Release From the JCDC Regarding National Hero Marcus Garvey's Birthday

A few of my readers complained to Bark Di Trute on August 17, 2023, that the birthday of the National Hero Marcus Garvey was very low-keyed. This was passed on to the Executive Director of the JCDC, and this afternoon I received this press release. Thanks to the JCDC.

The authorities should consider the following:

• Come up with a plan which outlines how we celebrate and remember all our national heroes each year.
• We should have educational materials prepared by the JIS, and these could be circulated on social media, and on traditional media for at least three days before the heroes' birthdays.
• Commemorative memorabilia should be on sale to the public during the celebrations.
• Churches could be asked to have a special prayer in memory of the hero.
• Honour a Jamaican in the name of each hero on their birthday. We could have a Norman Manley Citizen Award and a Bustamantee Citizen Award.
• Promos should be played on air mentioning the qualities of each national hero during the period of celebrations. The aim would be to encourage Jamaicans to value the contribution of our heroes and for Jamaicans to know our history.

Press Release from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission:

Culture Minister Grange hails ‘Daddy Marcus’ and encourages Jamaicans to join the Reparations Movement 

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange is urging all Jamaicans to continue the relentless fight started by National Hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, by getting involved in the reparations movement as a part of efforts to counter the devastating impact of the residue of enslavement.

Speaking at the laying of Floral Tributes on the 136th anniversary of the birth of Jamaica’s first National Hero at the National Heroes Park on Thursday, August 17, 2023, Minister Grange, called on Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora to join with the National Council on Reparations to seek reparation for the damage done by the enslavers and colonisers, the residue of which is community violence, intergenerational poverty, and social deficiencies.

“Garvey understood that the imprints of the physical, socio-cultural, and economic chains of chattel enslavement were still resident within the psyche of our people. A psyche that revealed itself in violence within and among our communities, chronic and inter-generational poverty, self-hate and impoverishment of thinking, framed in an unwillingness to commit to the development of the space we have inherited and now call home,” Minister Grange stated.

“For him (Garvey), the removal of the physical chains did not obliterate the deep scars on the psyche of our people. This could only happen when our people understand the impact of the entrenched, systemic, and institutionalized legacies of chattel enslavement that continue to affect us in so many ways,” she said.  

Minister Grange pointed to the effects of the 300-year-long slave trade on black identity, which resulted in a sense of low self-identity, powerlessness, and overwhelming impoverishment, noting that Marcus Garvey’s thrust for reparations was forged on the need for cultural, spiritual, and mental repair of black people, and the restitution of identity and cultural and economic re-enfranchisement.

“Together, let us pledge to organize for the common good, determined that none shall be left behind. We owe it to our ancestors. As Garvey affirmed, it must start in the liberation of the minds of our people, so that we may all subscribe to the greatness of our history, tradition, and culture,” Minister Grange added. 

The Culture Minister went on to remind us that Garvey always spoke about the power, prowess, and resilience of the Jamaican people, a people that would create a culture that would astonish the world. But, equality important for him was a recognition that the development of that culture rests significantly on a quality education. 

“We hail you, Daddy Marcus, Liberator and Hero of the Jamaican people and Africans and Afro-descendants everywhere.” said Minister Grange.

Floral tributes at the National Heroes Park event were laid by Governor General, His Excellency Sir Patrick Allen, The Honourable Pearnel Charles Junior, Minister of Labour and Social Security, representing Prime Minister the Honourable Andrew Holness, Dr. Angela Brown-Burke, Opposition Spokesperson on Labour and Social Security, representing Leader of the Opposition, and Mr.  Steven Golding, President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) founded by Garvey. 

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