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In brief, the Back-to Afrika Movement is a physical and psychological project that emerged from the desire of Afrikan people to return to their native land. Several major campaigns related to the Back-to-Afrika movement have been launched in North America. They all stem from the sense of loss Afrikans experienced when they landed on foreign soil. How to return to the land they had left was all encompassing passion of the people who found themselves as strangers in an alien society. This would become the passion of some of their descendants as well, and when they could not imagine the possibility of freedom to travel to Afrika, they would sing about it or write poetry depicting it. Thus Afrika became the eternal symbol of the drive of the Afrikan population toward physical and psychological redemption.

The first American movement to send Afrikans back to Afrika did not originate with Afrikans, however it came out of the intense debate among white politicians about the future of the nation. Some abolitionists had proposed sending Afrikans out of the country in order to lessen the possibility of racial conflict. This plan was supported by the most prominent Americans of the early 19th century. In 1816, the American colonisation movement was started with the purpose of sending Afrikans back to Afrika. The first group of Afrikans had left in 1820, but the project failed because it was poorly planned and the people could not find a desirable place to settle.

Soon, however, the land later known as Liberia was settled and although these settlers were initially greeted with hostility, they soon established relations with the indigenous people and created a home among them. This movement led to the creation of the country of Liberia. The second movement as we know was led by Marcus Mosian Garvey (1887-1940) who had preached among other things a back to back doctrine. After seeing the conditions of his people in the Caribbean as well in Central America upon arrival in 1916, he was certain that the only way for Afrikan people to have peace was to leave the Americas. He was convinced that white racism would never cease and that only on the Afrikan continent would Afrikans experience harmony, progress and development.