Marcus Garvey and the Big Red Ship

In a green corner of Jamaica, in a town called St. Ann's Bay, there lived a boy named Marcus Garvey who loved words the way other children love sweets.

His father had a room full of books, and Marcus read every single one. He learned that words could be small and quiet, or big enough to cross an ocean.

When Marcus grew up, he became a printer. He made a newspaper, and he filled it with a message he wanted everybody to hear. Up, you mighty race, he wrote. You can do anything you want to do.

People read those words in Jamaica. Then in America. Then in Africa, and in England, and on little islands with names you might not know yet. Thousands and thousands of people read them, and stood a little taller.

Marcus wanted to show what his message meant, so he did something wonderful. He started a shipping line and bought great ships that sailed the sea, with crews who looked like the children reading his newspaper. He painted a star on them and called it the Black Star Line.

Children would run down to the harbour just to watch those ships come in, and to think, one day that could be me.

So if you are lying in the dark tonight wondering how big you might become, remember the boy with the books.

Up, you mighty one. You can do anything.

Now close your eyes.