2018-02-05Staff Report 2 Lahja Nashuuta Windhoek-The City of Windhoek has approved a Cabinet decision for the renaming of Babs Street in Klein Windhoek after revolutionary Jamaican Pan Africanist Dr. Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. The decision was made at the Municipal Council of Windhoek meeting held on January 31. The Cabinet decision suggests that Garvey, who died of a stroke in London on June 10, 1940 at the age of 52, contributed greatly to the struggle for a democratic and non-racial society that Windhoek residents are currently enjoying and therefore qualifies to be honoured with a street name in Windhoek. Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887 and became a leader in the Black Nationalist movement by applying the economic ideas of Pan-Africanism to the immense resources available in urban centres. In 1916, he founded the Negro World newspaper, an international shipping company called Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. During the 1920s, his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was the largest secular organisation in African-American history. Indicted for mail fraud by the U.S. Justice Department in 1923, he spent two years in prison before being deported to Jamaica, and later died in London. According to the Cabinet motivation submitted to City of Windhoek last year, the renaming of streets is in line with the ongoing need to pay tribute and honour leaders who selflessly championed the struggle to liberate countless of oppressed people across the world. Cabinet further indicates that the countries share a longstanding warm friendship through and beyond the long struggle for Namibia independence. “The renaming of a street in Windhoek in honour of the late Garvey is anticipated to give a tremendous boost in the relations between Namibia and Jamaica and to serve as a permanent reminder to citizens of both countries of where our forefathers have come from and where the next generation need to go so as to merge the two nations as they are vying for their rightful place in the new world order,” the statement reads. The Cabinet identified Babs as a preferred choice for consideration since it houses the office of the Jamaican consulate as well as connects to Portia Street, a street named after Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller. 2018-02-05Staff Report 2
