KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) will be hosting a series of heritage lectures on Jamaica’s first National Hero, Marcus Garvey, as part of activities to celebrate Heritage Month 2017.

Heritage Month is being celebrated in October under the theme ‘A Great Heritage…A Great Legacy’

The first lecture is scheduled to begin next Monday, at the Institute of Jamaica, 10-16 East Street, Kingston. The other lectures will take place at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in St James and the Northern Caribbean University in Manchester on Tuesday, October 10 and Thursday, October 12, respectively. All lectures begin at 10:00 am.

Students, teachers and the general public are invited to attend the lectures, which are free of cost. Guest lecturer will be the President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Steven Golding.

Public Education Officer of the JNHT, Duane Harris, told JIS News that the topic was chosen because this year marks the 130th year of Marcus Garvey’s birth, and it is important to examine his ideas and how they impact the society.

He mentioned a recent controversy involving the mounting of a bust of Marcus Garvey at the University of the West Indies Campus and the Black Lives Matter movement, a civil rights activist group in the United States of America.