Garveyism, Britain, and the Nation-State

Political Ideas – Marcus Garvey

In this course, Professor Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City University) explores the ideas and politics of Marcus Garvey and the movement of Garveyism. In the first module, we explore Garveyism, Britain, and the concept of the nation-state, focusing in particular on how Garveyism challenges the concept of the nation and the nation-state. In the second module we explore Garvey’s key ideas and political activism, including his ‘Back to Africa’ movement. In the third module, we explore the concept of nationalism in Garvey’s thought, focusing in particular on the idea of the global Black nation, as well as how this idea challenges the Western concept of the nation-state as established in Treaty of Westphalia (1648). In the fourth module we turn to criticisms of Garveyism, including Garvey’s controversial and strategic involvement with the Ku Klux Klan. Then, in the fifth and final module, we outline the fundamental differences between Garveyism and Pan-Africanism.

Garveyism, Britain, and the Nation-State

In this module, we explore Garveyism, Britain, and the concept of the nation-state, focusing in particular on: (i) Marcus Garvey; (ii) the importance of Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacques-Garvey to Garveyism; (iii) that Garvey was British, and the centrality of the history of the British Empire to Garveyism; (iv) how Garveyism challenges the concept of the nation and the nation-state; (v) the fundamental relevance of slavery and Empire to the development of Britain, and (vi) the myth of the nation-state.