"Africa for Africans" – Speech by Marcus Garvey at Madison Square Garden, New York
Marcus Garvey was an inspiration to many; however, he found it very difficult to try to implement his plan to return Africans to Africa. Not only non-Africans fought it, but African-Americans fought it too. His speech delivered at Madison Square Garden, on Africa for Africans, Egypt for Egyptians, Asia for Asians and Ireland for the Irish, was very emotional and moving for many people of African descent.
Marcus Garvey’s plea had a message of freedom for Africans. His message made the point that all men should be free to work for their own salvation. Since other nations are working for their salvation, Africans must be allowed to do the same, and they must be given the freedom to create their own cultural heritage. His appeal was to the white world to give Africans a place where they could develop their national freedom; that place is Africa.
His plea was not that Africans take America away from non-Africans, but that those of non-African descent return Africa to Africans and allow Africa’s scattered and abused children the blessings of returning to their homeland in Africa. . He did not believe that any race had a monopoly on the world, as it would be impossible for such a race to rule others and itself.
Garvey felt that no black was good enough to rule whites and, as a result, no white person good enough to rule blacks. He proposed that the Blackman should have freedom from white oppression. He expressed the idea that other civilizations have failed when they tried to rule others that were not from their own nation. As a result, each must rule his own people and with righteousness all must live and let others live in peace.
He expressed the idea that no one had the exclusive right to rule others and that each nation should be the same as the next. He called for whites to help Africans return to Africa. He expressed the fact that the United States has helped Jews, Poles, Russians, Germans and Armenians, and it should also help Africans to return to Africa, thus making Africa for Africans.
Finally, his policy toward black intellectuals set out the principle that they are no less cunning than their illustrious teacher. This casts those individuals in the light of being a rouge and also a tramp. Individuals of such caliber are lazy, dull, uncreative, and agitators like the so-called industrious non-African teachers who trained them; therefore, they are not welcome in Africa.
Citizen reactions to Garvey’s speech
Many reacted by claiming that Marcus Garvey had a viable plan for the Africans. They believed in his Africa plan for Africans. Others have stated that whites did not want Africans to leave America for Africa and were unwilling to help with such an event. As a result, they fought Marcus Garvey and employed others to fight him. If Africans were allowed to leave the United States and return to Africa, such an event would have left whites in a very embarrassing position. They would have no one to clean their houses, wash their dishes, care for their children, and do other low-level and menial jobs that they themselves were unwilling to do in the workplace.
Garvey’s philosophy was gruesome to non-African Americans. They felt that Africans were happy in America. They had the philosophy that Africans had nothing to do with Africa since they were not born there and had lived in the United States for such a long period of time. Some also stated that in an effort to keep the descendants of Africans in further psychological slavery after slavery, some non-Africans fought Garvey in a coveted way.
Finally, others have pointed out that during the sickly follow-up to his speech, even WEB Du Bois fought Marcus Garvey and his plans. They also stated that it is interesting to note that Du Bois himself had to leave the United States and changed his citizenship to that of an African and resided in Ghana until his death. Furthermore, working with Marcus Garvey would have turned out to be a valuable undertaking for both of them and the achievement of their respective organizational plans.
Some people have asked a series of very interesting questions on this topic which are the following: 1). Why did WEB Du Bois and Marcus Garvey refuse to unite their organizations and refuse to work harmoniously to achieve an effective plan of coordination in order to achieve their goals and objectives instead of working as individuals opposed to each other?
two). Why did non-African Americans fight Marcus Garvey and his plans to return Africans to Africa by failing to help him achieve his goals and objectives?
3). Why were some African Americans reluctant to accept Marcus Garvey’s plans and return to Africa, the land from which they were forcibly taken and dragged into slavery through the Middle Pass into America?
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