Issue #30
April 25th 2004.
RESURRECTION OF THE NEGRO
NegroWorld Easter Message!
...by Marcus Garvey
Service to humanity means sacrifice. That has been demonstrated by our blessed Lord and Redeemer whose resurrection we commemorate. As Christ triumphed nearly two thousand years ago over death and the grave, as he was risen from the dead, so do I hope that Negroes of today will triumph over the slavishness of the past, intellectually, physically, morally, and even religiously; that on this anniversary of our risen Lord, we ourselves will be risen from the slumber of ages; risen in thought to higher ideals, to a loftier purpose, to a truer conception of life.
It is the hope of the Universal Negro Improvement Association that the Negroes of the world will get to realize that we are about to live a new life- a risen life- a life of knowing ourselves.
How many of us know ourselves? How many of us understand ourselves? The major number of us for ages have failed to recognize in ourselves the absolute masters of our own destiny- the absolute directors and creators of our own fate.
The work of the UNIA has been that of guiding us to realize that there should be a resurrection in us. There is a great need for a resurrection- a resurrection from the lethargy of the past- the sleep of the past- from that feeling that made us accept the idea and opinion that God intended that we should occupy an inferior place in the world.
Today I trust that there will be a spiritual and material resurrection among Negroes everywhere; that you will lift yourselves from the doubts of the past; that you will lift yourselves from the slumbers of the past, that you will lift yourselves from the lethargy of the past, and strike out in this new life- in this resurrected life- to see things as they are.
The UNIA desires that the hundreds of millions of members of our race see life as the other races see it- in an attitude of sovereignity... The highest compliment we can pay to our creator; the highest respect we can pay to our risen Lord and Savior, is that of feeling that [we were] created as His masterpiece; perfect instruments of His own existence, because in us is reflected His own image, we reflect His greatness, we ourselves reflect the part of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost...
If there is anything we want in this world it is for us to strike out with confidence and faith in ourselves and reach for it... For hundreds of years we have been the footstool of other races and nations of the Earth simply because we have failed to realize, to recognize, and know ourselves and [feel] that there is nothing in the world that is above us except the influence of [our] God.
I pray that a new inspiration will come to us as a race; that we will go through the length and breadth of this world achieving and doing [together] as [a] nation and [a] race.
From The Philosophies & Opinions of Marcus Garvey compiled by Amy Jacques Garvey (1923).
GARVEY SPEAKS Vol.3
