Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Jamaica-Gleaner.com

An interactive journey into the life and works of Marcus Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero, awaits members of the public at Liberty Hall on King Street, downtown Kingston.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday officially opened a state-of-the-art interactive multimedia museum, which boasts eight touch screens stations all bearing information on the history, life and works of Garvey.

Minutes after Dr. Waibinte Wariboko, deputy dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of the West Indies, Mona, performed libation in memory of the ancestors by pouring rum on the ground and breaking a clear glass, a smiling Mrs. Simpson Miller cut the ribbon to the room that hosts the multimedia centre. The centre is located on the ground floor of the three story building.

Aside from the touch screen centres, the multimedia museum, has two wallpapered walls with Garvey photographs and a 48 inch flat screen monitor which shows films of Garvey's life and works, pan-Africanism and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Fitting interactive tribute

Mrs. Simpson Miller said the museum "is a fitting testimony to the vision that our great National Hero held for the advancement of the children of the African Diaspora."

Among those present was Dr. Julius Garvey, son of the late National Hero. He described the multimedia museum as "a magnificent tribute to the memory of Marcus Mosiah Garvey."

University of the West Indies professor, Barry Chevannes, chairman of the Institute of Jamaica said, "It is fitting interactive tribute to a great man. The fact that you have to be able to read in order to be engaged with the museum is right in the tradition of Marcus Garvey who emphasized so much, the importance of education."

Dr. Garvey expressed pleasure at the Prime Minister's earlier announcement to work without rest, for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey's name. He also joined the call for the teaching of Marcus Garvey philosophy for all levels of schooling in Jamaica.

Garvey, revered by Pan-Africanists for his self-identity and self-pride philosophy, died in England on June 10, 1940, two months after his 53rd birthday.  He was declared a National Hero in 1964 and his remains were re-interred in the National Heroes Park, Kingston, that year.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller recently announced that efforts are being made to have Garvey's name expunged from criminal records in the United States, where he was convicted in 1923 for mail fraud.