The literary work by Marvin Garvey The Future as I see it is related to the Harlem Renaissance. During this period which lasted from 1919-1940 black people established the basis for their representation in the world through the mass artistic production of African artists. They populated New York, especially Harlem from where they worked on self-expression. One of them was Marvin Garvey who was originally from Jamaica.
Garvey founded Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem in 1918 and this literary work is about that and about its goals. Marcus describes the rights of black people and the course of their action in the modern world in which they are free. He writes emotionally and uses examples of the success of black people in the past and throughout history. He is really writing about the renaissance of the black man. He writes that people in Africa were educated and had manners at the time when people in Europe were still savages. “Even the great poets of old sang in beautiful sonnets of the delight it afforded the gods to be in companionship with the Ethiopians. Why, then, should we lose hope? Black men, you were once great; you shall be great again” (Garvey). There is bitterness in this text because it is obvious that other races made black race become slaves, but he is also encouraging black people to stand on their feet once again and present themselves to the world in the full glory.
This text is without a doubt written as an encouragement and an appraisal of the black people who are supposed to be great again. The title The Future as I See it suggests that this is the vision that Garvey has about the future of black people who are related to the promotion of African culture. However, he writes that black people have been prevented from doing their best throughout history. “What else can you expect but to give back to the world what the world gives to you, and we are calling upon the four hundred million Negroes of the world to take a decided stand, a determined stand, that we shall occupy a firm position” (Garvey). He is emphasizing that there are so many black people in the world and suggests the fact that they were enslaved for too long which prevented them from making progress. Garvey argues that black people should only take the place in the world which they deserve after they were enslaved for 250 years.
There was the “early, youthful enthusiasm for Marcus Garvey’s ideological mixture of Black pride, diasporic consciousness, and defiance of white racism” (Philipson 150). Garvey was inviting black people to reestablish themselves intellectually through art and through making their voices loud and clear. “Harlem became both a literal place and a symbolic figure that existed curiously within the language of Western empire, but one that represented a continuous struggle for a release from the imprisoning language of territoriality” (Miller 74). Black people were now going through the period of gaining the rights through their own efforts and with the help of white people as well. Harlem was the place which was not only geographical, but symbolical as well. It was a good circumstance that the black people who fought for the freedom of speech could be united in their efforts.
Works Cited
Garvery, Marcus. "The Future As I See It" Nyahbinghi. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nyahbinghi.ca/Garvey-speeches/view-garvey.asp?word_title=The+Future+As+I+See+It>.
Philipson, Robert. "The Harlem Renaissance as Postcolonial Phenomenon." African American Review 40.1 (2006): 145-60. Print.
Miller, R. B. "Café de la paix: Mapping the Harlem Renaissance." South Atlantic Review 65.2 (2000): 73-94. Print.
