One of the many complex elements in addressing the issue of racism from a biblical/theological perspective is that of whether justice can be better served for African American people by having them return to their country of origin or remaining in the land in which they were enslaved and subjected to discrimination and all types of oppression by the white power structure in the U.S.A. It is very complex in that it raises the question of whether God's justice is limited to a particular geographical location or is it universal. This writer (yours truly) is of the persuasion that God's justice is not limited by geographical boundaries, but is operative wherever there is inhumanity, injustice, or any other type of oppression.
The year 1919 was marked by brutal and bloody racial violence, which came to be known as the Red Summer of 1919. From May to September of that year, major race riots broke out in Charleston, Knoxville, Omaha, Washington, Chicago, Longview, Texas, and Phillips County. All told, twenty-five riots took place (William Tuttle, Jr., Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919. New York: Atheneum, 1970, p.14).
It was in these conditions that Marcus Garvey built the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) into a mass organization-the largest Black nationalist organization to date at that time. Assessments of Garvey vary considerably. For Black nationalists, Garvey's success is evidence of the viability of nationalism. They see Garvey as the link between as the link between the nineteenth-century nationalists such as Martin Delany, and the nationalists revival of the 1960's. This assessment is shared by left-wing nationalists who are critical of many of Garvey's ideas, but stress his importance in establishing Black organization (Ahmed Shawki, Black Liberation and Socialism, p . 101).
The West Indian historian and critic C. L. R. James expressed this view in the 1980's, reversing his earlier hostility go Garvey: "Garvey was a remarkable man. Before Garvey there was no black movement anywhere. Since Garvey, there has been a continuous Black movement. All of us stand on the shoulders of Marcus Garvey. There is plenty to say against Garvey, but nothing you say against Garvey can ever weaken the things , the positive things that Garvey did (C. L. R. James's 80th Birthday Lectures , eds. Margaret Busby and Darcus Howe. London: Black Rose Press 1984, p. 58)."
Garvey's increased race consciousness was not accompanied by a rejection of the other ideas that he shared with Booker T. Washington, though. Black capitalism and self-help were now combined with the slogan "Back to Africa." Toward that end, the UNIA promoted racial consciousness and established a number of business ventures. The most important of these was the Black Star Line endeavor which Garvey set up in 1919. The Black Star Line drew the savings of thousands of Blacks into a plan to form a fleet of Black-owned cruise ships for transoceanic travel, especially transit to Africa (Stein, the World of Marcus Garvey, p. 63).
The "Back to Africa" mentality is complex. For one, there is the question of what particular country in Africa would African Americans return to? And then there is the question of whether the struggle for justice can be carried out concomitantly in both the African continent and in the African Diaspora in the U.S.A?
As I stated earlier, from a biblical/theological standpoint, God's justice is not limited or confined by geographical considerations. Yes, the struggle must continue to liberate the African continent from the effects of colonization, and continuous exploitation by Euro-America. On the other hand, justice must be served to Africa's children who are scattered abroad in the U.S.A., the Caribbean, and elsewhere. It is not my place to evaluate the merits of returning to Africa, but rather to proclaim that justice is to be meted out wherever Africa's children are found. The Struggle Continues.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer.
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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