MONTEGO BAY, St James – This weekend marks the extension of Marcus Garvey’s 90 year-old Universal Negro Improvement Association to St James.

The launch of the St James branch of the association kicked off yesterday and will culminate today with a lecture from one of the more prominent scholars on Garveyism, Professor

Tony Martin of the Wellesley University in the United States.

The professor, who hails from Trinidad, will speak on the theme, “The Impact of Marcus Garvey’s Legacy in shaping the World”.

The event, which is taking place at the closed harbour (Dump Up) in Montego Bay, has been put on by the UNIA and the African Communities League (ACL) and features a variety of displays of cultural items, speakers and presenters. Participants include:

. diplomats like the Costa Rican ambassador to Jamaica, Joslyn Sawyers;

. politicians like Montego Bay’s mayor, Noel Donaldson;

. professionals and representatives from the business community;

. Maroons and a number of religious organisations.

Today’s activities will take the format of a business forum at which attorney, Miguel Lorne, will serve as the master of ceremonies and in which a Ghanaian trade mission that arrived in the island on Wednesday will participate.

The UNIA and the ACL were organisations through which Garvey sought to advance his crusade for Pan-Africanism across the world. Founded in Jamaica in 1914, the UNIA saw an increase in its membership to over four million in less than a decade. It was exported to Harlem, New York, in the early 1920s, before advancing to Europe and Nigeria in Africa.

The Nigerian branch, which was started in 1929, is still active today.

Linda Morowei, interim president of the new St James branch, said they would continue Garvey’s efforts for the advancement of the black race.

“Basically, we’re going to be continuing the goals and objectives of Marcus Garvey, which is economical and cultural upliftment of the black race and the back to Africa movement,” Morowei said.