Amy Jacques Garvey

[olufemi_baina_ayo]

I recently read about Amy Jacques Garvey,the second wife of the Honorable Marcus Garvey. Amy Jacques Garvey,just like her husband was a woman who was just as fearless about expressing her pride as an Afrikan. Although her husband asked her to stay at home and take care of their two sons,she stilll expressing her Pan-Afrikan and feminist views.


The title of the book is The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey by Ila Yvette Taylor

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

Nle o, Olufemi,

I appreciate you sharing. An even more valuable contribution would be if you could help us by doing a search on google or any viable search engine and posting an article about Amy Jacques Garvey and a picture of her. The best would be if you could come across an audio clip of her speaking. Also a link to an Afrikan owned bookstore where the book could be purchased would be of great assistance to us and anyone who might stumble upon this thread. All of these things could be done within a relatively short period of time with little more than a search engine. I appreciate you starting this topic on Amy Jacques Garvey as she is one of our Great Luminaries and deserves to be remembered. Please assist us more by bringing your research here for us. Take care and stay BlackNificent!

Obadele Kwame

[olufemi_baina_ayo]

Meda ase,brother Obadele! I'll do that as soon as I can. * Also, I found a poem she wrote entitled "This flag of mine." I'll also post that with the info I find on this Pan-Afrikan sister! Our people need to know that it was not only brothers involved in the movement!

[olufemi_baina_ayo]

www.marcusgarvey.com

Amy Jacques Garvey
(1896-1973)

Amy Jacques Garvey was a pioneer Pan-African emancipator born in Kingston, Jamaica on December 31, 1885. She became the first lady of the Interim-Provisional Government of Africa - the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League (ACL) in August 1920. She was the wife of the Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey - The Universal African Redeemer, and mother of two sons -- Marcus Garvey, Jr. And Julius Garvey.

Amy Jacques Garvey, like her husband, became a life-long toiler for Universal African Liberation and advancement. She was a very special person, pursuing a brilliant meaningful lifetime work of which every moment was dedicated to dissemination of the philosophy and principles of her beloved husband of race first, self-reliance and nationhood. Amy Jacques Garvey was an international organizer and race leader in her own right. In the cause for African Emancipation, her message was the same as her husband's -- "The hour of Black resurrection is at hand. Black man, Black woman, be up and doing for self and kind -- for you can achieve what you will." She was genuinely concerned with the plight of her fellow Africans and for this reason she toiled unceasingly from youth to old age to spread the teachings of African solidarity and independence. Mrs. Garvey was an exemplary politician and wife. She was best known as a publicist of Garveyism. In 1923, she edited and published Volume One of The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (sub-titled Africa for the Africans), and in 1925, she compiled and published Volume Two. During that time, she was one of the editors of the Negro World Newspaper.

From 1919, when she became the Secretary General of the UNIA until her death, 54 years of her life was intricately bound up with the national liberation struggles of African people. She was a relentless enemy of colonialism and neo-colonialism. In her letters, essays, books and speeches, she always stressed the point that the imperialist must not be allowed to creep in at the back fence in disguise in independent African countries.

She aided and contributed financial assistance to the workers' movement in Nigeria. She was instrumental in organizing the fifth Pan African Congress held in 1945. Twenty-five years later, she visited West Africa at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah. During the 1940s she labored for the Peoples National Party of Jamaica. She also was a sponsor of the 6th Pan African Congress which convened in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 1974. In her final years between 1968-73, she had written and published Garvey and Garveyism (1963) and her collection of essays on Black Power in America and The Impact of Garvey in Africa and Jamaica.

Her activities in Jamaica and the United States from 1919 to 1940 prefaced the defeat of fascism and the irreversible disintegration of the colonial system which led to the upsurge and triumphs of the National Liberation Movement. Amy Jacques Garvey, who was in the forefront of this movement, wrote her seminal "A Memorandum Correlative of Africa, West Indies and the Americas" in 1944 which was sent to the representatives of the United Nations urging them to declare an "African Freedom Charter". She spent thousands of dollars in purchasing and mailing many pamphlets, leaflets and newspapers to Africa, the United States and Europe. She spent hours writing letters, articles and doing interviews and making speeches on Black Liberation. She refused to rest or accept payment for her work.

Amy Jacques Garvey died a fighter on July 25, 1973. Her work and memory serve the cause for which she stood. As a Pan African Patriot, Pioneering Nationalist, Political Scientist, Organizer, Journalist, Editor, Publisher, Philosopher, Mother, Wife and an immortal African Giant, she will live on forever for Black people the world over in memory of love and self-determination.

William Henry Jackson-Bey
Late President
UNIA-ACL
Woodson-Banneker-Jackson-Bey Division 330

[olufemi_baina_ayo]

This Flag of Mine

by Amy Jacques Garvey






Regardless of what is told of it,
Here's to this flag of mine
The Red, Black and Green
Hopes in its future bright
Africa has seen.
Here's to the Red of it,
Great nations shall know of it
In time to come.
Red blood shall flow of it,
Historians shall write of it,
Great flag of mine.
Here's to the Black of it
Four hundred millions back of it,
Whose destiny depends on it
The RED, BLACK and GREEN of it,
Oh, Flag of Mine.
Here's to the Green of it
Young men shall dream of it,
Face shot and shells of it
Waving so high.
Here's to the whole of it
Colors grought and pole of it
Pleased is my soul with it
Regardless of what is told of it,
Thanks God for giving it
Great Flag of Mine.

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

This is a good addition and resource for Afrikan people. We in the OLSP http://www.olsp.blogspot.com/ recite this poem as a pledge at encampments. I appreciate you taking the time and energy to provide RESOURCES for Afrikan people. Also, if you need help posting pictures, check the help files here: http://abibitumikasa.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=help

Obadele Kwame