"Becoming naturally restless for the opportunity of doing something [for] the advancement of my race, I was determined that the black man would not continue to be kicked about by all the other races and nations of the world, as I saw it in the West Indies, South and Central America and Europe, and as I read of it in America. My young and ambitious mind led me into flights of great imagination. I saw before me then, even as I do now, a new world of black men, not peons, serfs, dogs and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impress upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race. I could not remain in London any more. My brain was afire. There was a world of thought to conquer. I had to start ere it became too late and the work be not done. Immediately I boarded a ship at Southampton for Jamaica, where I arrived on July 15, 1914. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League was founded and organized five days after my arrival, with the program of uniting all the negro peoples of the world into one great body to establish a country and Government absolutely their own."

Garvey's basically telling us how his plans for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League (whew, that's a long one) came about. Those backstories involve a lot of major brainstorming and an apparently spontaneous trip from London to Jamaica, the birthplace of the League. Good times.

Imagine Garvey running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the theme from Rocky blaring in the background. That's the kind of moment this passage is all about: determination, perseverance. You know. All those adjectives that describe the fighting spirit.

And that's what Garvey needed in order to get his ideas off the ground. Ideas like creating a "new world of black men, not peons, serfs, dogs, and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impress upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race." You know, simple stuff.

And, in fact, he really does make it all sound super easy. After all, he founded the UNIAAC League in five days (and all after a long trip at sea, mind you), "with the program of uniting all the negro peoples of the world into one great body to establish a country and Government absolutely their own."

You know how time waits for no man? Apparently, Pan-Africanism doesn't either. But how can it? As Garvey points out, the goal of Pan-Africanism is akin to world domination, at least in terms of the mind.

That's why he jumps out of bed and hops on that ship to Jamaica in the first place. He realizes that the radicalism of Pan-Africanism means having to "conquer" "a world of thought." And we're pretty sure he means a whole Western way of thinking that views the black man as an inferior being.

Garvey's intentions are really clear in this passage. How do we know? Because Garvey can't help telling us what they are and how responsible he is for everything.

Even though the passage is only nine sentences long, Garvey uses "I," "my," and "me" a total of twelve times. And note how he speaks of himself: he's "restless" because he wants to advance "my race"; "I saw before me then, even as I do now, a new world world of black men"; "the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League was founded and organized five days after my arrival."

It's like Garvey is the god of black men. It's his race; the men are "before" him, like soldiers lining up before a sergeant for battle. And, of course, the most major event happens only "after [his] arrival."

While the essay is supposed to be all about "The Negro's Greatest Enemy," we certainly leave it knowing who the Negro's greatest hero is: Marcus Garvey. At least, in the mind of Marcus Garvey.