Where can we find in this race of ours real men? Men of character, men of purpose, men of confidence, men of faith, men who really know themselves? I have come across so many weaklings who profess to be leaders, and in the test I have found them but the slaves of a nobler class. They perform the will of their masters without question.
To me, a man has no master but God. Man in his authority is a sovereign lord. As for the individual man, so of the individual race. This feeling makes man so courageous, so bold, as to make it impossible for his brother to intrude upon his rights. So few of us can understand what it takes to make a man—the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up; the man who will never depend upon others to do for him what he ought to do for himself; the man who will not blame God, who will not blame Nature, who will not blame Fate for his condition; but the man who will go out and make conditions to suit himself. Oh, how disgusting life becomes when on every hand you hear people (who bear your image, who bear your resemblance) telling you that they cannot make it, that Fate is against them, that they cannot get a chance. If 400,000,000 Negroes can only get to know themselves, to know that in them is a sovereign power, is an authority that is absolute, then in the next twenty-four hours we would have a new race, we would have a nation, an empire, resurrected, not from the will of others to see us rise,—but from our own determination to rise, irrespective of what the world thinks.
A Solution for World Peace: 1922
We hear a great deal of talk about world peace today. Wilson of America, Lloyd George of England, Clemenceau of France a few years ago prophesied at Versailles a reign of peace. Up to the present many of the leading statesmen of the world have pledged themselves to a program of world peace. Many conferences have been held (political as well as industrial) for the purpose of settling the question of peace; but up to now none of them has laid the foundation for a real
peace, for a lasting peace. The peace of the world cannot be settled by political conferences, or by industrial conferences only. If we are to have a world peace it will only come when a great inter-racial conference is called. When Jew will meet Gentile; when Anglo-Saxon will meet Teuton; when the great Caucasian family will meet the Mongolian, and when all will meet the Negro, and then and there straighten out the differences that have kept us apart for hundreds of years, and will continue to keep us apart until doom's day, if something is not done to create better racial understanding. If white men continue to exploit yellow men, if white men continue to exploit black and brown men, if yellow men continue to exploit brown and black men, then all we can look forward to is a reign of wars and rumors of wars. So long as Anglo-Saxons oppress Indians; so long as the French exploit the black race; so long as the Russian murders the Jew, so long will the cause for war be found, and so long will man continue to fight and kill his brother.
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Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook
