Page 29 - Urban Kapital New MAY JUNE 2020 ISSUE

GREAT BLACK ICONS

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#09 #10 #GOOD READ

#06 #07 #08 \\ GUSTAVUS VASSA, OLAUDAH // SARAH PARKER REMOND \\ THE HISTORY OF MARY

EQUIANO. 1826-1894 PRINCE. BY MARY PRINCE
\\ MARCUS GARVEY. POLITICAL //1815 PICTURE: JOSEPH // IGNATIUS SANCHO (1729–80) WRITER AND ABOLITIONIST (CLICK IMAGE TO BUY)
ACTIVIST, PUBLISHER, JOHNSON. FORMER SAILOR IN FORMER SAILOR IN THE
JOURNALIST, ENTREPRENEUR, THE BRITISH NAVY BRITISH NAVY
AND ORATOR

Eventually, he would meet Olaudah Equi- Vassa, Olaudah Equiano was a writer Sarah Parker Remond started speaking
The Right Honourable Marcus Garvey he was sympathetic. He saw strong par- this were campaigns for the abolition of ano—known as Gustavus Vassa—and and abolitionist from the Eboe region of publically about slavery in the USA at
lived in London for several years. allels between the British subjugation of the slave trade. A determining element other educated Blacks in London. This the Kingdom of Benin (today southern just 16 years old. Her lectures took her
Garvey sought to rebuild UNIA, although Ireland and the broader subjugation of of that movement was the involvement led to him joining the Sons of Africa. Nigeria). around America, the UK and Europe,
found there was much competition in the black people. Garvey adopted a Pan-Af- of African men and women living in Brit- where she became a well-known figure
city from other black activist groups. ricanist view, which has become increas- ain who, for the first time, offered in writ- Cugoano’s writing culminates in the He was enslaved as a child, and taken and agent of change in the anti-slavery
ingly popular amongst sections of the ing first-person testimony to the horrors 1787 publishing of Thoughts and Senti- to the Caribbean where he was sold as movement.
He established a new UNIA headquarters black community even today. In the wake of slavery, and formed lobby groups like ments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was
in Beaumont Gardens, West Kensington of the First World War he called for the the Sons of Africa which counted the the Slavery and Commerce of the Human sold twice more before he purchased his Born free in Massachusetts and became
and launched a new monthly journal, formation of “a United Africa for the Af- writers and formerly enslaved Olaudah Species. His book targets the institution freedom in 1766. known as a lecturer, abolitionist, and
Black Man. Garvey returned to speaking ricans of the World” UNIA promoted the Equiano #09 and Ottobah Cugoano #04 of slavery from a very heavy Christian agent of the American Anti-Slavery So-
at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. view that Africa was the natural home- among its members. base and made the case that abolition As a freedman in London, Equiano sup- ciety. An international activist for human
When he spoke in public, he was increas- land of the African diaspora. was the answer. It also serves as an au- ported the British abolitionist move- rights and women’s suffrage. In 1858 Re-
ingly harangued by socialists for his con- Ottobah Cugoano - originally from Ghana, tobiography of his life prior to arriving in ment. He was part of the Sons of Afri- mond was chosen to travel to England to
servative stances. He also had hopes of The above 1815 print depicts Joseph was an abolitionist in England during the England. ca, an abolitionist group composed of gather support for the abolitionist cause
becoming a Member of Parliament. Johnson, he was a former sailor in the late 18th century. He was born in 1757, Africans living in Britain. He was active in the United States. While in London,
British Navy. He became a street singer part of the Fanti people and member of a In his book, Cugoano stated: among leaders of the anti-slave trade Remond also studied at the Bedford Col-
In June 1937, Garvey’s wife and children to earn money after he was discharged family of influence. Is it not strange to think, that they who movement in the 1780s. He published his lege for Women, lecturing during term
arrived in England, his children were from the navy, and wore a model of the ought to be considered as the most autobiography, The Interesting Narrative breaks.
sent to a school in Kensington Gardens sailing ship Nelson on his head. Between 1768-1769, Ottobah Cugoano learned and civilized people in the world, of the Life of Olaudah Equiano in 1789,
and Garvey took up a new family home in (© Department of Special Collections, was sold into slavery. Around three that they should carry on a traffic of the which depicted the horrors of slavery. From England, Remond went to Italy in
Talgarth Road, not far from UNIA’s head- Memorial Library, University of Wiscon- years later in the Caribbean plantations most barbarous cruelty and injustice, 1867 to pursue medical training in Flor-
quarters. sin-Madison). Alexander Campbell purchases him and and that many think slavery, robbery and The book went through nine editions in ence, where she became a physician. She
he is taken to England and baptized as murder no crime? his lifetime and helped gain passage of practiced medicine for nearly 20 years in
MAGAZINE // 28 was also influenced by the ideas of the Britain was, most importantly, a place of 10 years and begins working for artists Known for most of his life as Gustavus abolished the slave trade. States. MAGAZINE // 29
the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which
Italy and never returned to the United
During the late 1910s and 1920s, Garvey
John Stuart. He is freed after around
black political organisation. Central to
Irish independence movement, to which
Richard and Maria Cosway.