MARCUS GARVEYWASACATHOLIC

by Peter Espeut

Jamaican National Hero the Rt. Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) died as a Roman Catholic in good standing. At Garvey’s Jamaican funeral in 1964 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Gladstone Wilson (1906-1974) preached a eulogy in which he informed the gathering that before Garvey died in 1940, he had been received into the Catholic Church by a priest of Holy Trinity Church in the borough of Hammersmith, London.

In 2013 while in London doing research on the History of the Catholic Church in Jamaica, I went to Holy Trinity church in Hammersmith seeking confirmation of this; whereas they kept baptismal records, they did not have records of receptions into the Church, and so sadly, I drew a blank!

But I did visit St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green (North London) where Garvey was first laid to rest. According to the burial register, the body of “Marcus Moziah Garvey” aged 53 was placed in the lower crypt ofthe cemetery by Fr. Leonard A. Clark. A notation in the register advises that Garvey’s remains were removed on October 6, 1964 to “George VI Memorial Park,Kingston,Jamaica”.

Buried (at age 76) in the same Kensal Green cemetery is another famous Jamaican Catholic –“Mary J. Seacole”. We Jamaican Catholics need to know a lot more about our history, and the role our members have played in national and worldaffairs.

On Christmas Day 1919 Marcus Garvey married Amy Ashwood – herself a Catholic – in a Catholic ceremony in New York. Amy Ashwood Garvey is buried in Jamaica at Calvary Cemetery. Garvey married a second time to Amy Jacques – an Anglican – who is buried on the grounds of the St. AndrewParishChurch.

In the last two months I have been asked by local Garveyites to take part in three events. On December 31, 2022 I offered prayersand a blessing asthe Jacques Road Community Centre was renamed and rededicated as the Amy Jacques Garvey Community Centre. On February 20, 2023 I gave the opening prayer at a Reception for Garvey’s son, Dr. Julius Garvey, welcoming him to the Community Centre dedicated to his mother; the younger Garvey grew up with his mother at 2½ Jacques Road. My wife, Velia, and I know Dr. Garvey, and she(again) sang for him to thegreatpleasureofthecrowd.

On January 10, 2023 I conducted a service at Calvary Cemetery celebrating the 126th Anniversary of the birth of Amy Ashwood Garvey, and offered a blessing over her grave. The service was attended by a number of Garveyites, as well as drummers and other musicians, who paid tribute to the Garveys in word, song and drumology.

In my homily I pointed out that the Catholic Church in Jamaica proudly acknowledges Marcus and Amy as membersofour Church. Garvey wasnot a Catholic by accident of birth, but by choice as an adult. He would have studied Catholic social teaching and Catholic doctrine, and would have been convinced that being a Catholic was aligned with his doctrine of black liberation. In fact, it is likely that elements of the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey are drawn fromCatholicTeaching.

I went on to say that Garveyites who wish to follow closely Garvey’s life and example could consider studying Catholic social thought, and possibly even to follow him into the Church he entered towards the endofhisfruitfullife.