Several Activities to Celebrate 100th Anniversary of UNIA

The life and work of Jamaica’s first National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey, will be the main focus of the 100^th anniversary celebrations of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Mr. Garvey founded the UNIA on July 20, 1914, when he recruited the first member, Miss Amy Ashwood, and held the organisation’s first meeting at 121 Orange Street in Kingston.

Several activities are being planned for the centenary celebrations. On August 1, an event titled, ‘HARAMBE’, a Swahili word meaning ‘Let’s get together’, will be held at Liberty Hall, 76 King Street, Kingston, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Speaking at a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, Director and Curator of Liberty Hall, Dr. Donna McFarlane, said the event will showcase the work of children, who have been participating in its cultural educational programmes.

“We will also have an interview with two elder Garveyites, one from Panama and one from the United States, both of whom were in the UNIA’s juvenile school and they are now in their eighties and we will be having a conversation with them,” she added.

Additionally, she said the show will exhibit craft items created from local materials “to demonstrate the notion of self-reliance”.

On August 17, there will be a Marcus Garvey lecture by Garvey Scholar, Professor Robert Hill, at Liberty Hall, beginning at 10:00 a.m. The day will culminate with the sixth staging of the annual UNIA Marcus Garvey Awards on the East Lawns of Devon House at 3:00 p.m.

Dr. McFarlane said that Liberty Hall, which was re-opened in 2003 after the relentless work by a group called, ‘The friends of Liberty Hall’, is now a cultural education institution.

Among the facilities at Liberty Hall are: the Marcus Mosiah Garvey Multimedia museum, Garvey Research/Reference Library and Multimedia Computer Centre.