Marcus Garvey Course on African Philosophy – Worrill’s World

As we prepare to celebrate the 132nd birthday of Marcus Garvey on august 17th, let us begin to review some of his ideas.

It is quite clear that African people in America continue to be miseducated. This problem is discussed in a variety of ways in conversations everyday in our communities throughout America.

From time to time we should consult the wisdom of those who have addressed this problem whom we may have forgotten. One such person who addressed this problem is the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, when he presented his formula for learning in his courses on African Philosophy in the 1930s. I think it is only appropriate to review Mr. Garvey’s formula for learning as we continue to build the Reparations Movement and seek specific guideposts to our development as a people.

These lessons and guideposts in learning can be found in Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy, edited by Dr. Tony Martin.

Lesson 1: One must never stop reading. Read everything that you can read, that is of standard knowledge. Don’t waste time reading trashy literature. The idea is that personal experience is not enough for a human to get all the useful knowledge of life, because the individual life it too short, so we must feed on the experience of others.

Lesson 2: Read history incessantly until you master it. This means your own national history, the history of the world, social history, industrial history, and the history of the different sciences; but primarily, the history of man. If you do not know what went on before you came here and what is happening at the time you live, but away from you, you will not know the world and will be ignorant of the world and mankind.

Garvey had many other lessons of learning, in his formula that journalistic constraints will not allow me to elaborate at this time. However, I encourage you to read Marcus Garvey, Message to the People, The Course of African Philosophy, and as we celebrate begin to internalize and incorporate these “Lessons In Learning.”