Bust

Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Erection date: 17/8/2016

Inscription

{Nameplate on the base of the bust:}
Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887 - 1940

{Panel next to the bust:}
"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

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Subjects commemorated i

Marcus Garvey

Pan-African nationalist leader. Born Marcus Mosiah Garvey in St Ann's Bay, Ja...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Also at this site i

Willesden Library - 1894

Willesden Library - 1894

Willesden Green Library was established in 1894 following a poll of the ratep...

Read More

Willesden Library - Shakespeare

Willesden Library - Shakespeare

We think that hiding below hundreds of layers of whitewash is a fine relief b...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Jellicoe bust

Jellicoe bust

WC2, Trafalgar Square

Left to right these busts are: Cunningham, Jellicoe and Beatty, that well known legal firm. (Unusually there is an error in the Margaret ...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Colonial Office - B06 - Bacon

Colonial Office - B06 - Bacon

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Joseph Lister bust

Joseph Lister bust

W1, Portland Place

This bust is sited close to Lister's home at 12, Park Crescent.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Warrington Hotel - Handel bust

Warrington Hotel - Handel bust

W9, Randolph Avenue, Warrington Hotel

The busts are on the Randolph Avenue elevation, at first floor level. We've numbered them left to right. The listing text mentions the bu...

1 subject commemorated
Shakespeare at Gilmore House

Shakespeare at Gilmore House

SW4, Clapham Common North Side, 113, Gilmore House

The plaque can just be seen in our photo, to the right of the door. From Times Property: The area was fashionable in 1750, when Walter b...

1 subject commemorated