As Black Pride continues to grow in Canada, Marcus Garvey, the “patron saint “of the black nationalist movement emphasizes Black Pride as a key to black people’s integrity. On his visit to Canada, Marcus Garvey chose to land in the East Coast. Today, there are buildings which continue to be used for Black Emancipatory Events.
Canada and Marcus Garvey in Glace Bay
To unite people, he has established more than 1,100 World Black Advancement chapters in more than 40 countries, including theatres in Grace Bay, Sydney and New Waterford. He was the founder and first general president of the World Association for the Advancement of Negroes and the Alliance of African Communities (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA). This is an ideologically black and pan-African nationalist organization.
The most valuable symbols of Marcus Garvey’s influence in Cape Breton are the three Halls built in Glace Bay., Whitney Pier and New Waterford. Early in the 1900’s there were dozens of UNIA Halls across Canada but today the Glace Bay Hall is the only one still operating.
Historically, the buildings served the needs of the UNIA as a community center for black residents of the Glace Bay area. They were built to support West Indian immigrants working in the mines. The UNIA headquarters, founded in Sydney Glace Bay in 1919, remains the only functioning one in Canada.
Garvey pointed out that after the slavery of African descendants, there was little that could hold them together except the UNIA.
In 1937, famed civil rights leader Marcus Garvey visited Cape Breton, and local museums still celebrate him with a summer festival named after him. As Garvey records, he had the most splendid receptions in the Maritime Provinces, and was overwhelmingly received at Sydney and Glace Bay.
What is Black Pride?
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican, advocated a new philosophy of black nationalism that emphasized black pride. It also urged the African diaspora to unite in Africa. He became a civil rights leader in the early 20th century. To realize his dream, Garvey founded the World Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914. Soon, these associations were formed all over the world.
Many black leaders were inspired by his movement, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Bob Marley. His legacy of uniting blacks is undeniable. For all these leaders black pride meant self pride and self-actualization.
Nearly 80 years later, civil rights pioneer Marcus Garvey gave a speech in Cape Breton that might inspire Bob Marley, and his son says the idea of the speech and song is still true.
Black Pride still true
Dr. Julius Garvey, son of Marcus Garvey, has stated that Marley read extensively about his father, a Jamaican colleague, and that the 1937 speech in Nova Scotia was likely the one where Marley wrote “Redemption Song”. Marley was reading a Negro magazine, and it was here that he may have stumbled upon Garvey’s 1937 speech in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Garvey also founded the Toronto School of African Philosophy in 1937, a course he taught at the local branch to train UNIA leaders.
He was the first person on a massive scale and at a level that gave millions of blacks a sense of dignity and purpose. Garvey, along with W. E. Dubois, deserved to be considered the “father of pan-Africanism” while others called him one of the greatest pan-African leaders of the time “and the “patron saint “of the black nationalist movement.
African Humanism & Black Pride
When asked about the difference between African humanism and other types of humanistic philosophy, Dr. Garvey said that Western humanism emphasizes the need to seek salvation outside of oneself.
Marcus Garvey’s ambitions for black pride and pan-Africanism created a strong racial consciousness. It also ignited a universal sense of purpose, and produced a legacy that has inspired and empowered generations of blacks around the world.
The [black community] of Sydney, originally from the West Indies, is an example of what others [people of color] can and do across Canada. Whitney Pier has been the primary settlement location. There are those originally from Barbados and a small number of African Americans and African Nova Scotians on Cape Breton since 1901.
Why Nova Scotia?
Whitney Pier’s location is characterized by its relationship to heavy coal mining and the steel industry. From 1968 to 2001, the Cape Breton Development Corporation Devco Railroad transported coal from mines northeast of Whitney Quay to this shipping terminal for international exports. The last mine in the Cape Breton Industrial Area opened in November 2001 The closure of the mines forced the plant to rely on coal imports for the first time.
When Garvey visited Canada in 1937, it was not all plain sailing with many persons thinking that perhaps he was there to stir up discontent. But to Garvey, Canada was simply another place where black workers needed to recognize their African ancestry and be proud of what had already been accomplished. To him racial pride and the knowledge of Black history should be foremost in their minds.
“I don’t like to see misery; it is hellish, devilish and ungodly. God never made misery; it is the result of the mistakes of man. But if you can get men to go right, they will lessen their own misery….”