Bust

Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Erection date: 17/8/2016

Inscription

{Nameplate on the base of the bust:}
Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887 - 1940

{Panel next to the bust:}
"Are you an African or a Jamaican?"
"I will not give up a continent for an island!"
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. 17th August 1887 - 10th June 1940

Marcus Garvey was a prominent pan-African politician, entrepreneur and orator. Pan-Africanism is a movement which promotes solidarity between people of African heritage. Garvey dedicated his life to promoting the empowerment of African people everywhere in a form of Pan-African philosophy that became known as 'Garveyism'.

Garvey lived in London between 1912 and 1914. During that time he studied at Birkbeck College, spoke at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, and engaged with other pan-Africanists. On his return to Jamaica in 1914, he established the UNIA or Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

In 1935, Garvey relocated to London, where he died in 1940. He was buried in Kensal Green. In 1964, his remains were moved to the National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica. He was posthumously awarded Jamaica's Order of National Heroes in 1969. Garvey has been an inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Nkrumah, the Nation of Islam, the Rastafari faith, and numerous civil rights movements. Garvey has continued to have an important influence on African and African-Caribbean communities in Brent, many of whom consider him to be a "Pan-African Hero".

The bust was unveiled on Garvey's 129th birthday, and is now inside a glass case in the museum at the library, but we cannot discover who sculpted it.

Site: Willesden Library (3 memorials)

NW10, High Road, 95, Willesden Green Old Library Building

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Subjects commemorated i

Marcus Garvey

Pan-African nationalist leader. Born Marcus Mosiah Garvey in St Ann's Bay, Ja...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Marcus Garvey - Willesden Library

Also at this site i

Willesden Library - 1894

Willesden Library - 1894

Willesden Green Library was established in 1894 following a poll of the ratep...

Read More

Willesden Library - Shakespeare

Willesden Library - Shakespeare

We think that hiding below hundreds of layers of whitewash is a fine relief b...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Wall of the Ancestors - rightmost

Wall of the Ancestors - rightmost

SE8, George Beard Road, Aragon Tower, north-east (riverside) wall of

According to the plaque these are, clockwise from top left: Debra Lee, Phineas Pett, Tsar Peter the Great, Dr Burnhart Gloss, Catherine o...

8 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Hotel Russell - Lord Derby

Hotel Russell - Lord Derby

WC1, Russell Square, 1-8

This ornate extravaganza, designed by the splendidly named Fitzroy Doll, was built in 1898. Ornamental Passions has a good post about the...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
RIPWC - Sandby

RIPWC - Sandby

W1, Piccadilly, 192-196

The building by E. R. Robson was erected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour, founded in 1831 (the crest in the centre of...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Old Westminster Library - head 4 - Dryden

Old Westminster Library - head 4 - Dryden

SW1, Great Smith Street

The foundation stone is immediately to the right of the central entrance. Above the entrance: "Westminster Public Library, The united pa...

1 subject commemorated
Kilburn head - 3 - Bach

Kilburn head - 3 - Bach

NW6, Kilburn High Road, 70-72 Traid

We've numbered these heads left to right and identified them ourselves. Do let us know if you think otherwise. The building is very plain...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator