The founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association was ________

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). This is a history and Pan-Africanism question that often appears in JAMB Government.

Step 2: Explain the concept The UNIA was a Pan-Africanist organization promoting black pride, economic self-reliance, and unity of people of African descent worldwide. It also supported the "Back to Africa" idea. It was founded in 1914 in Jamaica and later moved its headquarters to Harlem, New York, where it grew rapidly in the late 1910s and 1920s.

Step 3: Go through the options

• A. Casely Hayford was a Gold Coast (Ghana) lawyer and nationalist who founded the National Congress of British West Africa (1920). He was not the founder of the UNIA.
• B. Herbert Macaulay was a Nigerian nationalist who founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1923. He was not the founder of the UNIA.
• C. Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist who founded the UNIA in 1914. He also ran the "Black Star Line" shipping company and the newspaper Negro World.
• D. W. E. B. Du Bois was an African-American scholar who helped found the NAACP and organized Pan-African Congresses. He was actually a critic and rival of Garvey.

Step 4: Answer The correct option is C. Marcus Garvey.

Step 5: Exam tip Match each leader with their organization:

• Garvey → UNIA (Black Star Line, "Back to Africa")
• Du Bois → NAACP and the Pan-African Congresses
• Casely Hayford → National Congress of British West Africa
• Macaulay → NNDP

Remember: Garvey = UNIA, "Go back to Africa".