There can be no peace among men and nations, so long as the strong continues to oppress the weak, so long as injustice is done to other peoples, just so long will we have cause for war, and make a lasting peace an impossibility. –Philosophy and Opinions of
Marcus Garvey
In the early twentieth century, Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican born writer and orator began a influential “back to Africa” movement. Garvey taught that black people would never find peace in the Americas and must therefor return to their true home in Africa. Garvey’s organization even purchased a fleet of ships – the Black Star Line – to transport their people across the Atlantic. But government suppression as well as economic and organizational problems eventually brought down his work. Before he disappeared, Garvey made a prophecy, “Look to Africa, for there a King shall be crowned.”
In 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen (Haile Selassie) was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia. The imperial family of Ethiopia traces its origins to a marriage between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. At his coronation, Halie Selassie took on the biblical titles associated with the Ethiopian imperial line. He was announced as the “King of Kings, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”When Garvey’s Jamaican followers heard of this coronation they recognized Haile Selassie not only as their African king but as the Messiah.
That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. –Speech to the League of Nations, Emperor Haile Selassie
