I don’t think we will find many people these days who believe that the Garvey movement isn’t much more than a talk shop.  Nearly a century has now passed since Garvey went all over the place urging us black people to start taking charge of our own destiny, to no avail.  These days, even the organizers of these Garvey memorial events seem to have finally come to grips with this fact.

Whenever we have lectures on topics like Garvey, reparations and the like, it is usually very hard to get people who aren’t “Afro-centrics”, Rastafarians, “black-power” nationalists, historians and the like to take any serious interest.  

Indeed, I remember attending a reparations conference some time ago and I couldn’t help but notice that only a handful of ordinary people bothered to turn up.  The students who were there and who were the vast majority couldn’t be seen as willing attendees, as they were compelled by their schools to go.  Also, l remember that when the lead speaker was delivering his lecture most of the students were fast asleep.

In order to sustain some interest in movements like Garveyism, Garveryites, and other Afro-centric-minded people have tried a new tactic – using popular entertainers.  Now, while the original intent of these Garvey lectures may have been to educate people on Garvey, the fact is that including entertainers at these events have converted these gatherings into entertainment venues.

The large numbers of “ordinary” people who now attend these Garvey memorial events aren’t really there to hear anything about Garvey’s plans for the race.  Most have seen through the impossibility of Garveyism.  What many want to hear are the new artists who use these events as opportunities to showcase their singing (or is it incitement) skills.  Needless to say, these entertainers aren’t complaining either.

As such, it is clear:  The reality of Garveyism is that it has very little relevance to most of us today.  Garveyites may think that they have boosted interest in their movement by these entertainment attractions.  However, all they have done is to convert Garveyism from a talk shop to a party.

Michael A Dingwall