African Series Jacket Text

Volume IX: June 1921--December 1922

The extraordinary impact of Marcus Garvey's "African Redemption" movement throughout sub-Saharan Africa during the 1920s is richly chronicled in this second volume of the African series of The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. Volume IX shows the myriad ways in which Africans transformed the movement's cry of "Africa for the Africans" into their own expression of political protest against European colonial rule.

A major theme of Volume IX is the rivalry that arose in 1921 between Garvey's UNIA and W. E. B. DuBois's Pan-African Congress for the allegiance of Africans. Also documented is the complex nature of Garvey's relationships with emergent African leaders, some of whom strongly resented his methods and his claims to speak for all Africans. Garvey's problematic relationship with the Liberian government is examined, as is the establishment of the UNIA in various African territories, including South West Africa, South Africa, Senegal and French West Africa, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

Throughout, the European colonialist reaction to Garveyism is extensively documented, revealing the unity of colonial and imperial interests in the suppression of African claims. The strong connections forged between African Garveyites and the leaders of many other incipient movements show the strength and assertiveness of the African reaction to European domination, which ultimately gave political meaning to Garvey's motto of "Africa for the Africans."