Editing Marcus Garvey (section)

===Pan-Africanism===
{{see also|Pan-Africanism}}
Garvey was a Pan-Africanist,{{sfnm|1a1=Fierce|1y=1972|1p=50|2a1=Grant|2y=2003|2p=493|3a1=Fergus|3y=2010|3p=31}} and an [[African nationalism|African nationalist]].{{sfn|Graves|1962|p=66}} In Jamaica, he and his supporters were heavily influenced by the pan-Africanist teachings of Dr Love and [[Alexander Bedward]].<ref>Edward White (5 October 2016), [https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/10/05/rise-up/ "Rise Up"], ''[[The Paris Review]]''. Retrieved 30 July 2020.</ref> In the wake of the [[World War I|First World War]], Garvey called for the formation of "a United Africa for the Africans of the World".{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=176}} The UNIA promoted the view that Africa was the natural homeland of the African diaspora.{{sfn|Fergus|2010|p=35}} While he was imprisoned, he penned an editorial for the ''Negro World'' titled "African Fundamentalism", in which he called for "the founding of a racial empire whose only natural, spiritual and political aims shall be God and Africa, at home and abroad."{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=401}}

Garvey supported the [[Back-to-Africa movement]], which had been influenced by [[Edward Wilmot Blyden]], who migrated to [[Liberia]] in 1850.<ref name="auto">"Spirit of Garvey Lives on Even Now", ''The Voice'', February 2020, p. 12.</ref> However, Garvey did not believe that all African Americans should migrate to Africa. Instead, he believed that an elite group, namely those African Americans who were of the purest African blood, should do so. The rest of the African-American population, he believed, should remain in the United States, where it would become extinct within fifty years.{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=45}}

A proponent of the Back-to-Africa movement, Garvey called for a vanguard of educated and skilled African Americans to travel to West Africa, a journey which would be facilitated by his Black Star Line.{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=264}} Garvey stated that "The majority of us may remain here, but we must send our scientists, our mechanics and our artisans and let them build railroads, let them build the great educational and other institutions necessary", after which other members of the African diaspora could join them.{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=264}} He was aware that the majority of African Americans would not want to move to Africa until it had the more modern comforts that they had become accustomed to in the U.S.{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=264}} Through the UNIA, he discussed plans for a migration to Liberia, but these plans came to nothing and his hope to move African Americans to West Africa ultimately failed.{{sfn|Fierce|1972|p=51}}

{{Quote box
| quote = Wheresoever I go, whether it is England, France or Germany, I am told, "This is a white man's country." Wheresoever I travel throughout the United States of America, I am made to understand that I am a "nigger". If the Englishman claims England as his native habitat, and the Frenchman claims France, the time has come for 400 million Negroes to claim Africa as their native land... If you believe that the Negro should have a place in the sun; if you believe that Africa should be one vast empire, controlled by the Negro, then arise.
| source=— Garvey, August 1920{{sfn|Grant|2008|pp=246–247}}
| align = left
| width = 25em
}}

In the 1920s, Garvey referred to his desire for a "big black republic" in Africa.{{sfn|Cronon|1955|p=66}} Garvey's envisioned Africa was to be a one-party state in which the president could have "absolute authority" to appoint "all of his lieutenants from cabinet ministers, governors of States and Territories, administrators and judges to minor offices".{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=46}} According to the scholar of African-American studies Wilson S. Moses, the future African state which Garvey envisioned was "[[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]], [[Elitism|elitist]], collectivist, racist, and [[Capitalism|capitalistic]]",{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=46}} suggesting that it would have resembled the later Haitian government of [[François Duvalier]].{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=47}} Garvey told the historian J. A. Rogers that he and his followers were "the first fascists", adding that "[[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] copied [[Fascism]] from me, but the Negro reactionaries sabotaged it".{{sfnm|1a1=Moses|1y=1972|1p=46|2a1=Grant|2y=2008|2p=439}}

Garvey never visited Africa himself,{{sfnm|1a1=Hart|1y=1967|1p=230|2a1=Clarke|2y=1974|2p=18|3a1=Grant|3y=2008|3p=453}} and he did not speak any African language.{{sfn|Clarke|1974|p=18}} He knew very little about the continent's varied customs, languages, religions, and traditional social structures,{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=230}} and his critics frequently believed that his views of the continent were based on romanticism and ignorance.{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=265}} It has been suggested that the European colonial authorities would not have given Garvey permission to visit colonies where he would be calling for decolonization.<ref name="auto"/>

For instance, the Jamaican writer and poet [[Claude McKay]] noted that Garvey "talks of Africa as if it were a little island in the Caribbean Sea."{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=265}} Garvey believed in negative stereotypes about Africa which portrayed it as a backward continent that was in need of the civilizing influence of Western, Christian states.{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=229}} Among his stated aims, he wanted "to assist in civilizing the backward tribes of Africa" and he also wanted "to promote a conscientious Christian worship among" them.{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=229}} His belief that Africans would ultimately be liberated by the efforts of the African diaspora which was living outside the continent has been considered condescending.{{sfn|Christian|2008|p=323}}

Moses stated that instead of being based on respect for indigenous African cultures, Garvey's views of an ideal united Africa were based on an "imperial model" of the kind which was promoted by western powers.{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=42}} When he extolled the glories of Africa, Garvey cited the [[ancient Egypt]]ians and [[History of Ethiopia|Ethiopians]] who had built empires and monumental architectural structures, which he cited as evidence of [[civilization]], rather than the smaller-scale societies which lived on other parts of the continent.{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=43}} In doing so, he followed the lead of white academics of that era, who were similarly ignorant of most of African history and who focused nearly exclusively on ancient Egypt. Moses thought that Garvey "had more affinity for the pomp and tinsel of European imperialism than he did for black African tribal life".{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=43}} Similarly, the writer Richard Hart noted that Garvey was "much attracted by the glamour of the British nobility", an attraction which was reflected when he honored prominent supporters by giving them such British-derived titles as "Lords", "Ladies", and "Knights".{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=231}} Garvey's head was not turned, however, by the scholarly authority of Harvard University professor [[George Andrew Reisner|George Reisner]] whose opinion Garvey challenged on the pages of ''The Negro World''.<ref name="Egypt and Egyptology in the Pan-Afr"/>