St Ann, Jamaica — Queen’s Counsel Lord Anthony Gifford says that Marcus Garvey would be “shocked and disappointed at the Jamaican contemporary social, legal and constitutional structure if he were to return to life today”.

Delivering the fifth annual Marcus Garvey lecture organized by the St Ann Homecoming & Heritage Foundation held at the St Ann Parish Library recently, the attorney took the position that Jamaica’s monarchical constitution, continued dependency on the Privy Council, and the denial of reparation obligations owed to Jamaica by Britain was a complete contradiction and repudiation of Garvey’s vision for his country.

Calling on Jamaica to replace the British Queen as head-of-state with a Jamaican, he claimed that it was lack of pride why the country continued to be satisfied with a constitution that provides for Her Majesty as our sovereign leader in matters of politics, parliament and legal affairs.

Making reference to the date June 10, 2016, as the 75th anniversary of Garvey’s death, he asked his audience to honour the National Hero’s memory by joining in the call to remove the Queen as head-of-state, replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice, and put pressure on the government to pursue the matter of reparation for what he called the “crimes against humanity committed by the slave owners and foreign governments who enriched themselves off the backs of the African slaves”.

Lord Gifford said that he was aware of a letter sent by a Caribbean National Reparation Committee to all Caribbean heads of government and to six European heads of state demanding a debate and resolution on the matter, and that he would like this letter to be made available to the public so as to engender what he called “an energized national debate”.

The attorney also came out in favour of a referendum on the issues stated, and opined that Garvey himself would have insisted on a referendum to give the people a chance to make their voices heard.

The annual public Garvey lecture was the fifth in a series organised by the St Ann Homecoming and Heritage Foundation as part of a programme of highlighting the contribution of St Ann-born citizens to national development.

This year’s lecture saw a large turnout of students, teachers and civic leaders headed by St Ann Custos Norma Walters.

Renae Dixon