Global Garveyism
Illuminating the global impact of Marcus Garvey’s Black nationalist philosophy
Arguing that the accomplishments of Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey and his followers have been marginalized in narratives of the Black freedom struggle, this volume builds on decades of overlooked research to reveal the profound impact of Garvey’s post–World War I Black nationalist philosophy around the globe and across the twentieth century.
These essays point to the breadth of Garveyism’s spread and its reception in communities across the African diaspora, examining the influence of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Africa, Australia, North America, and the Caribbean. They highlight the underrecognized work of many Garveyite women and show how the UNIA played a key role in shaping labor unions, political organizations, churches, and schools. In addition, contributors describe the importance of grassroots efforts for expanding the global movement—the UNIA trained leaders to organize local centers of power, whose political activism outside the movement helped Garvey’s message escape its organizational bounds during the 1920s. They trace the imprint of the movement on long-term developments such as decolonization in Africa and the Caribbean, the pan-Aboriginal fight for land rights in Australia, the civil rights and Black Power movements in the United States, and the radical pan-African movement.
Rejecting the idea that Garveyism was a brief and misguided phenomenon, this volume exposes its scope, significance, and endurance. Together, contributors assert that Garvey initiated the most important mass movement in the history of the African diaspora, and they urge readers to rethink the emergence of modern Black politics with Garveyism at the center.
Contributors: Ronald J. Stephens | Adam Ewing | Keisha N. Blain | Nicole Bourbonnais | José Andrés Fernández Montes de Oca | John Maynard | Erik S. McDuffie | Frances Peace Sullivan | Robert Trent Vinson | Michael O. West
“A timely publication that should be of interest to students, scholars, and informed nonacademic readers wishing to deepen their understanding of the development of Black protest and activism in a transnational context.”—American Historical Review
“Demonstrates that Garveyism inspired meaningful institutional development in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and even the Pacific region.”—Journal of American History
“Significantly expands the conversation on Garvey himself but, perhaps more important, speaks to the wide-ranging impact the UNIA had across time and space.”—Journal of African American History
“Represents a valuable addition to the growing literature on Garvey scholarship. If the goal of the work is to provide readers with a rare glimpse into the complex and vibrant world of Garveyism and those who were important to the movement, then it has succeeded.”—Journal of American Ethnic History
“The new research in Global Garveyism digs deep into the politics and ideas of Garveyites at the local level, goes well beyond Garvey’s death in 1940, and pays attention to the role that women played in the movement.”—New West Indian Guide
“In its geographic span and in the array of political projects it covers, Global Garveyism gives us a unique vantage point into the lives and visions of these everyday Garveyites who made the movement possible.”—Journal of African History
“This is, by far, the most comprehensive and illuminating book to date concerning the unique phenomenon that is Garveyism. From the U.S. Midwest to Trinidad to Southern Africa to Australia, this volume sheds light relentlessly.”—Gerald Horne, author of The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean“Essential reading for anyone doing research on the gigantic figure and personality who is Marcus Mosiah Garvey.”—Judson L. Jeffries, editor of The Black Panther Party in a City Near You
Ronald J. Stephens, professor of African American studies at Purdue University, is the author of Idlewild: The Rise, Decline, and Rebirth of a Unique African American Resort Town and editor of Robert Franklin Williams Speaks: A Documentary History.
Adam Ewing, associate professor of African American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, is the author of The Age of Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a Mass Movement and Changed Global Black Politics and editor of The Essential Writings of Robert A. Hill.
