A large number of people, including students from several schools, turned out for the fourth staging of the annual Marcus Garvey Lecture at the St Ann Parish Library in St Ann’s Bay recently.

The lecture hosted by the St Ann Homecoming and Heritage Foundation was held in commemoration of the death of the national hero.

Former Governor General Professor Sir Kenneth Hall delivered a riveting lecture focusing on “Why Garvey has exercised such a hold on our thinking after such a relatively short life of 53 years”.

“It is the impact of his ideas broadly known as Garveyism that has allowed his work to continue to have relevance to Jamaicans and people of African descent in 2015,” he said.

The former GG said the ideas and messages of Garvey are still relevant today because many of the challenges which existed in Garvey’s time still exist today.

He pointed out that because of his relevance Garvey is the only Jamaican who is listed in the fifty major political thinkers in Western Political Thought. He said Garvey is listed because of the major role played in the context of black emancipation, particularly the Civil Rights movement in the United States and broadly the liberation of Africa.

“We continue to place significance on his ideas because of their continued relevance in Jamaica today and to people of African descent,” he said.

Professor Hall said there is consensus now that the vision that people of African descent could take their rightful place in the modern world and claim the right to self-determination were direct legacies of Garvey’s thoughts and ideas.

“That is why we must continue to incorporate the messages of Garvey in our education system, culture, and as ideological armour to confront the continued efforts to degrade Africans and people of African descent,” he said

Garvey, he said, taught the concepts of race, self- reliance and nationhood. In addressing race, Professor Hall said Garvey felt that the first responsibility of black people was to uplift themselves and to develop a vision of themselves that would inspire self confidence. He pointed out that many Jamaicans made efforts to lighten their skin colour because of the lack of confidence.

Professor Hall also pointed out that Garvey encouraged people to develop their own economic base through self-reliance. Nationhood, he explained, was perhaps the most global aspect of Garveyism.

“Garvey felt that an independent and powerful Africa would help blacks to protect themselves and fight off degradation,” he said.

Those who attended the lecture also had a chance to tour the Marcus Garvey Information Centre. Marcus Garvey was Jamaica’s first national hero. He was born in St Ann’s Bay, St Ann hence the Heritage Foundation of the parish is making efforts to ensure people appreciate his legacy.