Marcus Garvey and African Unity

Abstract

This article primarily considers African unity via the insights and struggle of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League (ACL) in the 1920s. Garvey provided a blueprint in relation to the psychological welfare of peoples of African descent globally. The UNIA had chapters in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas, espousing the ideology of psychological betterment that would lead to “Africa for the Africans at home and abroad.” There are many lessons that African independence leaders learned from Marcus Garvey, and in the 21st century there is the need for greater cooperation between Black peoples of African descent on the continent, who continue to cope with, among other things, the legacy of European colonialism and dysfunctional African leadership in the postcolonial era. Crucially, the present maladies of HIV/AIDS, sporadic civil war, and poor distribution of health services make the notion of African unity an imperative.