While working to uplift our people in the early 1900s, Marcus Garvey recognized that miseducation was one of the biggest problems facing Black people. Garvey said “having had the wrong kind of education, the Negro has become his own greatest enemy,” meaning we are so badly educated that we are unable to act in our own interests.
To address the problem of miseducation among our people, Garvey presented a blueprint for learning and self development in his courses on African philosophy in the 1930s. Since the start of the New Year is traditionally when people reflect and declare resolutions for self improvement, it may be a good time to consider some of Garvey’s lessons.
These guideposts in learning were extracted from “Marcus Garvey, Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy,” edited by Dr. Tony Martin (1986).
1. Never Stop Learning
Garvey began his course on African philosophy by asserting, “You must never stop learning. The world’s greatest men and women were people who educated themselves outside of the university with all the knowledge that the university gives, as you have the opportunity of doing the same thing the university student does—read and study.”
