of civilization, you would be down under the trees with the hogs, you would be basking with the cats, because at the early stage of civilization you had not begun to think, and men were wild; but it was a black man who got up from among the snakes, by deeds and actions and said: "I shall no longer keep company with animals and insects but advance myself to the Kingdom of man." He built a great system of learning and education, men saw what he did and emulated him; and so by reverse of circumstances which follows men all over the world, this skiff was lost to the white man, and until we recover that we cannot get back our position.

U.N.I.A. Has Hopes for the Black Man

We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are hoping that the black man will redeem himself to the position of leadership in pursuing human love, pertaining to the divine injunction that we should do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. Meaning that we should bear our brothers' burden. When civilization reaches that point where we become our brothers' keepers, then we shall be perfect as men ready for the companionship of God's angels. I do hope that the black man will reach that position first, so that God from His Judgment Seat will say: "Come unto me thou child of Ethiopia indeed thou has stretched forth thy hands unto Me, and Princes have come out of Egypt." (Applause). I believe that the inspiration of the Psalmist will not fall to the ground, but as a symbolism, it means that the rejected stone will become the head of the corner, the permanent stone to erect a magnificent building that shall last forever. Man is not an independent creature by himself but a child of God; and when God calls him to give an account of Himself, I do hope that among men the black man will reach that unique position befitting a child of God. But on the journey let us not lose the respect of others. Coming in contact with other men, we must never forget our decorum; we must never forget we are soldiers in life's warfare. We must fight our battles with character, and as a soldier will take no affront from any soldier of the other army, so must we not take any from the other people. Be courageous and march towards the goal, towards the destiny of an emancipated race. We must march steadily on, until we reach the front where there shall be a greater victory.

Face Your Difficulties Like Men

You black men, you Negro men, you coloured men and women whatsoever may be your surrounding difficulties bow

not down before them, but face them, because when you summon your soul to duty, you can rise with the sun, and become one of God's elected children. I see no reason why you cannot look forward and become what your fathers were. That is my advice tonight to you, and I do hope that you will get this Creed, and read the words written on it, and so imitate the men who never became discouraged; never gave up, and were able to build up structures that last down the ages. If they could do it, why should you become discouraged. Although you may be going to the grave in age, you may be able to give your children the inspiration to be a Plato, or a Socrates of Africa and another generation will be able to bless your memory; as they bless the memory of the parent of Napoleon; as they bless the memory of the parent of Plato for giving to the world such illustrious characters. I do hope that by another hundred years by the inspiration that we gather from this Creed another generation will be able to bless you mothers and fathers for giving to the world an illustrious son, whom we hope to follow under the colours of the Red, the Black and the Green. May God help you to see the light and to develop so that you may become a greater and grander race marching to destiny. (Applause).

Source Notes

Printed in the Blackman (Kingston), 11, 18, and 25 October and 1 November 1930. Original headlines and editorial prefaces and postscripts omitted. Reports of 11 and 25 October and 1 November 1930 based on stenographic notes.

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Excerpted from Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papersby Marcus Garvey Copyright © 1987 by Marcus Garvey. Excerpted by permission.
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