Erection date: 17/8/2016
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Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887 - 1940
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"Are you an African or a Jamaican?"
"I will not give up a continent for an island!"
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. 17th August 1887 - 10th June 1940
Marcus Garvey was a prominent pan-African politician, entrepreneur and orator. Pan-Africanism is a movement which promotes solidarity between people of African heritage. Garvey dedicated his life to promoting the empowerment of African people everywhere in a form of Pan-African philosophy that became known as 'Garveyism'.
Garvey lived in London between 1912 and 1914. During that time he studied at Birkbeck College, spoke at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, and engaged with other pan-Africanists. On his return to Jamaica in 1914, he established the UNIA or Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.
In 1935, Garvey relocated to London, where he died in 1940. He was buried in Kensal Green. In 1964, his remains were moved to the National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica. He was posthumously awarded Jamaica's Order of National Heroes in 1969. Garvey has been an inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Nkrumah, the Nation of Islam, the Rastafari faith, and numerous civil rights movements. Garvey has continued to have an important influence on African and African-Caribbean communities in Brent, many of whom consider him to be a "Pan-African Hero".
The bust was unveiled on Garvey's 129th birthday, and is now inside a glass case in the museum at the library, but we cannot discover who sculpted it.
Site: Willesden Library (3 memorials)
NW10, High Road, 95, Willesden Green Old Library Building
