IN one of reggae icon Burning Spear’s most popular songs he laments: “No one remembers old Marcus Garvey…”

He may not be entirely right, but he does have a point which is that we do not pay sufficient respect and attention to our national heroes whose teachings are still relevant to Jamaica and indeed the world at large.

Symptomatic of this neglect was last Sunday’s low-keyed ceremony to honour Jamaica’s first national hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey in St Ann’s Bay, on the occasion of the 128th anniversary of his birth on August 17, 1887, in St Ann.

The question we should ask ourselves as a nation is whether this was enough recognition and celebration of one of the greatest men of African descent who also happened to be Jamaican.

In 1914, at the age of 27, Mr Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the goal to improve the lives of people of Africa and the African Diaspora. Garvey spoke of Africans at home and abroad as one mighty race.

The motto of the organisation, which was said to have numbered up to four million members at one stage, is “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!” Mr Garvey was a motivational speaker whose charismatic and visionary leadership mobilised the largest movement of black people in the history of the United States and perhaps in the world during his lifetime.

Remarkably, his ideas and work have been foundational to all struggles for the liberation of black people everywhere since his untimely death in 1940.

American leader Malcolm X said about Garvey’s influence: “Every time you see another nation on the African continent become independent you know that Marcus Garvey is alive. Had it not been for Marcus Garvey and the foundations laid by him, you would find no independent nations in the Caribbean today. All of the freedom movement that is taking place right here in America today was initiated by the work and teachings of Marcus Garvey.”

The importance of Mr Garvey is not only in the example he set by his leadership and accomplishments, but derives from the fact that many of his goals are yet to be fulfilled; his philosophies and teachings are still very relevant to people of Africa and the globally disbursed people of African descent.

While we lament the inadequate attention given to Marcus Garvey here in Jamaica, the land of his birth, we salute two brilliant and distinguished Jamaican scholars — Professor Robert Hill and Professor Rupert Lewis — who have done so much to document, explain, and elucidate the life, work, and teachings of the national hero.

Professor Hill is responsible for compiling the single most important archival collection of Marcus Garvey works: The multi-volume Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. Professor Rupert Lewis has written and edited several books on Marcus Garvey, which are among the best reference works around.

Mr Stephen Golding, who prides himself on being a leading Garveyite, might wish to tell us what is the state of the movement today and enlighten us on his own efforts to revive the UNIA today.