Both the Jamaican And Ghanaian High Commissioners visited Willesden to celebrate the first special birthday presentation of a pan-African icon.

Seth George Ramocan, Jamaican High Commissioner and Ghana’s Deputy High Commissioner Rita Tani Iddi were among those who attended the first Marcus Garvey annual Pan-Africanism Presentation on August 17.

A bust of the Jamaican born pan-Africanist was installed as a permanent exhibit in the Brent Museum last year.

The packed event at Willesden Library Centre, in the High Road, saw the screening of the documentary “Highlighting Marcus Garvey, UNIA & Garveyism Through Film”, and presentations by Kwaku, the community historian and Friends Of Marcus Garvey Bust Collective co-ordinator, and the commissioners.

Marcus Garvey, who died in 1940 aged 52, was a leader of the Pan-Africanism mass movement and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).] He also founded the Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger line which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.

Mr Ramocan said: “Garvey was not just Jamaican, he was a global citizen. He was one who saw the need for liberation and bringing dignity to peoples who were oppressed.”

Mrs Iddi highlighted the influence of Garvey by pointing to “symbols of our nationhood, such as the Black Star Line, the Black Stars, which is the name of the national football team, and note also the rising black star in our national flag.”

Kwaku said: “I’m glad that the High Commissioners of Jamaica and Ghana supported the event, so as to underscore the fact that Garvey represents not only Jamaica, but also global Africa.

“It’s important that a borough such as Brent, where there is a high number of Africans from the continent and the Caribbean, that our representation in the museum is embodied in the bust of Garvey.”

The event was organised by community group BTWSC/African Histories Revisited in association with Brent Museum & Archives.