Emancipation Support Committee: A win for all Pan-Africanists

EMANCIPATION Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago (ESCTT) chair Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada said the posthumous pardoning of Jamaican-born Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a win for all Pan- Africanists.

The pardon was  one of the final acts of US President Joe Biden before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s.

He was a black nationalist, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and inspired many, including US civil-rights leader Martin Luther King. He died on June 10, 1940.

His conviction was often described as politically and racially motivated.

There had also been a decades-long campaign in the region for his posthumous pardoning.

A 2022 UWI release said the PJ Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy was throwing its full weight behind the campaign for the exoneration of Garvey.

Through a letter addressed to Caricom heads of state and government, the centre invoked the endorsement by a letter sent to Biden, launching a public appeal in each Caricom member state for 100,000 signatories to a petition and to extend the outreach through all regional institutions and organisation via the Caricom Secretariat and through embassies and consulates where members of the Caribbean diaspora live.

Uzoma-Wadada said on Sunday, “We, of the ESCTT, would naturally be extremely happy and pleased to hear that this pardon has eventually, after so many years, through many cries and pleas for it, happened – not only ourselves, but all of the Pan-African world.”

She added that Garvey's name was finally freed from all those negative accusations.

This gave courage to all, to know that they should all continue to strive for the things that were important to them as a people, she said.

“That longstanding commitment, effort, never-say-die, never-give-up, is going to eventually reap the rewards.”

This was also a part of the emancipation process, Uzoma-Wadada said.

She said these results give African descendants around the world the courage, strength and determination to continue the battle for reparatory justice.

She said the dream was not only for African descendants, but for transformed societies where all people are treated with the same levels of fairness and justice.

“Every single human being matters. This is really an important victory for the Pan-African world,” she said.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness posted on Facebook on Sunday that the Jamaican government welcomed the pardon for Garvey. This was the first step in the "total exoneration, absolution and expungement of a historical wrong done to one of the most significant civil-rights leaders and Pan Africanists."

His administration had passed the National Heroes and other Freedom Fighters (Absolution from Criminal Liability in Respect of Specified Acts) Act, 2018 to clear the records of the country's national heroes who had been wrongfully accused and convicted.

"I want to thank President Biden for his consideration in this matter. It has been a long and persistent struggle and I would also like to thank the Garvey family, particularly Julius (Garvey's son) and the UNIA, all the private citizens who signed various petitions, friends of Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora who lobbied the US Government, and indeed successive governments of Jamaica who have been consistent in officially requesting this consideration from the government of the US," he wrote.