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Marcus Garvey inspired people all over the world including some of the great African leaders who came afterwards. That great man, when he taught, spoke to them in their own language, in their own way. Yes, we have produced some great people and those people would be disappointed to see where we are today, perhaps, because we have not fulfilled their vision nor obeyed their messages.
Now, what sort of leaders have we produced? I hope that I am fair in saying that aside from those individuals and those who did their best, our succession of political parties have produced people, by and large, and I am not speaking only of prime ministers but political leaders, leaders of the church, etc., who have been driven by their own egos. They wanted to be somebody; they wanted power. They were in a race for power for themselves. And, they could not get rid of their ego; they could not sublimate it into something for the people.
That is the first thing that real leaders should do. Sublimate their own egos so that they would not speak so much of 'I' and 'them' but of 'us' altogether. Real leaders always listen to the people. We must educate the people so that they will be wise in many ways and I don't mean only wise in arithmetic and geographical school education. I mean educate them in their own history of who they are in the world. Where they were, why they are here. We must teach our people our political development.
Do you remember when Norman Manley was leaving the political scene? He said: "My generation has accomplished our vision, our vision was political independence. Your vision is to carry on to economic and social development." He was looking at the full and broader extension of Pan-Africanism.
Tables of power
He was right, for right up to this day, the great powers of the world, the military powers, economic powers, the technological powers, the powers who control such parts of education as the media and the screen, are all white. They sit around their tables of power. There are no black representatives there at their table of power.
But we know, because we have brilliant black people all over the world, that we have our own separate table, a different table altogether. Our black pantheon includes the greats Paul Robeson, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr. Those are all on our black pantheon. Furthermore, they are not among the great white powers, who are dictating and who have dictated the direction of this world for the last 600 years.
And that is what Pan-Africanism is about - to change and to find our place at that table, or to let those at that table include us, on equal terms, so that there will be somebody speaking for the billions in the Diaspora which would include Jamaica. So, I repeat that we have no reason to be where we are in that curve of development. Let us take hope in this new era where the world is hoping for a change, a whole world of real change and if the world can look forward to that one person to change this world, why should we not, as a part of that world, as Pan-Africanists, begin to change the world in such a way as to establish a new Pan-African global order? It is non-racial, but anti-racist, it is Afrocentric, and it is for Black empowerment.
A mission to conclude
We have a mission to conclude. Let us follow the teachings and the compass of Marcus Garvey who from 1925 was laying down some of the things that we are still struggling to achieve today.
We can be proud to be Jamaicans. We are his descendants. Pan-Africanism will change the whole present global order based on greed and materialist bigotry, to one of spiritual qualities of brotherly love and with it the whole objective of spreading justice for all, black and white alike.
We can do it. We must do it. This is the message we send today.
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Now, what sort of leaders have we produced? I hope that I am fair in saying that aside from those individuals and those who did their best, our succession of political parties have produced people, by and large, and I am not speaking only of prime ministers but political leaders, leaders of the church, etc., who have been driven by their own egos. They wanted to be somebody; they wanted power. They were in a race for power for themselves. And, they could not get rid of their ego; they could not sublimate it into something for the people.
That is the first thing that real leaders should do. Sublimate their own egos so that they would not speak so much of 'I' and 'them' but of 'us' altogether. Real leaders always listen to the people. We must educate the people so that they will be wise in many ways and I don't mean only wise in arithmetic and geographical school education. I mean educate them in their own history of who they are in the world. Where they were, why they are here. We must teach our people our political development.
Do you remember when Norman Manley was leaving the political scene? He said: "My generation has accomplished our vision, our vision was political independence. Your vision is to carry on to economic and social development." He was looking at the full and broader extension of Pan-Africanism.
Tables of power
He was right, for right up to this day, the great powers of the world, the military powers, economic powers, the technological powers, the powers who control such parts of education as the media and the screen, are all white. They sit around their tables of power. There are no black representatives there at their table of power.
But we know, because we have brilliant black people all over the world, that we have our own separate table, a different table altogether. Our black pantheon includes the greats Paul Robeson, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr. Those are all on our black pantheon. Furthermore, they are not among the great white powers, who are dictating and who have dictated the direction of this world for the last 600 years.
And that is what Pan-Africanism is about - to change and to find our place at that table, or to let those at that table include us, on equal terms, so that there will be somebody speaking for the billions in the Diaspora which would include Jamaica. So, I repeat that we have no reason to be where we are in that curve of development. Let us take hope in this new era where the world is hoping for a change, a whole world of real change and if the world can look forward to that one person to change this world, why should we not, as a part of that world, as Pan-Africanists, begin to change the world in such a way as to establish a new Pan-African global order? It is non-racial, but anti-racist, it is Afrocentric, and it is for Black empowerment.
A mission to conclude
We have a mission to conclude. Let us follow the teachings and the compass of Marcus Garvey who from 1925 was laying down some of the things that we are still struggling to achieve today.
We can be proud to be Jamaicans. We are his descendants. Pan-Africanism will change the whole present global order based on greed and materialist bigotry, to one of spiritual qualities of brotherly love and with it the whole objective of spreading justice for all, black and white alike.
We can do it. We must do it. This is the message we send today.
..
I almost said it but you took the words RIGHT out of my mouth. 
I am not in the habit of calling names. 
cah imm doan like de racist stereotype butt imm ave issue widd blakks bunninn fiyah pon racism
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