Jamaica's first national hero and leader for the rights of African descendants in America, Marcus Garvey, This Sunday he obtained a posthumous pardon from the president of the United States Joe Biden more of 100 years after his conviction for alleged mail fraud in 1923.
In particular, Garvey was sentenced to 5 years in prison for selling shares of the Black Star Line with a brochure in which it was said that said company owned a ship that, according to the accusation, it didn't belong to him.
According to his supporters, The trial was not fair and they argued that the conviction was politically motivated and was an attempt to silence the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride in the United States..
Garvey was imprisoned in Atlanta and served only two years of his sentence., since the president Calvin Coolidge it was commuted and he was deported to Jamaica.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, He thanked this decision of the United States government and maintained that this may be the first step towards Garvey's total acquittal.
“The Government of Jamaica welcomes the posthumous pardon of our National Hero, His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey. We consider this as a first step in total exoneration, acquittal and removal of a historic wrong committed against one of the most important Pan-Africanist and civil rights leaders”, Holness said..
The prime minister added that to reach this decision “It has been a long and persistent fight” and in turn he thanked “to the Garvey family, in particular to Julius and the UNIA, to all the private citizens who signed various petitions, to the friends of Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora who pressured the United States government and, in fact, to the successive governments of Jamaica who have been consistent in officially requesting this consideration from the United States government”.
The significance of the figure of Garvey
born 17 August 1887 in Saint Ann’s Bay, in the north of the island of Jamaica, at that time british colony, was a preacher, journalist, businessman and prophet of the Rastafari movement, an iconic figure in the defense of the civil rights of people of African descent on this continent, becoming the first leader in that fight that others such as Martin Luther King or Malcom.
After traveling in search of work to Chile, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica, among other countries, back in Jamaica in August 1914 founded the Universal Negro Improvement Asociation (Universal Negro Male Improvement Association, UNIA by its acronym in English) which had as its objective “unite all the people of African origin in the world in one body to establish a country and government absolutely their own”, whose flag had red colors, black and green, colors that became the symbol of pan-Africanism.
After that he traveled to the United States where he created the newspaper Negro World and in 1917 formed the first section of the UNIA outside Jamaica, beginning his lecture tours in which he advocated for the return of former black slaves to Africa and according to his postulates he founded the ship company Black Star Line which intended to repatriate all Africans from America.
In the early years of the 20's′ from the last century, Garvey makes a prophecy that will become the cornerstone of Rastafarianism: “Miren in Africa, A black king will be crowned because liberation day is near”.
Almost 10 years later that prophecy is fulfilled, the 2 November 1930, when Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia alongside Empress Woizero Menen, with which the development of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica is conceived and begins.
Garvey transcended in London in 1940 and then his remains were repatriated to Jamaica where he was proclaimed the island's first national hero., given his tremendous contributions to the fight for civil rights for black people.
