BRIDGETOWN, Barbados- The Right Excellent Errol Barrow often used to remark that one of his most profound formative political experiences was sitting in the Queen’s Park Steel Shed as a 17-year-old and listening to Marcus Garvey address the Barbadian people in October 1937!
The message of black pride, initiative and nationalism that Barrow heard on that occasion stayed with him and helped to shape him into the type of political leader that he became.
But there was nothing unique about Barrow’s experience, for virtually every single progressive black “public man” in Barbados between 1918 and 1940 was influenced and shaped by the Honourable Marcus Garvey and the powerful black nationalist philosophy of Garveyism!
Indeed, organised 20th century black Barbadian political and labour activism began in 1919 when the Marcus Garvey Movement announced its arrival in Barbados with the establishment of the first of six branches of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)!
They were the first institutionalized expression of labour and black political activism at a time when trade unions were still illegal and a black-run political party was unheard of.
No doubt, one of the reasons Barbados readily embraced Garveyism was because of the number of Barbadian migrants in the United States and other parts of the “Black World” who occupied leading roles in the UNIA.
For example, Barbadian Arnold Josiah Ford was the musical director of the UNIA and composed most of the movement’s stirring anthems and hymns, including the Universal Ethiopian Anthem – the unofficial national anthem of the entire “Black World” in the 1920s and 1930s.
And so, the UNIA was the essential foundation on which all of the subsequent Barbadian political and labour organizations were built, including the Democratic League, the Working Men’s Association, the Barbados Labour Party, the Barbados Workers’ Union, and the Congress Party.
Indeed, a roll call of Barbadian activists who were either members of the UNIA or significantly influenced by Garvey would include Rt. Excellent Charles Duncan O’Neal, Clennel Wickham, James A. Tudor, Rt. Excellent Clement Payne, Israel Lovell, Alexandrina Gibbs, John Beckles, Menzies Chase, Chrissie Brathwaite, J. A. Martineau, Moses Small, J. T. C. Ramsay, Rawle Parkinson, Dr Hugh Gordon Cummins, Ulric Grant, Herbert Seale, and Wynter Crawford.
And, of course, Marcus Garvey is at the very foundation of the Rastafari and Pan-African movements in Barbados.
In light of this history and record it makes eminent sense for the Barbadian people to see in Garvey a man who made such a tremendous contribution to the development of Barbados that he deserves to be honoured and memorialized in our country.
It is against this background therefore that I look forward with great joy, pride and anticipation to the official opening of the new MARCUS GARVEY AMPHITHEATRE in Queens Park this evening — Thursday 28th November 2024.
Profound thanks and praises are due to Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Minister Shantal Munro-Knight, Ms Carol Roberts and to all the relevant Officers of the Division of Culture and the National Cultural Foundation for this long overdue development.
The Most Honourable Marcus Garvey and the philosophy of Garveyism are woven into the very spirit, culture and ethos of Barbados, and long may it remain so !
