ible with Garvey's, but their sympathywith his themes of "African redemption" and black self-support was instrumental in gatheringsupport for the movement from a vast cross-section of African-American society. Similarly,Garvey's message wasadopted by a broad cross-section of educated and semi-literate Africans and West Indianshungry for alternatives to white rule and oppression.The post--World War I years were thus a time when a growing number of Africans and WestIndians were ready for change. In most colonial territories, Africans, like African Americans,were disappointed when expected postwar changes failed to materialize. The Garveyistmessage was spread by sailors, migrant laborers, and travelling UNIA agents, as well as bycopies of its newspaper, the Negro World, passed from hand to hand.In the Caribbean, what has been termed the "Garvey phenomenon" resulted from an encounterbetween the highly developed tradition of racial consciousness in the African-Americancommunity, and the West Indian aspiration toward independence. It was the Caribbean ideal ofself-government that provided Garvey with his vocabulary of racial independence. Moreover,Garvey combined the social and political aspirations of the Caribbean people with the popularAmerican gospel of success, which he converted in turn into his gospel of racial pride.Garveyism thus appeared in the Caribbean as a doctrine proposing solutions to the twinproblems of racial subordination and colonial domination.By the early 1920s the UNIA could count branches in almost every Caribbean,circum-Caribbean, and sub-Saharan African country. The Negro World was read by thousandsof eager followers across the African continent and throughout the Caribbean archipelago.Though Caribbean and African Garveyism may not have coalesced into a single movement, itsdiverse followers adapted the larger framework to fit their own local needs and cultures. It isprecisely this that makes Garvey and the UNIA so re...
