Marcus Garvey and the Interest in Others

 Afrikan souls, in the necessary and fullest recovery of their own self-knowingness are able to locate themselves in their rightful place of standing as central in the sacred universe. From their own self-determined vantage point Afrikan souls are not only able to realise the truism of themselves but also are able to see others for who and what they are (especially in relation to Afrikan well-being). Afrikan civilisations are the greatest and most enduring civilisations ever to exist. Steeped the rightful order of knowingness of the self, the Afrikan can establish, develop and secure pinnacle civilisation again, this time for eternity. It is only the Afrikan that can do this for self and the world.

Unfortunately, in a state of abject disruption such as that of the Maafa of recent centuries a barrage of others that mean the Afrikan ill have attempted to created perpetual havoc and destructive behaviour to and in Afrikan life.

The supreme visionary Marcus Garvey insightfully articulated conditions in the following way:  

“The only interest other people will have in someone else is to use that someone else for whatever purpose they desire, so we do not wonder at the present status of our race. We have been trained and encouraged to reflect the kind of attitude and behaviour that is dangerously wicked, hence our poverty, politically and nationalistically. To rise out of this racial chaos new thought must be injected into the race and it is this thought that the UNIA has been promulgating for more than twenty years. There is a rejuvenation of this thought. There is a desire that it spread farther and farther reaching out to every section of the globe where the [Afrikanj] man has his residence. We need missionaries, to carry the work and the word”.

The ‘new thought’ that this great hero highlighted is surely the responsibility of every Afrikan soul in the world to attain and secure from generation to generation. This cannot be realised through happenstance or the hope that other people will do this for the Afrikan. No, the Afrikan has to make self-determined effort of their own accord in order to realise self-knowingness. In this, learning is key – formally, informally or otherwise.

Programmes such as Afrikan World Studies programmes can be a useful foundation for life-long learning. In addition, organs such as the Universal Royal Afrikan Nation rooted with spiritual-cultural fabric is a vehicle of living self-knowingness. Both vital avenues are transformational in a progressive way. Here then, the Afrikan can become self-empowered in line with the age-old Afrikan instructive wisdom to ‘know thyself’.

The inspiration and wisdom guidance of the great Marcus Garvey is surely mission-compelling for Afrikans worldwide. Here, the imperative thrust of independent learning can be energised throughout the levels of the self: