Garvey, Marcus (Moziah) (1887-1940)

Jamaican political thinker and activist, an early advocate of black nationalism. He led a Back to Africa movement for black Americans to establish a black-governed country in Africa. The Jamaican politico-religious movement of Rastafarianism is based largely on his ideas.

Garvey was born in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica. Mostly self-taught, he attended school until the age of 14 and became a printer's apprentice. He travelled in Central America, where he edited newspapers in Costa Rica and Panama, and moved to London in 1912. In 1914 he returned to Jamaica and founded the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League, generally called the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The movement did not gain a following there, and in 1916 Garvey moved to the USA, where he established UNIA branches in New York and other northern cities.

Aiming to achieve human rights and dignity for black people through pride and economic self-sufficiency, Garvey was considered one of the first militant black nationalists. Called ‘Black Moses’, he claimed a following of 2 million people. He alienated other black leaders, however, because of his advocacy of racial purity and segregation. Arrested for mail fraud in 1922, he went to prison for two years and was then deported in 1927.