President Hage Geingob said Jamaica’s black nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement Marcus Garvey planted the seeds in them to combat colonialism, racism and division, and to pursue Pan-African solidarity towards a liberated continent. 
Geingob, who celebrates his 79th birthday, said this on Saturday during a virtual event marking the 100th anniversary of Garvey’s convention of the Negro Peoples of the World. 

Garvey founded the organisation in the 1900s to galvanise the support of diasporic Africans around the world and for uplifting the black race. 
“He told us what is possible, even under difficult circumstances. Indeed, Garvey stands tall as a hero who introduced a purposeful sense of identity for Africans and the relentless pursuit of Pan-Africanism,” Geingob said in a statement yesterday. 

Geingob said as young people growing up under apartheid occupation in Namibia, the writings of Garvey, his sense of urgency and fearless activism for the unity of Africa and people of African origin induced pride in them to fight for political liberation. 
“Self-determination, one of the main objectives of Marcus Garvey, has been achieved. Only the question of Western Sahara remained unresolved. However, the burning spirit of Pan-Africanism, which Marcus Garvey ignited, is the fire that will continue to light the unity of the African continent,” Geingob said. 

He said the continent and Africans in the diaspora are today in the second phase of the struggle – that of economic emancipation. 
“It will be more difficult to achieve. However, with the sense of destiny Garvey instilled in us, I am confident that this is a battle we are going to win,” he said. 
“On this occasion, as we mark the 100th Anniversary of the Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, the ideas and the mission Garvey bestowed upon us are still as relevant as they were a century ago.”