Zulu Nation Marcus Garvey Jacket: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This fabric jacket with leather trim on shoulders, collar, and front of jacket, features depictions of Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League (ACL). The inner lining is quilted and depicts characters from the television show “Star Trek.” There is a red, black, and green patch with the text “Zulu Nation” on the back of the jacket. This jacket was created to commemorate the Centennial of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) and available through the Universal Zulu Nation company created by hip hop artist Afrika Bambaata (b. 1957).

Afrika Bambaata (born Kevin Donovan), an American DJ from the Bronx, was influential in the early development of hip hop and is regarded as the “Godfather” of hip hop culture. He has been instrumental in spreading hip hop music and culture around the world, as well as creating opportunities and helping to improve the lives of others in the hip hop community through his organization "Universal Zulu Nation." In 1990, Bambaataa made Life magazine's "Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" issue.

Materials, dates and provenance

• depicted: Garvey, Marcus
• Object Name: coat
• Physical Description: fabric (overall material)
• Physical Description: leather (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 53 in x 28 in x 4 in; 134.62 cm x 71.12 cm x 10.16 cm
• Subject: Hip-Hop
• general subject association: Television
• ID Number: 2006.0067.01
• accession number: 2006.0067
• catalog number: 2006.0067.01
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.