From October 18-28, 2012, Omali Yeshitela, leader of the African Socialist International (ASI) and acclaimed actor Ron Bobb-Semple teamed up for a two-week tour of Europe.
This tour served as part of the strategy to build one revolutionary political party that will carry out the will of the vast majority of Africa's workers and peasants throughout the world to unite and liberate Africa, all its resources and African people worldwide.
The Marcus Garvey Legacy Tour brought together Africans from all over Europe, thus from all over Africa, to organize the European front of the African Revolution.
It is an effort to carry out Marcus Mosiah Garvey's mission of "Africa for the Africans, those at home and those abroad."
The tour was presented by Black Star Industries (BSI), the strategy of the ASI to build our own economy towards economic self-determination, just as Garvey did with the Black Star Ship Line.
The tour kicked off on October 18 in High Wycombe, a small city in the United Kingdom, where the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is building to organize the great struggle for African self-determination.
The audience was extremly excited by the presentation of Garvey by Ron Bobb-Semple, whose one-man-show re-introduces Marcus Garvey to African people.
The excitement of the crowd was palpable as Omali Yeshitela gave his electrifyng speech.
He emphasized the importance and necessity of joining organization and the crowd united with the call.
In Stockholm, Sweden on October 19 was the next stop on the tour, where members of InPDUM have been in place and organizing for more than a year now.
In his presentation, Chairman Omali Yeshitela highlighted that the times of Garvey were similar to these times, times of profound crisis, a prerequisite for social transformation and revolution.
The next stop of this historical tour was Berlin, Germany on October 21, where 180 people attended.
Bringing the theory of African Internationalism, the legacy of Marcus Garvey and the ASI to Berlin represents a great step towards organizing for the victory of the African Revolution.
Berlin is a significant crime scene. It was at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 where European bandits carved Our Africa into more than 50 different territories for European political and economic advantage, drawing artificial borders in our nation.
Ron Bobb-Semple’s performance, which was translated on-screen into German, was electrifying as the audience watched as Bobb-Semple seemed to become Garvey in our midst.
In the audience there were Africans, Roma people, Palestinians and Europeans, who all expressed their profound unity with the theory of African Internationalism.
Chairman Omali also introduced the importance of the African identity for a liberated and united Africa and that we are not a “race” but a nation.
He explained that the "same process of slavery and colonialism that united Europe disunited Africans and other people around the world."
The participants were on fire and expressed their unity with the call to unite in the struggle for the liberation and unification of our people and our Africa!
The questions during the question and answer session were excellent.
One African woman asked the question of how to deal with the mental and cultural alienation of our people.
The Chairman answered that there will be no dis-alienation of African people without the total destruction of the social system which is responsible for our oppression. He quoted Fanon who revealed the relationship between the mental colonization of colonized peoples and their material circumstances.
Mental decolonization and liberation requires the end of colonization.
A woman from the Roma community asked how the Roma people can get organized to struggle for self-determination.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela expressed our profound unity with the Roma people, who have been catching hell for centuries, especially in Europe. He said that we will work together with Roma people who are opposed to imperialism.
The Chairman closed the event with our call and response: "Izwe Lethu I Afrika!" (Africa is our land) and the non-African participants chanted the slogan "Izwe lenu I Africa" (Africa is your land).
On October 23, Chairman Omali Yeshitela gave a lecture at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the place where Karl Marx had studied.
The Chairman gave a powerful speech entitled "Understanding Marx’s concept of 'primitive accumulation of capital' from the perspective of the African working class."
The Chairman challenged the idea that capitalism is "progressive."
The idea that capitalism is progressive is a widespread entrenched doctrine of the white left.
There is nothing progressive about the slaughtering of the majority of humanity in the process of building and sustaining parasitic capitalism.
He explained what primitive accumulation of capital really means. It is the assault on African and Indigenous peoples around the world and that capitalism is not progressive but parasitic!
As we were expected to run into an ideological war, the audience instead responded with extended applause and standing ovations.
The audience, mostly Europeans, demonstrated their unity. This in part proves the universality of African Internationalism.
It gives the peoples of the world a worldview that allows them to participate in the struggle against a common oppressor.
The questions after the presentation were great. A Palestinian woman asked how we can work together in the struggle to overturn imperialism.
The Chairman expressed our full solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are forced from their land and who struggle for their sovereignty and national liberation.
The Chairman declared that we will make available the institutions and means that we have to forward the Palestinian revolution.
The Marcus Garvey Legacy Tour then went to Brussels, Belgium on October 25.
The event took place at a smaller venue but the audience was as electrified as at the other events.
Ron Bobb-Semple’s presentation was marvellous and the audience felt Garvey’s presence.
People stood in complete unity with the presentation of Chairman Omali Yeshitela, who highlighted the necessity of the people present to become the next Marcus Garvey, the next Malcom X, the next Patrice Lumumba and to complete the legacy of Harriet Tubman, Assata Shakur and many others—the stance of an African revolutionary!
The last event of the Marcus Garvey Legacy Tour took place in London, United Kingdom on October 28.
Mostly Africans attended this event and they were in complete unity with the line and principles of the ASI.
Ron Bobb-Semple brought Marcus Garvey into life one more time and with him his legacy which is represented through the African Socialist International.
The powerful presentation of Chairman Omali Yeshitela was responded to with standing ovations, people were on fire, expressing their profound unity with the African Revolution, which is knocking on the door.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela explained that we should not be afraid when freedom is knocking at the door, and called on Africans to get organized into one single organization to unite and liberate Africa and all its resources.
The Marcus Garvey Legacy Tour was a tremendous victory and represents the whole question of when theory grips the masses, it becomes a profound material force in service to the African Revolution.
The profound unity of the people demonstrate that this is our time, that a fundamental change has occured in the world as the brutally declared "objects of history" are now subjects of history and are moving forward to overturn parasitic capitalism!
Forward the African Revolution!
Build the European Front of the African Revolution!
