Controversy Arises Over Location of Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre in Queen’s Park: Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Objects

Amid the celebration of Thursday’s opening of the Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre in Queen’s Park, the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration strongly objected to the location of the new cultural space, even as it welcomed the honour in the name of the Jamaican Black nationalist leader.

General Secretary David Denny insisted in a video statement posted on Facebook that the theatre should not be in a national park that is named after a member of Britain’s royal family, Queen Victoria.

“And that is because of the thinking and also because of the philosophy of Marcus Moziah Garvey. Garvey was a black revolutionary who defended African people in Africa and the Americas. Garvey built a black conscious movement for African people and for our liberation and I think if we want to honour Garvey, we should honour him with respect. So to place Marcus Moziah Garvey in Queen’s Park which is named after Queen Victoria of the royal family would be an insult.”

Against this backdrop, Denny urged the government to rename the park after Nanny Grigg, who played a major role in the General Bussa Rebellion.

“Nanny Grigg should be seen as our queen. Nanny Grigg would have participated in that Bussa rebellion by helping to educate the slaves and help to create some of the conditions for the Bussa rebellion.

So, therefore, we are saying as a movement that we do not support this idea about placing the Marcus Moziah Garvey Amphitheatre in Queen’s Park. If you want to do that, then you should change the name of Queen’s Park,” he said.

Denny called on pan-Africanists, socialists, the Rastafari community and all citizens who respect the philosophy and opinions of Garvey to object to the location “so that Marcus Moziah Garvey can sit in a proper park in Bridgetown, Barbados.”