Healing Colonial Trauma

Abstract

Religious analyses of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) usually examine the theological, eschatological, or ecclesiastical elements of Garvey's vision or those of the UNIA. These approaches relegate the religiosity of Marcus Garvey to ideological frameworks and overlook the ritualistic behavior, dress, and colonial symbolism deployed by Garvey and within the UNIA. This article shifts the focus from an ideological analysis to a history-of-religions model that compares religious aspects of Garvey and the UNIA to those of Melanesian Cargo movements. As understood in the history of religions, Cargo movements reflect how colonized peoples religiously negotiate the dehumanizing effects of colonization. This comparative approach allows for an analysis of the myths and symbols deployed by Garvey and within UNIA, which identifies these religious acts as processes concerned with addressing the traumatic effects of being colonized.