by Francis Quamina Farrier

WILL the drummers be there to drum? Will the chanters sing a sweet chant? Will the dancers dance their best dance? Will the Leaders lead like he did? And will the talkers be also doers? Those questions are posed, hoping that there will be a worthy welcome for the Great Jamaican hero, Hon. Marcus Garvey, on his arrival in Guyana in August. Before going any further, I need to make a very necessary clarification; Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the internationally famous founder of the early 20th century mass movement referred to as Pan-Africanism, was born in Jamaica on August 17, 1887, and died in England on June 10, 1940.

His ‘return’ mentioned at the commencement of this feature article, is in fact, the arrival of Guyanese-born actor and Radio personality, Ron Bobb-Semple, who will be in Guyana to perform his powerful stage presentation, “The Spirit of Marcus Garvey”, at the Theatre Guild Playhouse, on August 18th., in celebration of the 130th. birth anniversary of the Jamaican hero, Marcus Garvey. A performance is also scheduled for New Amsterdam on August 19th.
Guyanese-born Ron Bobb-Semple, had never been a member of the Theatre Guild in Georgetown before he migrated to the USA in February 1972.

However, nationalist as he is, he was back home for the first CARIFESTA which was held in Guyana in August 1972. During his early years as an actor, he has performed in many plays at the Kingston Playhouse, even performing in one play while on a return visit, after migrating. He has also been very active in plays staged by the Guyana Cultural Association of New York. Bobb-Semple has already performed his one-man play, “The Spirit of Marcus Garvey”, to appreciative audiences all across the United States and in countries in the Caribbean and Africa, over the past 25 years. The up-coming performances in Guyana will be the very first time that this play is being performed in the native land of Ron Bobb-Semple — a country which Marcus Garvey actually visited in 1936.

In a survey I conducted in Georgetown to find out how well-known Marcus Garvey is in Guyana, 130 years after his birth, the results are as follows; about 65 percent of the 40- plus age group knew something about the great man.  In the 19 to 39 age group, only about 25 percent knew anything about Garvey, while in the teen and pre-teen age group, those who had any knowledge of Marcus Garvey dropped to well below five percent.

The majority of the youngsters I spoke with knew absolutely nothing about Marcus Garvey. In my question to them, “What do you know of Marcus Garvey?” some told me that they have never heard of him. Some, in their responses, asked me to tell them who he was. But the most memorable and actually amusing response which I received was from a 13-year-old student who told me, “Mister, he is not in my form.” One youngster who was wearing dreadlocks, and who obviously is well schooled in Caribbean History, seems to know more about Marcus Garvey than myself. I was very impressed with how much he knew, and I suspect that he was enjoying himself lecturing to me about “Marcus Garvey, the Great Man”. Indeed, elders can, at times, learn from the youth.

There are two other great Jamaicans of international fame, who almost all youngsters know of. They are Bob Marley, the reggae super star, and Usain Bolt, the super track and field athlete. But more than a century before their time, their fellow Jamaican, Marcus Garvey, had gained popularity, as well as notoriety, all around the world. He was spoken of in palaces and in peasant dwellings. And by kings and commoners alike. His dreams and acts to change the world for the better for people of African heritage, shook the world of his day, and ever since, with many who came after him, all fired up to improve their destiny, not as a people of servitude, but a people of achievements.

As a journalist, Marcus Garvey was hated and feared by the white establishment of America and Britain, even from his early years developing the Pan-African movement. His publication “NEGRO WORLD,” which had a readership of many thousands and was published in English, Spanish and French, was banned by a number of countries (colonies), including his own Jamaica, Trinidad and British Guiana (Guyana). Garvey toured many countries in Central America, and the Caribbean, as he engaged professionally in journalism. He also visited British Guiana (Guyana) in 1936 where he was given a great welcome, mainly by those citizens of African heritage.

Marcus Garvey dreamed dreams of a Pan-African Nation. He founded the Black Star Line – a passenger and cargo ship to migrate Africans in the Americas, back to Africa. He travelled the region recruiting many faithful followers, growing into well over a million. He became the most beloved and also, feared and hated individual of his day. He was speaking up and acting up for the oppressed African people in the Americas.

In bringing back Marcus Garvey to life, as it were, Ron Bobb-Semple will be giving to his Guyanese audiences “edutainment” — a combination of education and entertainment.  Two facts need to be mentioned; Ron Bobb-Semple is the only actor in the world, to have played the real-life character, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, on stage so many times, over such a long period of time, and at so many venues around the world. Since making his premier performance over 25 years ago, Bobb-Semple has staged “The Spirit of Marcus Garvey” hundreds of times in the United States, the Caribbean and Africa.

He staged that play in most states of the USA, also in Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, St. Lucia and in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It was also staged in Senegal and Ghana in West Africa. The up-coming production in Guyana,will be the very first time that the play will be staged in South America.

It must be noted that for his many presentations and the high standard of his acting in this play ,”The Spirit of Marcus Garvey”, over the years, and in so many varied locations and countries, Ron Bobb-Semple was presented with the prestigious Marcus Garvey Award by the Jamaica Branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, which was founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914. However, this is not the last you’ll be hearing from Ron Bobb-Semple and his interaction with the “Spirit of Marcus Garvey”; be aware that he has been working on the screenplay for a film on the life of, “GARVEY: THE BLACK MOSES.”