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The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans
The Philosophy and Opinions , first published in two volumes in 1923 and 1925, quickly became a celebrated apologia for the leader of the largest Pan-African mass movement of all time. "As we approach the 1987 celebration of the centennial of Marcus Garvey's birth, the time seems appropiate for the United States and Jamaican governments to declare null and void the legal proceedings that unjustly sent him to jail in both countries. Nor should a mere 'pardon' suffice, presupposing as it does, the presence of guilt to begin with." --From the Preface.
412 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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About the author
Marcus Garvey
106 books277 followersMarcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., National Hero of Jamaica, was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).
Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as Garveyism. Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam, to the Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet). The intention of the movement was for those of African ancestry to "redeem" Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave it.
Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as Garveyism. Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam, to the Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet). The intention of the movement was for those of African ancestry to "redeem" Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 21, 2015
Realized I had awakened when I heard someone mention "the bible" and had to focus my mind on knowing they were not referring to The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. How much energy has been put into concealing the contents of this book? Distracting us from it? Distorting its contents? Why? Could the answers be, in my opinion, the day I found Marcus Garvey was the day I found myself.
This edition is from the New Marcus Garvey Library. When I joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which was founded by Garvey I received a copy of the UNIA constitution. After being directed to study the constitution along with Race First by Dr. Tony Martin and the P&O an awareness began to seep in: anyone who is truly free would find freedom so essential to life they would want everyone to have it.
Reading the P&O was a step on a journey of self. There are ideas in this book which go beyond "Africa for the Africans." It is not only a compilation of extracts from Garvey's speeches and weekly essays published in the Negro World Newspaper, it is also a combination of two volumes edited separately by Garvey's second wife Amy Jacques Garvey.
The book is nicely summed up with Garvey's seminal essay African Fundamentalism, which in and of itself reveals the mind of a man who so impressed Bob Marley that he immortalized a quote from Garvey in the lyric:
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.
This edition is from the New Marcus Garvey Library. When I joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which was founded by Garvey I received a copy of the UNIA constitution. After being directed to study the constitution along with Race First by Dr. Tony Martin and the P&O an awareness began to seep in: anyone who is truly free would find freedom so essential to life they would want everyone to have it.
Reading the P&O was a step on a journey of self. There are ideas in this book which go beyond "Africa for the Africans." It is not only a compilation of extracts from Garvey's speeches and weekly essays published in the Negro World Newspaper, it is also a combination of two volumes edited separately by Garvey's second wife Amy Jacques Garvey.
The book is nicely summed up with Garvey's seminal essay African Fundamentalism, which in and of itself reveals the mind of a man who so impressed Bob Marley that he immortalized a quote from Garvey in the lyric:
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.
October 15, 2019
In 1919 the militant Marcus Garvey, president and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) created the Black Star Line, a shipping company whose goal was to help black people wishing for it to leave the racist USA to go and settle in Africa. To do so, obviously, he needed ships; and so he encouraged members of his associations to mail him money for investments. All went well, until one of those ship never got sold to him, investors lost their money, and the transaction went bust. Since it had all been made through mail, he was accused of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. So much for the big dream!
The case was crucial, for it crystallised opinions regarding his person. Was he a genuine militant at the service of 'his' people, but so naïve an utopian that he got ripped by unscrupulous business men? Or just a scammer finally caught for his cheats? Once in jail, his wife Amy Jacques Garvey decided to fight for his honour: she went on to publish his speeches, letters, and notes to show who he truly was, his thoughts, his dream. The first volume of such endeavour was published in 1923, the second in 1925, both are here reunited in one single tome. Here we go: the ideas of one of the most famous (infamous?) Black man then alive...
For him it all started from a simple statement of fact: white people will never consider black people as their equals. Whose fighting for integration are, as far as he is concerned, mere uncle Toms; naïve, meek, clueless when it comes to racial issues. W. E. Du Bois, especially, gets criticised mercilessly... The solution, for him, lies in fact in segregation. If all 'races' are equal and capable of cooperating when necessary (eg trade) they must not mixed with each other, less interbreed. You get it: here's racism, defended by someone who should have known better. There is no excuse - when W.E. Du Bois is labelled 'a monstrosity' for being mixed race, or, again, you remember his negotiations with the KKK, you guess what to expect of his 'opinions'...
His ideas, for sure, are shocking and populist. However, one have to put them back into the context of their time. First, his racism. Being Jamaican, he just transplanted the mindset of a British colony, obsessed with skin colours and race, to the USA. Then, on the racial issue in America. The Reconstruction era was undeniably an utter failure; even decades later, during WWI, when black people went on to fight and die in Europe for their country it changed absolutely nothing for their rights back home. As such, his views were surely simplistic and crass, but they reflected a then boiling anger and frustration. Hence the reason he supported anti-colonial movements. Hence the reason why he would support the ideal of colonising Liberia. Hence the reason why the 'Back to Africa' exodus will have its share of popularity and gain some sort of momentum.
Populist leader and entrepreneur at the head of a movement that will count hundred of thousand of members worldwide, it's quite obvious he was considered as a problem - both for white segregationists, and, black people who had nothing to do with such delusion but campaigned for integration. His trial (those transcripts are reproduced in here) were then the perfect opportunity to get rid of him. Cunny politics surely, but then what? In my opinion, there's not much to gain from this book. It's long -more than 500 pages- and unsurprisingly and boringly repetitive. He nails his 'philosophy' again and again, the same points bashed like an old refrain which shows, bottom line, how poor his ideas truly were. Populism is an intellectual vacuum, whether black or white, regardless of the context. He played upon prejudice, especially racist, he could then, ultimately, only failed.
Here's a must read to understand him, but don't expect something deep and challenging!
The case was crucial, for it crystallised opinions regarding his person. Was he a genuine militant at the service of 'his' people, but so naïve an utopian that he got ripped by unscrupulous business men? Or just a scammer finally caught for his cheats? Once in jail, his wife Amy Jacques Garvey decided to fight for his honour: she went on to publish his speeches, letters, and notes to show who he truly was, his thoughts, his dream. The first volume of such endeavour was published in 1923, the second in 1925, both are here reunited in one single tome. Here we go: the ideas of one of the most famous (infamous?) Black man then alive...
For him it all started from a simple statement of fact: white people will never consider black people as their equals. Whose fighting for integration are, as far as he is concerned, mere uncle Toms; naïve, meek, clueless when it comes to racial issues. W. E. Du Bois, especially, gets criticised mercilessly... The solution, for him, lies in fact in segregation. If all 'races' are equal and capable of cooperating when necessary (eg trade) they must not mixed with each other, less interbreed. You get it: here's racism, defended by someone who should have known better. There is no excuse - when W.E. Du Bois is labelled 'a monstrosity' for being mixed race, or, again, you remember his negotiations with the KKK, you guess what to expect of his 'opinions'...
His ideas, for sure, are shocking and populist. However, one have to put them back into the context of their time. First, his racism. Being Jamaican, he just transplanted the mindset of a British colony, obsessed with skin colours and race, to the USA. Then, on the racial issue in America. The Reconstruction era was undeniably an utter failure; even decades later, during WWI, when black people went on to fight and die in Europe for their country it changed absolutely nothing for their rights back home. As such, his views were surely simplistic and crass, but they reflected a then boiling anger and frustration. Hence the reason he supported anti-colonial movements. Hence the reason why he would support the ideal of colonising Liberia. Hence the reason why the 'Back to Africa' exodus will have its share of popularity and gain some sort of momentum.
Populist leader and entrepreneur at the head of a movement that will count hundred of thousand of members worldwide, it's quite obvious he was considered as a problem - both for white segregationists, and, black people who had nothing to do with such delusion but campaigned for integration. His trial (those transcripts are reproduced in here) were then the perfect opportunity to get rid of him. Cunny politics surely, but then what? In my opinion, there's not much to gain from this book. It's long -more than 500 pages- and unsurprisingly and boringly repetitive. He nails his 'philosophy' again and again, the same points bashed like an old refrain which shows, bottom line, how poor his ideas truly were. Populism is an intellectual vacuum, whether black or white, regardless of the context. He played upon prejudice, especially racist, he could then, ultimately, only failed.
Here's a must read to understand him, but don't expect something deep and challenging!
July 15, 2017
Marcus Garvey's philosophies and opinions should be on the list of every African-American male's and female's list of read books or list of books to read. The reader will be inspired by the meaningful words elegantly and articulately spoken (written) by Garvey.
July 20, 2009
Sensational book! a must read for anybody that can (read)!
February 19, 2013
The Philosophy and Opinions, first published in two volumes in 1923 and 1925, quickly became a celebrated apologia for the leader of the largest Pan-African mass movement of all time
December 18, 2016
I loved this book. This man was brilliant and had a vision. Black folks, especially in times like these, need more leaders who have the proud, do-for-self mentality that Garvey had.
Read
August 16, 2008The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans (The New Marcus Garvey Library, No. 9) by Marcus Garvey (1986)
March 4, 2017
He is the forefather of the " black thought " therefore all black people should read all of his works!
Read
April 16, 2024I did not know who this was, I was roasted for it, and so I set out to read a slim collection of writings at least. I can’t really rate it. It purports to be Garvey’s writings. It seems it is so.
September 23, 2019
Very useful primary text for understanding Garveyism but the writing style more similar to bulletpoint panthleteering rather than cohesive structured arguments requires a bit more effect to strain out the important threads
January 25, 2021
Inspiring!
Read
September 22, 2025i liked the parts that were Woke but then it’s like. Why are you a capitalist. What do you mean being in the Klan is better than being a communist
August 20, 2023
A perfectly mediocre Christian bigot. Nothing of conceptual value here, but the Pan-Africanist organizing is important I suppose.
***
Take two. Adding a star. Garvey is a weirdo, but his Christianity is, in retrospect, pretty reasonable.
***
Take two. Adding a star. Garvey is a weirdo, but his Christianity is, in retrospect, pretty reasonable.
August 3, 2018
I want to read
June 20, 2020
This book changed my life! ❤🖤💚
March 21, 2025
An uneven, frustrating work from an uneven, frustrating historical figure. On one page, Garvey will write about the inherent dignity of Black people, the double standards the white world applies to upwardly-mobile Black visionaries, the need for world peace, the global community of Black people, and I’m nodding along, enthralled. On another page, Garvey is filling paragraphs with vitriol for W.E.B. Du Bois, avowing he would rather join the Klan than the NAACP, and declaring President Harding a Great Man whose only flaw was being too ""gentle"" (to grow a spine, presumably).
There are so many five star reviews which, honestly, guys, like, c'mon. We aren’t rating the whole movement this man started. This book is itself fragmentary, bloated with basically everything Garvey ever thought, and as a consequence is full of empty rhetoric, contradictions, repetitions, and unexplored questions. Lazy false equivalences are everywhere in his shorter works: "Jesus, Caesar, and Lincoln" are three men who equally tried to fill the world with love and comraderie and were equally martyred for their efforts; "there are good and bad Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Klansman”; “Asia for Asians” as a meaningless platitude in a world with one Sino-Japanese war already in the rearview mirror (which Asians? What Asia, Garvey? How flat is your globe?); the righteous declaration that his plan is just as moral and necessary as the Pilgrims settling in Plymouth, a thing that was not moral or necessary. Garvey was a man of his times, and consequently his thinking is confused by 1920’s populism, colonialism, fears of overpopulation and weakening bloodlines (oh hey eugenics), world war anxiety, and too much of it screams too loudly from each page in this work. (Also, I know I’m a little Obsessed, but no mention or thought at all of Native Americans or Native people in Australia? He consigns the entire American supercontinent as well as the South Pacific to the ministrations of white colonists, and that feels like a very 1920’s blindspot for a man that otherwise does not seem afraid to fight on multiple fronts at once.) I would rather have started my experience of Garvey with a biography or a cohesive collection of essays.
While this may be a classic and important work for its time, the real experience of reading it was just me screaming "realpolitik" at a dead man for 4 straight hours.
There are so many five star reviews which, honestly, guys, like, c'mon. We aren’t rating the whole movement this man started. This book is itself fragmentary, bloated with basically everything Garvey ever thought, and as a consequence is full of empty rhetoric, contradictions, repetitions, and unexplored questions. Lazy false equivalences are everywhere in his shorter works: "Jesus, Caesar, and Lincoln" are three men who equally tried to fill the world with love and comraderie and were equally martyred for their efforts; "there are good and bad Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Klansman”; “Asia for Asians” as a meaningless platitude in a world with one Sino-Japanese war already in the rearview mirror (which Asians? What Asia, Garvey? How flat is your globe?); the righteous declaration that his plan is just as moral and necessary as the Pilgrims settling in Plymouth, a thing that was not moral or necessary. Garvey was a man of his times, and consequently his thinking is confused by 1920’s populism, colonialism, fears of overpopulation and weakening bloodlines (oh hey eugenics), world war anxiety, and too much of it screams too loudly from each page in this work. (Also, I know I’m a little Obsessed, but no mention or thought at all of Native Americans or Native people in Australia? He consigns the entire American supercontinent as well as the South Pacific to the ministrations of white colonists, and that feels like a very 1920’s blindspot for a man that otherwise does not seem afraid to fight on multiple fronts at once.) I would rather have started my experience of Garvey with a biography or a cohesive collection of essays.
While this may be a classic and important work for its time, the real experience of reading it was just me screaming "realpolitik" at a dead man for 4 straight hours.
April 1, 2024
Marcus Garvey is a name that is frequently left out of the pantheon of the great right-wing nationalist leaders and thinkers of the first half of the twentieth century. However, this is a mistake. Likewise, his image is usually misunderstood by subsequent generations of left-wing pan-Africanists, who hold him up as just another 'civil rights' figure like Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela - men he would have despised. On the contrary, save for their race, Garvey had more in common with men like Mussolini.
He argued passionately against racial integration, and his opinion that it could never achieve equality for his people has not been disproven a century later. Unlike his ideological descendants such as Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, Garvey held the white race in high regard, and strove to help the black diaspora return to their motherland (then under the rule of foreign European imperialists) so that they could make their own uniquely African civilization on their own terms.
Because his philosophy and opinions conflicted with the vision and goals of shadowy powers within both the white and black establishments, Garvey was maligned, persecuted, and conspired against. A lengthy portion of this volume deals with his prosecution in relation to the Black Star line which, though it demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that Garvey was railroaded on trumped up charges, does bog down the narrative and become tedious. All told, Marcus Garvey's life story is an interesting episode in the wider history of ethnic nationalism and the race question that should not be ignored.
He argued passionately against racial integration, and his opinion that it could never achieve equality for his people has not been disproven a century later. Unlike his ideological descendants such as Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, Garvey held the white race in high regard, and strove to help the black diaspora return to their motherland (then under the rule of foreign European imperialists) so that they could make their own uniquely African civilization on their own terms.
Because his philosophy and opinions conflicted with the vision and goals of shadowy powers within both the white and black establishments, Garvey was maligned, persecuted, and conspired against. A lengthy portion of this volume deals with his prosecution in relation to the Black Star line which, though it demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that Garvey was railroaded on trumped up charges, does bog down the narrative and become tedious. All told, Marcus Garvey's life story is an interesting episode in the wider history of ethnic nationalism and the race question that should not be ignored.
August 24, 2022
It is pertinent for any reader approaching the texts and speeches of Garvey to do so whilst recognizing how unprecedented and revolutionary these ideas were at their time. Though Pan-Africanism and Black excellence are concepts that now that permeate our public social consciousness, there would be no contemporary Black liberation theory without Garvey. From Malcolm X to Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, Huey P. Newton, and more, Marcus Garvey’s unwavering call for unity and uprising amongst all Black peoples across the globe against the powers of colonialism and white supremacy still echo in practically every social revolutionary speech we hear. As a concise and neatly compiled set of articles, essays and transcribed speeches, this book functions as a advantageous go-to for any activist or leader seeking to gain inspiration from a master within the field of global community building.
July 12, 2021
Marcus Garvey challenged Blacks to hold themselves accountable and to pursue Christlike actions through justice, liberty, and prosperity. Marcus Garvey also challenged superior or stronger races to act as Christ and to support the unity of Black individuals, to build a stronger society for all individuals. He was clearly ahead of his time and was mentally and spiritually stronger than most Blacks at that time. Very informative read that captures the pulse or tenure of that generation.
Dr. James Arthur Williams
www.unmaskytp.com
Dr. James Arthur Williams
www.unmaskytp.com
January 21, 2023
Listening to these writings about 100 years later has made it hard for me to rate. So much of what he wrote about God, illiterate preachers and leaders, and other areas of life rang true even in light of what we know now. Other things just seem completely misguided or has been proven to be wrong since then. But it almost seems unfair to hold him to information he wouldn’t have access to back then.
January 10, 2024
His thinking was so pro Black and necessary for its time and this current one! The bitesize essays and fearless speech gifts do much energy to the messages. I enjoyed it for its ability to make me think about race relations then and now in America.
July 19, 2023
Loved reading the intro from his wife, and MG, by far, had the singular greatest hat in the 20th century.
October 29, 2023
I think this book will be more beneficial to any African(black person) than the Bible or dare I say the Koran.
December 15, 2020
Outstanding and eye opening.
December 7, 2023
Garvey was one the last prophets of the world. Just truth. Some may not like the words within these pages but all of Africa needs to overstand them and move forward. Not backwards into the gullies of ignorance. Garvey had his problems just like any being that bleeds but he has shown the way and spoke the truth into existence. This book needs to be in the possession of all those who seek to liberate themselves from ignorance of a life passed on. First your own mind and then your peoples.
January 24, 2011
Interesting book that makes you think. Slightly repetitive due to the way the book is constructed
July 25, 2011
Perhaps more Opinion then Philosophy, provides excellent insight into the 2nd Black Nationalism movement, their arguments, strategies, and goals.
Read
July 13, 2014I was young at the time, but some of the quotes still remain with me to this day. Great Read for a young black man searching for answers.
consciousness
July 13, 2015can't even begin to tell you how powerful this reading is. very informative and increased my race pride exponentially. brilliant man, wonderful wife for assembling
July 27, 2016
Good read, and a must read for serious Conscious folk's
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews