Abstract

The circumstances of the US intervention created space for the Garvey movement to emerge in Haiti. Global criticism of the occupation regime brought Haiti into the global spotlight and encouraged participation in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) by members of an emerging middle class. Haitian Garveyites linked the plight of Haiti under US control to the worldwide prevalence of colonialism and racism during the epoch. UNIA philosophy fed a mainstream of nationalist thought already developed in Haiti but departed from it in harboring a transcendent belief in the potential of Africa and the diaspora. Like the conventional activism of the Union Patriotique, Haitian Garveyism was an urban phenomenon, with little penetration in rural society. As a consequence, it never became a major force in the country but proved a significant, if subtle, influence on the subsequent development of Haitian politics and culture.

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