Samiah Nkrumah and the Current Struggle for Pan-Africanism

Kilaika Anayejali kwa Baruti

By the end of the sixteenth century Ghana with is overwhelming wealth was known as one of the most organized state in its region.  It was vastly known for its gold.  Another major export in Ghana is the Cacao tree, along with timber, and other mineral exports.  The Cacao tree itself exported over 20,000 tons in the 1920s.  The people were also a very skilled people, very well organized warriors and their hunting skills were unmatched.  Ghana carried a very heavy Muslim tradition in the northern sector; the northern sector was ruled by Mossi and Gonja rulers.  These rulers engaged in trade with Muslims which in turn led to the penetration of Islam into the native culture of the people.  Under the leadership of Chief Oti Akenten the Akan and the Ashanti merge into what is now known as Kumasi, through this emergence it brought forth the ritual of the Golden Stool, which Ghana is so popularly known for.  The symbol of the Golden Stool characterizes the chieftainship of the society and is a national symbol.

Even though this emergence came about because of the conquering of the Ashanti over the Akan, the Akan people were still allowed to carry their traditional beliefs and systems.  In this mergence they were not oppressed.  The Ashanti people were highly recognized well into the 18th century.  The Gold Coast at this time was bordered with European merchants.  The first arrival of Europeans was by the Portuguese in the late fourteenth century.  In 1482 the Portuguese built the very first trading coast on the borders of the Gold Coast.  About a century later came the arrival of the Dutch and through constant battle with the Portuguese the Dutch seized El Camino castle, the slave post of many Africans in 1637 along with Axim, another post in 1642.  By the mid-17th century Ghana become more that a trade post for merchants, the importation of slaves became its highest commodity.  Despite the great loss of slave’s lives through despair and disease the profits were increasingly overwhelming.

As reported by Eric Williams the author of Capitalism and Slavery, the only reason slavery was abolished was because of the rise of the Industrial revolution, although some historians would have you believe it was for a sympathetic one.  The rise of the Industrial revolution created a need for more raw materials and created competition in the market for finished goods.  The rise in machinery and industry advancing itself brought about the end of trade with human cargo. The Ashanti, in their quest for independence had many wars with the British known as the Anglo-Ashanti wars or also called the wars of the Golden Stool.  After several determined battles the Ashanti people were colonized in 1902 by the British.  Through the colonization, the British dominated the areas of education, teaching the Ghanaian people as all colonized nation have been taught, the oppressor’s way of life.  This process produced the colonized mind and from it sprang the Ghanaian elite.

During the Post-world war II era national consciousness begin to ensue.  As a result of ex-servicemen coming home from the war and conditions being unpleasant they decided no more.  They joined forces with the farmers and common people who were displeased with the colonized states.  Here the quest of independence began.  Out of the elite sprang the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC); these individuals were also known as the big six.  This was the very first movement to opposed colonial government; however they did not seek revolutionary action.  Kwame Nkrumah himself was a member of the Big Six and because the UGCC was not radical enough and Nkrumah felt that more qualitative action was needed, he formed The Conventional Peoples’ Party (CPP) in June of 1949.  His motto was, “Self-government now.”  The CPP was to carry the banner of the working people versus the intelligentsia which the UGCC carried.  The CPP would carry the torch for the workers, the farmers, youth, and people such as the market women.

Because of the need for self-government now, riots took place out of frustrations and as a result Nkrumah was imprisoned for sedition.  While Nkrumah was imprisoned he won a seat in 1951 in the legislative Assembly.  It is said that the seat was won through the efforts of the Positive Action Campaign that took place in the early 1950s. Once having a seat on the Legislative Assembly Nkrumah was declared Prime Minister and Nkrumah developed a Parliamentary system.  He and the CPP declared a government of political centralization becoming a Single-party state.  Through constant struggle the British finally granted on August 3, 1956 Ghana’s independence and on September 18, 1956 the British Commonwealth declared that March 6, 1957 would be the day that Ghana would be an absolute independent state.  The CPP put in place first the Deportation Act, which means any persons whose presence in the country did not serve the interest of the public good would be expelled.  

On July 1960 Dr’ Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah was declared president for life.  Not only was he president of the country, but he was a driving force to unite Africans throughout the world to work towards Pan-Africanism, for this was the next phase.  He made it clear that Ghana’s independence meant nothing unless Africans throughout the world had the same collective reality, in order to do so unity among the tribes is essential.  He authored such works as Africa Must Unite in 1963 Consciencism, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare and many others writings that Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist use as mandatory reading today.  He was a revolutionary visionary whose ideology was a socialist ideology; anti-colonialism, anti-neo-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and anti-exploitation the result of capitalist enterprise. Kwame Nkrumah made it clear that the present reality of today in relation to the advancement of the west, which was clear then, is a direct result of colonial adventures.  Kwame Nkrumah knew that the call for nationalism would be a struggle against the elites as they would compromise with western imperialist for their own self-interest.

So Nkrumah created the Youth Pioneer Movement, their minds were not yet tainted and were ripe for ideological training and would serve the interest of the people. Also out of the work of the CPP came the creation of the Akosombo Hydro Electric project; Tema Harbour, and the University of the Cape Coast. This resulted in Ghana becoming well respected around the world as a Single- party state under the CPP. This was not done without opposition to his revolutionary ideology. A few years later, the party was overthrown by a military coup in 1966 on February 24 while Nkrumah was away in China.  He then took up the rest of his life in Guinea where he later died in 1972.

The coup was led by the National Liberation Council (NLC).  The coup reasons, to justify their action, were saying that the CPP was corrupt and that Nkrumah was a dictator and the Single-party state lacked democracy because of all the laws that were in place to protect them against foreign interest and power.  This coup, many believe, was infiltrated and succeeded because of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The NLC called itself the new democracy and was heavily influence by a western style of government. Many of the members were actually members of the UGCC, which Kwame Nkrumah separated from before forming the CPP.  They stated that Nkrumah and his ideas put Ghana into debt that they had to overturn.  This debt which was supposedly Nkrumah’s fault was a huge conflict in Ghanaian politics in 1971.Cacao still the biggest import fell dramatically with the rise of competition from neighbouring countries such as Cote D’Ivoire, it is also said that with the rise in free market and competition, Ghana’s lack of knowledge of free market, was a cause as well to this decline.

The second republic after CPP being the first was formed the years of 1972-1979.  It held more military control than democracy most would argue. In 1974 there were major accusations of corruption that begin to surface and a s a result of it the Supreme Military Council was put into place in 1975.  In July 1978 inflation was very hard hitting to the economy with an estimated high of 300 percent.  The SMC was overthrown by a group of young army men in June of 1979 under the leadership of Jerry John Rawlings, who was a flight lieutenant, and they formed the AFRC, Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.  This created the third republic; under the administration led by Hilla Limman, the Limman People National Party (LPNP), which fell on December 31, 1981 due to another Rawlings, led coup and as a result established the Provisional Defence Council who suspended the 1979 constitution.  Ghana then moved from Single-party state to a Multi-party elections state.  Rawlings took leadership of the fourth republic which came into existence January 7th 1993. The current president of Ghana is John Evans Atta Mills, who took office as the third president of this fourth republic on January 7th 2009.  This term is expected to end 2009.  This now brings us to the current state of affairs and CPP’s relationship to Ghana.

Samiah Nkrumah, not only is the daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, but she is also a woman.  The odds have and are being stacked against her.  However, she is making leaps being elected Leader and Chairperson of the CPP. The CPP under the leadership of Samiah wants to serve the interest of the people but first they must raise the party’s profile.  They must spark a fire in the people that create unity.  Samiah has travelled abroad with the launching of the book Africa Must Unite and awakening people to these ideas proving that these ideas are still alive, but also more necessary today as they were yesterday.  Samiah is also reaching out to Africans abroad and creating solidarity with grassroots parties.  Many initiatives and programs have been launched to show solidarity around Ghana and to win the peoples trust in what can be.

Samiah is constantly battling negative propaganda, pessimistic view on the attack of the ideas of Pan-Africanism, yet she is consistent and sincere.  The CPP goal is to organize the party on the polling station level.  She wants to present to the Ghanaian people that with a credible and trustworthy candidate for 2012, a politician of integrity and sincerity that the initial party was built on, a party of selflessness and self-determination and for freedom from oppression and exploitation they can have a Ghana that serves the people.  They can again stand at the forefront of a Pan-African reality.

On January 8, 2010 the CPP marked Positive Action Day.  Samiah gave a speech in Jomoro.  She called for prayers in courage to be an honest politician a politician of integrity and a politician who can sacrifice and also tell the truth.  She spoke on the necessity for the people to be a people of self-reliance and confidence, a people who can depend on themselves.  She said it is so necessary even more today for people to retire the colonized ways.  Samiah has made it very clear that foreign advisors are not needed and that the women and men of Ghana can create their own solutions.  Samiah has pointed out the fact that many years ago Ghana under the leadership of her father obtained their political freedom and now today Ghana must gain control of their own resources so they can solve the problems of today.  She knows that this is a fight for economic freedom and to achieve it, moral courage is a necessity so that Ghana will not be a country lead by corruption.

Samiah mentioned that as everyone knows she grew up in a home where the word unity was used commonly.  She had a very clear idea of what the CPP was about and today she feels that she has a direct responsibility and allegiance to revive it based off of its principles alone. Samiah has made it clear that because they owe no one anything they can be more radical and that revolutionary change is needed, the people are needed.  She continues to call on the people to not be afraid.  She wants the people to break barriers. In a speech given on September 11th, 2011 she said that everything done in the political arena in Ghana must be linked to the total liberation and unification of Africa.  She told the people that they assembled on that day to honour her father Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah by continuing the work that he laid out.  This work can be thoroughly examined in Africa Must Unite.

Samiah Nkrumah and the CPP objectives are to revive the party, to broaden its name, to make it name that the people recognize and respect and have unity with.  “The CPP also plans to hold fast to its core principles of Pan-Africanism”, Samiah says.  One of its major missions is to link education and industrialization together in Ghana itself. They plan on gaining trust in the people and create a reality where not only hard work pays along with organization, but it also serves the interest of the people.  Samiah wants the people of Ghana to be armed with the vision of Pan-Africanism and what it required is complete sincerity, she understands.  Reviving core principles of tradition would be a guiding force in how the people relate to each other.

The CPP has started to focus on doing ground work on the grassroots level.  They want to satisfy or eradicate contradictions on the smallest level immediately, things such as poor housing conditions.  They are garnishing support throughout the world with the message of Pan-Africanism.  Samiah says that they have recently received one million dollars from India for a technical training center in Ghana.  Samiah knows that the CPP has to have a strong political party.  She says they have to create a strong core.  “We need Nkrumahist”, she says.  Samiah wants to be a source of inspiration as she said on a recent radio show, “and if I can, then why not?”

On another end of the spectrum Samiah and the CPP receives a lot of negative anti-CPP criticisms, even from her own brother Sekou, who says that it is the same old people in the party with old ideas.  He also said that Samiah stayed away from the ideas for far too long and what was needed then is not what’s needed today.  Her opposition normally comes in the form of pessimistic views to the ideas of Pan-Africanism.  As Samiah says and knows, “Everything is possible with hard work and sacrifice.”  She also stated that, “Yes the CPP is impatient to see change the youth in the women of Ghana know this and collective they have to believe in themselves to carry forth the work that needs to be done.”  Samiah says that there are too many things that cannot be tolerated and in politics are not credible.

The split that occurred in the CPP, was a result of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom quitting the CPP and saying he will create his own political party came about because Nduom did not unite with the idea of the CPP focusing on just increasing its numbers in Parliament he felt that the mission should solely be focused on creating a Presidential Candidate for 2012.  Despite all the objectives and criticism the CPP is on the move and the importance remains that they still have a wide support system.

In our quest for Pan-African Internationalism, the Pan-African International Coordinating Committee (PICC) believes that we must support the positive endeavours that exist on behalf of the CPP while struggle for ideological clarification and exposing the current contradictions that may exist in the current work that is being established. We realize that positive alliances must be built throughout the world, based on principal unity to overturn the economical exploitation of the mineral resources and the labour of African working class as well as ending the political oppression.

We in the PICC believe that this can best be accomplished the formation of the People’s Democratic Republic of Africa (PDRA) which would remove the colonialist-capitalist artificially created boarders which keep us divided and allow Neo-colonialism to rain supreme. This physical change in Africa would created an important psychological change among the African working class and propel us into the 21st century. This accomplishment would allow the African working class to control the destiny of Africa for the first time in many years. Ghana must join the struggle to help achieve a unity Africa under Socialism, an Africa under the leadership of the African working class, an Africa knows as the People’s Democratic Republic of Africa.

Read More

The Only Solution to the Congo’s Crisis is a Unified Socialist Africa

By Kilaika Anayejali kwa Baruti

The Congo has been kissed by Mother Africa herself.  The Congo is her heartbeat, being the very center of all her existence, located in Central Africa and surrounded by nine other countries.  The land of the Congo is rich and plentiful just like the rest of her.  It is full of vast resources and the most beautifully skilled people that she birthed to care for the land, which is a natural law that they possess.  It is even more so natural that they should benefit from her by giving her continuous life and shall forever bask in all her glory.  However, this has unfortunately not been the case.  As beautiful and harmonious it could all be, it is not, although everything is as plentiful now as it has always been for centuries.  It is because over centuries as in other countries in Africa the land and the people have been exploited.  This must end.

The Congo is a land that is rich with resources such as; petroleum, potash, lead, zinc, copper, phosphates, gold, magnesium, cobalt, industrial diamonds, gem diamonds, coal, silver, timber, uranium, natural gas, and hydropower.  The main minerals that the Congo are also rich in that are commonly being mined today are cassiterite, coltan, gold, and tungsten ore also known as wolframite.  These are her minerals.  This is her blood.  Let us not forget the rubber which has mounds of exploitive stories to tell.  The Congo is also known for its production of things we love such as coffee, cocoa, tea, and sugar.  If ever a place was blessed or to be called an Eden we could call it the Congo.

Colonization had been the monster that plagued Mother Africa and the Congo specifically.  Indeed, I say, yes it still does till this day. The Congo’s first encounter with this parasitic beast came in the form of “Explorers” as they would call themselves.  They bore the face of the Portuguese in 1482.  They had an increasingly stronghold on the Congolese people.  Using Christianity as one of the biggest methods they managed to keep this grip.  Once they baptized King Nzinga Nkuwu on May 3, 1491, it was pretty much a wrap and later his son King Alfonso I.  The way of the colonizer is to destroy your way of life and give you what you think is his, which he will prove is more beneficial than your primitive ways.  It is this way that the people are manipulated.  Getting the people to believe what you want them to believe creates a place of submission.  This tactic has proven to be very affective.  Three centuries later these Portuguese “Explorers” ran up on Brazil in what they called, “discovery” and begin to transport over 300,000 slaves to Brazil from the Congo.  The Portuguese were extremely happy with the rights they possessed as time went by over their mining rights that they established in the Congo.  My, what wealth they weaved.  Things however started to turn the corner when the first revolt took place spear-headed by a Congolese woman by the name of Kimpa Vita.  Under the leadership of this bold African woman the Congolese people refused to give the Portuguese more mining rights and it resulted in the Battle of Mbwila.  Over 20,000 Congolese fought this war with the Portuguese, but for them it was a loss battle.  At the same time the Dutch were moving in which created dismay for the Portuguese.  The Dutch wanted their bite out of the Congo as well.  The Congolese more so took sides with the Dutch to help aid them in their struggle against the Portuguese and so they did gain their independence.  Even though Kimpa was revered as nobility by her people and victory was declared, she was later seized by her enemies and condemned for being a witch although she was baptized in the name of Christianity bearing the name Dona Beatrice.  Just the idea that she had the ambition to wage battle against her oppressor was a sentence to burn. 

Amid the quest of Europe’s need for power, which had them warring with each other, the Congo and its resources continued to suffer.  As a result of the Berlin Conference the French prevailed as the victors gaining control of Congo’s raw materials and at the time the highest commodity was rubber, palm oil, and cotton.  This fight between the French, Belgian, and the Portuguese led to the French gaining control of the Northern sector of the Congo while King Leopold II privately owned the area that is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.    The now one man show that featured King Leopold resulted in the most horrific atrocities known to mankind against mankind.  So many men, women, and children suffered unimaginable torture, again in the name of Christianity.  King Leopold’s greed for wealth somehow justified inhumane treatment to people often referred to as savages, the Congolese people.  Belgian soldiers without any moral consciousness hunted people and were known for cutting off limbs such as hands and feet collecting them.  This is just a small example of the wide scale torture the people suffered at the hand of Leopold.  He was criticized by his equally vicious peers around the world for these atrocities.  They labeled him a monster.  In King Leopold’s rubber collecting expedition he managed to create a death toll of ten million people.  The land he controlled was annexed to the British Parliament on Nov 15, 1908.  Not really changing the situation for the Congolese people.  It was merely an exchange of European power which continued to rule over them.  The Germans also had their hands in on the exploitation of the Congo with the introduction of the French granting them, through trade agreements, the laying of the German railway and it resulted in the death of over 23, 000 more Congolese.  These lives loss was a direct relation to forced labor.  Forced labor was abolished in 1946 because of the pressure that the U.S. was putting on the French about its colonial policies.  The world was taking notice, not because they cared about the lives of the people, but again because they wanted a piece of the pie.  This is a reflection of World War II.

Riots broke out in a place called Leopoldville and Stanleyville resulting in Congo’s independence.  The struggle for independence named Patrice Lumumba as it prime Minister.  Patrice Lumumba a great African, a revolutionary, and a freedom fighter waged tireless struggle for liberation.  He echoed the fact that History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity. Because of it he suffered tremendously.  He suffered unjustly, just as Kimpa did.  Lumumba pushed very intensely for all foreign powers to be removed from the Congo.  He was aided in his quest for liberation with arms and weaponry from the USSR.  Many were not happy with this.  The C.I.A. infiltrated and aided in the overthrowing of the government and the unlawful arrest of Prime Minister Lumumba along with making sure he was tortured severely.  He was dismissed from office on September 5, 1960.  He was viciously murdered in January of 1961.  Those that continued the war cry of Lumumba fought continuously in rebellion. 

One known rebellion was the Simba Rebellion, which gained control of at least half the country, but Belgian troops were sent in to destroy the rebellion.  After five years of unrest Mobutu declared his self president in 1965 and was elected president officially in 1970.  Between the times of Congo’s independence up until now there have been so many episodes of corruption and scandals that have taken place in the name of democracy.  Yet we know and what we must continue to confront is the fact that we know it is indeed a struggle of conflict minerals and diamonds that create these neo-colonialist leaders that sacrifice the lives and livelihood of the people to satisfy their own thirst for wealth by aiding the foreign powers who seek to continue to monopolize off of the resources and will never care about the lives of the people of the land. 

There now is continuous struggle and unrest today in the Congo over the production of minerals such as coltan, gold, and ore.  These natural resources are those that are used in technological products across the world.  Products such as cell phones, laptops, computers, and phones are somehow more important than human existence.  The everyday products that come a dime a dozen and that are so readily available to be gobbled up at every moment by billions of consumers across the globe that are oblivious to the realities that goes into making these very products or that simply choose to ignore the fact because consumerism is far more important than humanism. 

In short there are military forces in the Congo, militias in the Congo, and leaders that know this market has an immeasurable dollar amount on it, as foreign interest want, need, and have to suck these raw materials up.  The only people that are paying the price are the people that suffer tremendously and yet reap no rewards at all.  They only die.  The only thing the people of the Congo see is death from this reality.  In a recent supposedly Democratic election Joseph Kabila was declared President.  Civil war has broken out in a country that that says the elections were stolen.  They say the election was unjust.    Tshisekedi’s stance echoes that the results were unjust and attempted to declare his self president.

 I must mention that this is a man that aided in the overthrowing, imprisonment, and torture of Lumumba.  The Carter Election Monitoring Center issued that the results were mismanaged as well.  As a result of it all people have taken to the streets in protest throughout the world and in the Congo.  Men and women have been abducted from their homes and manhandled.  I can safely say that this, as any many cases, has proven to be a question of power play.  I can say that I firmly believe that neither party holds the interest of the people at bay.  I can safely say that the abuse of power is clear and evident in the way that the military and the militias treat the people.  It is also clear that the people of the Congo have never reaped the benefits of these resources and that the President elects don’t have any interest to make sure that they do in the future.

It is my hope, and it is my hope because I know that it is the only solution, that African people throughout the world stand up collectively against Capitalism and Imperialism.  It is this driving component, these outside corporations and industries that are the catalyst for the chaos.  It is they who bid the highest bid for the resources and by this they lay the framework of exploitation.  When the people denounce Capitalism and Imperialism as one voice, African people, they can begin to collectively organize themselves to say, “Hey we will control our own resources.  We will not sale and exploit each other for a dollar.  We will collective fight against you if you try and take our resources.  We will not allow you to continue to do this to us and our children that come after us.”  African people must get organize and come to control the means of production and reap the benefits of the labor.  The crisis in the Congo is one that African people throughout the world must be concerned with. 

It is our responsibility to ensure that our brothers and sisters know that we stand in solidarity with them.  Yet we must organize the battle.  We must organize the masses to aid us in this struggle.  We must consistently expose the plight of our enemies and show the people how our enemies hold no love for us.  We must continue to expose these Neo-colonialist puppets that run for presidents and call filling their pockets democracy.  We must show the people that we will at all time safeguard Mother Africa.  She is our breath and we must make sure that she is breathing properly.  The only solution is a Unified Socialist Africa, an Africa that serves the interest of her people.  We call on you brothers and sisters to create the reality of Pan-African Internationalism, for it is the way to organize the Proletariat (working class) to total liberation!  UHURU DAIMA!

Read More

Harsh Realities of Inadequate Healthcare in the U.S.A. and the African Working Class

By Kilaika Anayejali kwa Baruti 

 

It is without a doubt throughout the history of African peoples struggle from the very first time they arrived as slaves they suffered tremendously due to horrid and intentional neglected conditions. We as a people have suffered a great magnitude of illness.  This illness is one that exists in our minds (individual and collective), soul, and body.  From the time of our first arrival to the Americas as cargo, the arrival as a means of production, slaves were weeded and pick out from the ones who suffered visible signs of sickness and weakness and they were thrown out. We were only commodities; having no value whatsoever, other than being able to get the job done.  No handle with care sign was ever needed to be attached, because we were not considered human beings

.The best, they called them the cream of the crop, were considered healthy.  They called them strong bucks and strong hands, but it was more than likely not the case.  Living life on plantations and cotton fields obviously was not a life of comfort, ease, and flower pickings.  It was one that caused major disparities; strife, ailing, sorrow, bloodshed, yearning, and madness, just to name a few of the emotional distress we had to endure.  The physical side of it all was one of extreme gruesomeness; whippings, beatings, lynching, decapitations, amputations, rape, and all forms of torture that some could not even paint a picture of in their minds.  All of these crimes against us were more than likely not treated properly to heal from them and created horrible infections.

  A lot of the women who gave birth were not cared for properly after giving childbirth and so many suffered great sicknesses.  Eating habits were habits of not having a choice.  African slaves had to eat the scraps the parts of the animal, if they were lucky that were the worst and were not good enough for their masters.  Along with the scraps, mush, and slop was their main diet.  They had to be creative and they were.  They found a way to make the food work for them as best they could, they begin to use a lot of lard and fat in their diets, which is something that a lot amongst us do today.  We continue to do it because it is what we had and again a habit, but now it has formed into a habit of choice. 

This now becomes a psychological question.  I would like to also explain that although we endured these atrocities, there were many amongst us who were knowledgeable in many areas.  There were those who understood the land and all that it carried.  We had amongst us masters of the field that knew plants, herbs, trees, shrubs.  There were those, women and men who knew how to make spices, remedies and medicines from the earth’s properties.  The others depended upon them for their livelihood and the most significant value of it all is they had a responsibility to teach others what they knew.  Healers, as they were often called, knew how to heal the bloody wounds of a hundred lashes.  We knew how to deliver a child with what we had; the memories and traditions of life in Africa was not far from some of us.

 It was this key element that we were able to survive these crucial times.  Those that did know such things were deemed for others to be leery of, to not associate with.  They were masters of the earth, but they were labeled with most times knowing voodoo or witchcraft, they were demonized for their knowledge.  We were taught to not be dependent on self, but on our master.  This dependency has plagued us all the while.  The majority of African people in America have the slightest idea how to use herbs and homeopathic remedies to cure self. We are heavily reliant on western medicine overall to solve our problems.  Not to say that is solely a contradiction, because medicine is so advanced, but one of the issues that is a great one is that we do not possess the knowledge to know if something is good for us or bad for us on own determination.

  That in itself gives way to us not being fully knowledgeable on how to prevent and avoid illness at every measure.  The greatest illnesses that spring up amongst African people in America are the ones that are chronic such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, asthma, and hypertension is often seen.  These illnesses seem to creep amongst us more than any other nationality in America.     Africans in America are far more prone to these illnesses and have a higher mortality rate and usually the outcomes are far worst for us in these cases.  So we ask why, why is it that we have inadequate healthcare in a country as developed as this.  Everyone is equal and we receive the same treatment don’t we?  The answer is no.  There exist inequalities in healthcare.   These inequalities stem from racism, sexual –orientation, ethnics, and most drastically from our socio-economic statuses.

  People of lower-income status far too often receive the lesser quality health care for a number of reasons.  Working class people, the majority have little or no health care coverage, which prevents them from receiving regular care.  They most often only go to the doctor when it’s only the last resort because they simply cannot afford it.  Getting to and from the doctor on a regular basis is also an expense and can be very difficult when it comes to the elderly.  In many of the lower-income neighborhoods, there are simply just not enough facilities that are of the utmost quality.  Most often you will find facilities that serve those that have Medicaid and Medicare and unfortunately staff and doctors don’t have the same level of respect, tolerance, patients, and time as other facilities in middle class societies.  There is an air of just doing a job, most often it is this get it over and on to the next one type of service.

  There are so many people among the working class that have disadvantages that keep a divide amongst them and their doctors such as mental health, religion, comprehension, physical abilities, sensory, and cognitive abilities that keep the divide between the doctor and patient.  A lot of individuals simply do not have all their capabilities to ask questions and to seek all that they are expected to get from their visits.  So many are only left with taking what they can get.  Even though qualities in healthcare advance with science and technology amongst the poor these options are not always presented to them.  African people with diabetes receive regularly the most amputations because they have not been informed of other options and we will not dismiss that racism is a huge factor in cases as such.

 There are higher death rates among us from cancer, prostate for our men, and Breast cancer with the women than any other group of people in America.  Infant mortality is steadily on the rise in our communities.  We all know how important doctor patient relationships are, but in America you have to pay for those relationships and most times you have no money well guess what, no relationship.  We need these relationships with our doctors so they can have the most accurate diagnosis of why we are there.  These relationships are important because the doctor gets to know who you are.  He or she must know your family history and your daily activities.  He or she must know what your life is like, but because time is of the essence and there are many patients in one office amongst the poor it is simply not enough time to get to the bottom of it all.  This is far too often what the reality looks like.  In our neighborhoods, the environmental conditions play a major role as well.

  A lot of these chronic illnesses can stem from things that are unknown.  There have been many cases of finding traces of lead in communities.  This lead which you see frequently has been a slow killer amongst low income neighborhoods and causes sickness that you find out about years later, that have become chronic.  Lack of knowledge about a particular subject, about your health, about how things work in general is a killer.  If we were knowledgeable about mere things we could practice a preventative lifestyle.  Our everyday existence for most of us is hustle and bustle.  We are in survival mode most times among the working class and what happens we survive off of convenience. 

This convenience can be very damaging.  This convenience may determine what we are having for dinner and what is in front of us we pick up.  Most of the working class people in America don’t have gardens in their backyards or even have backyards at all.  They go to their nearest convenient stores and supermarkets and pick what is there for them to choose from.  Many don’t take the time to see what is there on the packages that they are taking in, there are far too many ingredients in what we are taking in that are simply unhealthy for us and not only is it already unhealthy, but we have unhealthy ways of preparing it.

African people in America have been reported to be the number one consumers along with Latinos of sugary drinks.  These things can be addictive, they are supposed to be addictive so we can keep consuming.  These are things we must learn.  Once we learn them we must put them into practice.  So in conclusion, we must look at situations like the Tuskegee Airmen experiments and know our history overall and say hey I have questions about what you are giving me.  If we are to seek assistance from these institutions, we must demand the best quality.

  We must also take a deeper look into knowing herbs, vitamins, and natural remedies.  This knowledge could create an absolute absence of needing these institutions at all.  The only other alternative is to create a socialist reality where everyone is equally treated, like Cuba, for example, and many other socialist base societies where everyone is covered no one turned away.  Until then, this is what the poor gets.  This is what the working class gets.  It’s simply a question of can you afford the best and if not this is what we are going to give you are not give you.

SCDE Kilaika Anayejali Kwa Baruti is a Pan-Africanist Internationalist and Administrative Coordinator for Ujima People’s Collective.Her interests are designing jewelry, dancing, and above all bringing about the liberation of African People.

Read More

The Women of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement

by Kilaika Anayejali Kwa Baruti

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was founded in 1960.  Sparked by young people leading sit-ins were its primary initiation by four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina on Feb 1^st.  It was Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision for SNCC to serve as the youth wing of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  They were to independently develop and use their own creative youthful strategy and planning to move the movement of Civil Rights and get the youth involved, but a slightly different approached was taken that conflicted with the whole non-violent approach and it created an ideological divide, nonetheless SNCC still served under SCLC, but with a bit of friction.  Ella Baker was also one of the primary initiators of SNCC.  A veteran organizer of SCLC, she invited with a turnout of over two hundred college students to Shaw University of Raleigh to get involved in the work.  She asked them to carry their own line and so they did.  She seen it was going to take a bit more than turning the other cheek and the students with their youth and vitality would be strong enough to carry the burden of what was to come.  Dr. King however was still struggling with the students to remain and dig deeper into the practice of being non-violent, but they consistently were not convinced.  In May of 1960 SNCC declared itself a separate entity and carried forth the work still with the Freedom rides, which was a movement to end segregation in transportation.  From Alabama to Mississippi riders were viciously attacked, at their best they would try and fight back, but this was again a very vicious battle.  With the consistent Freedom rides the law was eventually changed in 1963.  Below you will read about courageous women who played a role in that.  The JFK Civil Rights Bill was the bill to end this segregation, but SNCC confronted it and said it was “Too Little Too Late” They still seen they had issues that were unresolved and they chanted, “We want freedom and we want it now”.  The chant call sparked a revolution.  Our dear sister and without a doubt frontline revolutionary, Fannie Lou Hamer, organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Mississippi Summer Project, which was instituted to win seats in the 1964 Democratic National Convention.  This position they wanted to occupy was strongly inconvenient to the Johnson Administration and the Goldwater Campaign, which wanted to keep a firm grasp on the South.  What they so strongly opposed they allowed, which were two seats, because the Spokesperson herself, Fannie Lou Hamer was so brutally beaten by officers.  This could not be justified.  So, in public eye, to make them seem somewhat humane they allowed two seats in the convention.  Through consistent struggle, SNCC begin to notice they were at a different phase of organizing and some changes had to be made.  One of those key changes were to expel white members from SNCC, they felt that they should center this movement around the self-determination of their own and on their own.  Shortly after was the Watts Riot, these were two key elements that made SNCC call for “Black Power” under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown.  Stokely Carmichael was Chairman in 1966 and H. Rap Brown Chairman in 1967.  The brutal assassination of Dr. King was the final straw in 1968, where James Forman uttered the words, “I don’t know how much longer we can stand to be non-violent.”  They then changed their names from Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to Student National Coordinating Committee and as their struggle increased it was clear that they were not protected by law enforcement.  Not only that but they were attacked by the FBI’s COINTELPRO’s agenda.

As police brutality increased so did the need for what was originally called The Black Panther Party of Self-Defense, which was formed in 1966 until 1982.  It was founded in Oakland by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale on Oct. 15^th 1966. Initially set up to protect the people from police brutality it grew in ranks and it grew in practice and ideology.  They begin to see the need to develop not only defense but also a socialist and d communist ideology and reality.  They did things like publishing their own newspaper, which was first published in 1967.  The same year they marched on the capital of the state of California in a protest on select ban of weapons.  The newspaper alone circulated up to 250,00 copies.  By the year 1969 The Black Panther Party of Self-defense had over 10,000 members from New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, and many other cities.   They developed The Ten-Point Program.  This program pushed for the development of black people having their own land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace to name just a few ideas needed for self-determination and freedom.  They more strongly converted in seeing the black peoples struggle as the peoples struggle and focused very strongly on socialism.  They were known for their armed citizens patrol, which evaluated the behavior of police officers, and they were very consistent and respected for their free breakfast for children program.  J. Edgar Hoover called the party the greatest threat to the internal security of the country, go figure, and that is when he invented The Cointelpro operation. Below we will visit a couple of those encounters when we visit the stories of the courageous women of the Black Panther Party.

The Civil Rights Movement, SNCC, and The BPP - The Courageous Women Who Paved the Way

Bernice Johnson Reagan was a member of the Freedom Singers, which was created and organized by the SNCC.  Born the daughter of a minister and raised in Georgia music was always her life.  She was a member of the sweet and harmonious sounds you may know as Sweet Honey and the Rock.  She is none for the quote that goes, “Life changes are not suppose to paralyze you, they’re suppose to help you discover who you are.  She married Cordell Reagon another member of SNCC’s Freedom singers in 1963, because of their contribution with music it gave the Civil Rights movement a very strong voice to be reckoned with.

Ruby Doris Smith Robinson worked in the early 1960’s till her death in October of 1970.  She was an activist in the field and served in administration for SNCC Atlanta, Georgia’s Central Office.  Ruby Robinson acted as The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Executive Secretary in 1963.  At the time she was the only woman to serve with such responsibility, succeeding James foreman.  She was a great successor.  She was born in a predominantly black neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia called Summerhill, the year of 1942.  Being the daughter of a Baptist minister some would consider this family of seven children, Ruby the second oldest, a very well off and educated middle class family around that time.  She was a graduate of Prince High school and then became a student of Spellman.  She grew up never really having a social life with whites where she was from, because of segregation of course.  The only thing she said she could pretty much recollect of her memory about them was throwing rocks at them.  Ruby parents were proud parents of a graduate from Spellman the year of 1959.  She soon became a woman of her own.  She was first inspired to be a part of the movement of Civil rights when she observed the Greensboro, North Carolina lunch counter sit-in and from that point forward she was involved in a massive number of sit-ins and underwent many arrests.  In February of 1961, she joined the national movement of freedom rides and voter registration demonstrations.  Mrs. Robinson left her position as executive Secretary of SNCC and became a campus coordinator of the organization instead.  She was the creator of the “Jail, No Bail policy”.  She discovered that the system had to be beat on all fronts.  If they kept bailing each other out of jail, that would be just feeding the system and making them economically fatter and stronger, so to weaken their position, it was clear-cut that anyone who got arrested would not bail the others out.  Everyone for the most part was in harmony with the policy and understood the consequences were ones of great sacrifice.  So, just as all freedom riders she was attacked, she was beaten, and arrested.  One particular time she was arrested in Jackson, Missisippi and she served 45 days in Parchment Prison.  As Executive Secretary for SNCC, she took the lead in organizing the Sojourner Truth Fleets, which provided civil rights workers transportation.  She had a hardcore line for SNCC; she wanted them to maintain black people being the leading force of their movement because of the growing support from Europeans around them. She did not want the lines to be a blur that this was a struggle that African people must come to dominate themselves.  One day headed to Africa with other members of SNCC the group was denied permission to board the plane with the excuse that they were overbooked.  She knew this was a lie.  The determination in her pushed her to go and sit on the jet way until they were granted to make the flight and so they did.  Upon returning back from Africa she said from this point forward I am a Black Nationalist. 

Diane Judith Nash was another fierce woman leader of the Civil Rights Movement.  She was born in Chicago, Illinois on May of 1938 and just like every other place in America she was not spared the harsh realities of what it was like to be African in America during this point and time.  It all was very clear that you were not deemed as a human being and were treated as such.  This was fortunately unjust in her eyes and something she absolutely would not allow.  This made her a hardcore 24/7 activist.  She was involved with founding SNCC out of the Civil Rights Movement, organized in the Freedom rides, and participated very heavily in the Selma Voters Rights Movement, which resulted in African people throughout the South getting the voting right in the South and it forever changed the course of history.  It disgusted her that people lived segregated and all it’s immoral acts upon her people, so she became a full-time activist at Howard University then later transferred to Fisk where she did the same thing.  Seeing the separate bathrooms in the South was the blow that opened her eyes to it all.  She began to involve herself in student workshops that practice Mahatma Gandhi techniques of how to be non-violent and started to implement the training unto the fields.  What made her more recognized as a leader was her ability to so clearly and authoritatively speak to the press. At age 22 she was called a leader of the Nashville sit-ins, of course throughout this process she just like Ruby endured countless arrest and so firmly denied bail.  She was a part of the historical Rock Hill Nine, a group of nine students that were arrested for sitting in.  One day she asked the mayor of Nashville in front of a whole nation of people does he think it’s wrong to discriminate?  He said yes and three weeks after the lunch counters in Nashville were serving those people that they deemed not worthy.  All in the same year she helped to found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and quit school to lead the direct action ring.  The year of 1962 she was pregnant and arrested for her political activity, she was sentenced to two years and releases on an appeal after serving a shorter term.  She and her husband then moved to Georgia to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  She always said, “We will not stop this is our outcome”, which was freedom.  She believed in self-determination.  Despite all the threats and terrorizing phone calls she continued the struggle.  She was awarded the Rosa Parks Award for her courageous and undying efforts to defeat segregation and prejudices that were detrimentally evil to her livelihood and everyone else that looked like her and for this she will remain an African warrioress.

Carlotta Walls is another name we must never forget.  She was the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of young blacks to ever attend Little Rock Central High School.  She was the first black female to ever graduate from that school.  To make it possible she had to face on her first day an angry mob of over 400 people, supposedly protected by the National Guard.  Then the National Guard was removed and replaced by the local police, who may just have been worse as the mob.  Three weeks into this process the mob grew into numbers of thousands and President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought in U.S. Army troops.  The troops were placed there for the rest of the school year even thought he incidents of violence ceased a bit outside of the school it still occurred more heavily inside.  Carlotta was spit on amongst other things that we probably couldn’t wrap our brains around if it were we.  On December 18, 1942 this young girl was born not knowing these conditions that were to be place in front of her, but to achieve the realization of being treated as a mere human being equal to any other, this is what she had to endure. 

A pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, Claudette Colvin was the first person, yep the first to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama nine months before the incident with Rosa Parks. Her court case in the U.S. District court ended bus segregation in Alabama, but it was a very peculiar case not really spoken upon for different reasons.  Well, she was pregnant and unmarried during this occurrence.  The NAACP, did not want to use her as a representative of the movement because of the immoral values they thought it would not be a pretty picture of the face of Africans in America. Also, the fact that she whole-heartedly resisted arrest, which they tried to say she assaulted an officer in the process, but was later, charged with disorderly conduct.  This was the trial, Browder vs. Gale, that took place May 11, 1956.  In result of this trial bus segregation was declared unconstitutional in December of the same year.  She faced many challenges after this point in history.  The baby she was pregnant with was very light skinned and because of it her peers accused her of having a white baby.  Not only this, but because of the trial gaining public attention, it made it very hard for her to find work in her town.  She packed up and moved to New York to start a new life.  Resistance was her middle name and for it we are thankful.

Now this little sister soldier was six years old.  Her name was Ruby Nell bridges.  She was born on Sept 8, 1954.  Following the orders of her parents little Ruby responded to a call by the NAACP to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School System.  Known as the first African-American child to attend an all white school this was not an easy task for a six year old, and remembers this is the South.  The school being William Frantz Elementary spring of 1960.  She initially passed a test of acceptance to see if she would first be “good enough” to be integrated in the school and she did.  The court ordered integration on November 4^th 1960.  Little Ruby recalls on that first day and she said that when she saw the crowd of angry mobsters out in front of the school she thought it was Mardi Gras.  She never cried, shook, or whimpered.  Teachers at William Frantz refused to teach class with her there and parents took their children out of school.  A lady by the name of Barbara Henry was brought in to teach little Ruby and this went on for over a year where little Ruby was the only student in the classroom.  Ruby’s parents had to send her to school with lunch that they only prepared because of poison threats.  Her most frightening moment is when she saw a protester with a small black baby doll in a coffin.  As a result of little Ruby’s bravery and consistency going to school every day, her father lost0 his job and her grandparents who were sharecroppers were turned off their land.  A lot of sacrifices indeed were made.

A name you hear quite often in the history of the Black panthers, but her story is too often misrepresented, is Assata Shakur.  Born July 16, 1947 as Joanne Deborah Byron, then married becoming Chesimard, she was a vital instrument in the Black Panther movement and also the Black Liberation Army.  She is so often not spoken of when it comes to her contributions to the struggle, but more spoken of when the media and papers talk about alleged crimes she was apprehended and hunted for.  She is the step aunt of the infamous rapper Tupac Shakur, sister of his stepfather revolutionary Mutulu Shakur.  Born in Jamaica queens, New York where she lived for three years, but she spent most of her childhood in Wilmington, NC.  She spent her teen years attending the City College of New York and she became heavily involved in political activity.  Her first arrest was in the year of 1967 in a protest at Manhattan Community College for lack of black studies and faculty.  She married Louis Chesimard that same year as was married for three years.  She then became at the age of 23 a member of the Black Panther Party Harlem Branch and heavily helped coordinate the School Breakfast Program.  Assata then left the Black Panther party, changed her name from Joanne to Assata Shakur and joined the Black Liberation Army.  In 1971 she joined ranks with the Republic of New Afrika.  That same year Assata was shot in the stomach in an incident at the Staler Hilton hotel on April 6, 1971.  It was then she said, “I am no longer afraid to be shot again.”  The FBI called her the Revolutionary mother hen.  Any and every incident that involved a woman in some type of crime they would try no link her to it.  There are countless incidents.  Hoover and the FBI classified her as a domestic terrorist and offered a million dollar reward for her capture.  They also issued in 1973 a search and destroy mission for her and others in the BLA. In 1973 Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike where a state trooper was killed and a BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur.  She was charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping.  She was convicted of first-degree murder and seven other felonies related to the shoot out.  She escaped from prison victoriously in 1979 and has been living in exile in Cuba ever since.  There have been countless attempts to extradite her.  Her consistent bravery and undying love for the people I a story that should always be told and one we should learn from especially when it comes to examples of strength and courage.

Other names that are not so commonly heard of that participated in sit-ins, Freedom rides, and the Selma Voters’ Campaign are Donna Richards, Fay Bellamy, Gwen Patton, Cynthia Washington, Jean Wiley, Muriel Tillinghost, Fannie Lou Hamer is name we all should know.  We visited her story in our previous article in the AWRO, Annie Pearl Avery, of course Ella Baker who we also visited in the previous article of AWRO.  Victoria Gray, Unita Blackwell, Betty Mae Fikes, Joyce Lander, Dorie Lander, Glorie Richardson, Prathia Hal, Judy Richardson, Martha Prescod, Ruby Sales, Endesha Ida-Mae Hollard, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Anne Moody, who wrote coming of age in Mississippi in 1970 she was a member of SNCC and CORE.  We visited Kathleen Cleaver who served as a militant in The Black Panther Party, but prior to that the served as Communications Secretary in 1968 for the SNCC in our previous article in the AWRO. Black Panther Women of honorable mention also include Erica Higgins, Angela Davis, Regina Davis, and Betty van Patter, and Elaine Brown.  Be sure to check out the previous articles on Women in the struggle at http://piccawr.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-women-throughout-world-and.html Part 1 and http://piccawr.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-women-throughout-world-and_18.html Part 2

Read More

African Women throughout the World and Their Contributions to Our Struggle – Those Known and Not So Commonly Known Pt. 2

The struggle for African Liberation has never been an easy one throughout the course of our history this is evident.  However it is a struggle that we cannot ignore.  This is the same for men as well as women.  You do not so often here about the contributions of women in revolutionary work as much as you do men, but it does exist.  There, as a matter of fact, cannot be any type of revolution unless the woman has been involved.  Again, I say, examine our history. This is not a message of egotism, or to be boastful of African women pride or feminism.  This is a mere message to our people as a testament to never forget who we are.  We must look at these women’s’ lives and use it as an example to shape our own.  Just as them we must be brave, smarty, courageous and have no fear when working towards our peoples’ liberation.  Again these are only a few of the many of us. Hopefully this contribution will be a resource to invent more.  UHURU SASA!

Queen Mother Moore Thos e who seek temporary security rather than basic liberty deserves neither... My bones are tired. Not tired of struggling, but tired of oppression. Our purpose in life is to leave a legacy for our children and our children's children. For this reason, we must correct history that at present denies our humanity and self-respect. –Queen Mother Moore
Queen Mother Moore was born Audley Moore in New Iberia, Louisiana, and acquired the appellation Queen Mother on her first trip to Ghana, when she attended the funeral of Kwame Nkrumah in 1972. She was in the forefront of the struggle for 77 years. Her family was scarred by virulent racism. Her great-grandmother was raped by her slave master and her grandfather was lynched. Forced to quit school in the fourth grade, she studied to be a hairdresser to take care of her sisters. In the 1920's, she traveled around the country only to learn that racism was not confined to the South. She finally settled in Harlem where she organized, mobilized and demonstrated against racist oppression and imperialism directed towards Africa and people of African descent. She was locked into perpetual struggle against black oppression at all levels, joining numerous groups and founding a number of her own. Initially inspired by Marcus Garvey's emphasis on African pride and culture, she waged battle on the Black Nationalist, Communist and Pan-Africanist fronts. In keeping with her credo, "There was nothing left to do but struggle," her list of activities defies enumeration. Impressed by the Communist Party's role as the vanguard in the defense of the Scottsboro Boys, she joined the party.  In 1955, she joined a small band of activists demanding reparations for slavery and its insidious legacy which has permeated black lives up to this day. During Black History Month 2002, on February 6, the Queen Mother Moore Reparations Resolution for Descendants of Enslaved Africans in New York City bill was submitted to the City Council.
Spanning an era from the heyday of Marcus Garvey to the second coming of Nelson Mandela, our Warrior Queen waged war on the hydra of black oppression whenever it raised an ugly head. It can definitely be said, in deference to Mandela, that the struggle was truly her life. ---excerpts from the Black History Pages.

Rosa Parks said her hero was Malcolm X.  Some may beg to differ.  America’s media machine has always fed us this imagery that she and many like her were turn the other cheekers that was not so.  She was much more radical than we know.  Rosa Parks believed in self defense.  They called her “The Mother of the Freedom Movement and “The First Lady of Civil Rights".  On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks' action was the spark to the bus boycott of Montgomery. Parks' act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance.  She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Dr. King, helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights movement. At the time of her action, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).   Although widely honored in later years for her action, she suffered for it, losing her job as a seamstress in a local department store. Eventually, she moved to Motor city, Detroit, MI. where she found similar work.  She later wrote an autobiography and by no means, I mean no means was she a believer in not protecting herself and her people from injustice.

Septima Poinsettia Clark played a significant role in educating African Americans for full citizenship rights without any recognition to gain.  Clark was born the second of eight children in Charleston, South Carolina, to Peter Poinsette, a former slave, and his wife Victoria Warren Anderson, a laundress. She and her family struggled to pay for a high school education, and she graduated from Avery Normal Institute in 1916. She married a Navy seaman, Nerie Clark, in 1919. Clark not only taught young students, but she held informal literacy classes for adults.  She also pushed an education and equal rights agenda in numerous organizations such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Federation of Women’s Clubs, Council of Negro Women, and, most popular at the time, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).   In 1956 when South Carolina banned membership in the NAACP, Clark lost her teaching job and pension when she refused to comply.  Later involved in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Clark and her cousin Bernice Robinson created the first citizenship school to educate blacks in literacy, state government, and election procedures. Traveling throughout the South, Clark trained teachers for citizenship schools and assisted in SCLC marches and protests, working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Andrew Young.  Dr. King acknowledged Clark when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 by insisting that she accompany him to Sweden.  She wrote two autobiographies outlining her nonviolent philosophy, Echo in My Soul (1962) and Ready from Within (1986).

Terrell, Mary Church was born on September 23, 1863 in Memphis, Tennessee. The daughter of small business owners who were former slaves, she attended Oberlin College. Terrell was a suffragist, first president of the National Association of Colored Women and at the suggestion of W.E.B. Du Bois--a charter member of the NAACP. An early advocate of women's rights, Terrell was an active member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, addressing in particular the concerns of black women. In 1949 she gained entrance to the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women, bringing to an end its policy of excluding blacks.  An articulate spokeswoman, adept political organizer, and prolific writer, Terrell addressed a wide range of social issues in her long career, including the Jim Crow Law, lynching, and the convict lease system. Her last act as an activist was to lead a success three-year struggle against segregation in public eating places and hotels in the nation's capital. Her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, appeared in 1940.

Union of Guinean Women and other Women Wings The late President Sekou Ture of Guinea concurred, asserting that “Just as the struggle of African women cannot be waged and pursued outside the context of the struggle of our People for the liberation and emancipation of our continent, so the freedom of Africa cannot be effective if it does not lead, concretely, to the liberation of the women of Africa. In the emancipation of women is the emancipation of men." These are men acknowledging that the free development of society is conditioned by the free development of women. They were saying that if women are forced to labor and raise children in deplorable conditions this consequently affects males as well as the females of society. Today African women are victims of gender discrimination in the work place, the burdens of single parenting, physical abuse and rape by men, and brutal forms of state sponsored sexism. Such things as prostitution from low self-esteem/worth and severe economic hardship are prevalent among women.  Twisted commercial cultural values penetrating society reduce woman to mere sex objects.  The African liberation movement cannot afford these symptoms or the afflictions that cause them.  African men must begin viewing women as indispensable counterparts, seeing in each and every woman a potential mother, sister, wife, friend, and/or business partner.  The liberation of African people cannot be achieved without the full and fair participation of African women in the leadership of our struggle. An examination of African history reveals impressive examples of women freedom fighters and women’s organizations. Many African parties and national liberation fronts consisted of women's wings that have played and continue to play indispensable roles for independence throughout the depth and breathe of the continent. The women’s wing of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Organization of Angolan Women (OMA) is the largest women’s organization in the world and has over forty years of experience in fighting for African liberation. Starting out with five courageous women, today OMA has a membership of over 1.5 million women and has received international awards for their work in literacy while at the same time fighting the enemies of Africa. Other such African women’s organizations are: The National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) which is the women’s wing of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF); the Organization of Mozambican Women (OMM) of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO); the Democratic Union of Women of Guinea-Bissau of the African Party of Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). The Union of Guinean Women (URFG) is the women’s union of the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). –excerpt by Nefta Freeman

Vicky Garvin Malcolm X’s teacher Vicky Garvin.  Vicki, as she was affectionately known, was born in Richmond, Virginia and grew up in a working class family in Harlem. From high school on, she became active in Black protest politics, supporting efforts by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. to obtain better paying jobs for African-Americans in Harlem and creating Black history clubs dedicated to building library resources. She spent World War II working for the National War Labor Board in New York, organizing a union there and serving as its President. When the wartime agencies ended, she became National Research Director of the United Office and Professional Workers of America and co-chair of its Fair Employment Practices Committee. During the postwar purges of the Left in the CIO, she was a strong voice of protest and a sharp critic of the CIO's failure to organize in the South.   In 1951 she took part in the formation of the National Negro Labor Council (NNLC), and became a national Vice President and Executive Secretary of the New York City chapter.   Vicki traveled to Africa in the late 1950s, worked in Nigeria, and then went to Ghana, where she worked closely with Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Shirley Graham DuBois, Alphaeus and Dorothy Hunton, and others on the African Encyclopedia and anti-colonialist efforts. In Ghana she lived with Maya Angelou and Alice Windom. When Malcolm X, whom she had known in Harlem, visited Africa, Vicki was his close friend and advisor.  Not only that, but skilled enough to be his interpreter as well for his Algerian meetings.  In 1964 Sister Vicki was invited to China by the Chinese ambassador. Both Malcolm X and Dr. DuBois encouraged her to go. She taught English for six years in Shanghai. When Mao Tse-Tung issued his proclamation in support of the Afro-American movement in 1968, Vicki made a speech about the statement to a rally of millions. Also in China she met and married Leibel Bergman in a Red Guard ceremony during the early days of the Cultural Revolution. 
Garvin stayed active in political and international circles, traveling back to China several times, and making many trips to Africa and the Caribbean, often with her dear friend Adelaide Simms. She was an active supporter of many organizations, including: Sisters Against South African Apartheid/Sisters to Assist South Africa (SASAA); the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP); Black Workers for Justice; and the Center for Constitutional Rights.  Vicki spoke at community events and joined rallies in support of Mumia Abu Jamal and other political prisoners. She was recognized by many organizations as an "honored elder" for her contributions to the freedom struggle of her people and the world's peoples. In speeches made just before her serious health decline, Vicki urged the younger generations forward. She wrote: "Of course there will be twists and turns, but victory in the race belongs to the long-distance runners, not sprinters. Everywhere the just slogan is reverberating --'­no justice, no peace!'"—excerpts from Pan-African Newswire

Watkins, Francis Harper known as the Bronze Muse   was born free in the slave city of Baltimore, Maryland on September 24, 1825. She never experienced the fetters of slavery and yet she would devote her entire life to the abolitionist movement, and what she called "a brighter coming day". Writing more than a dozen books, essays, innumerable poems and stories, Harper would become the nineteenth century's most prolific novelist and its leading African-American poet. Determined to make a difference in the world in which she lived, she became one of the most recognized and noted antislavery lecturers, a founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association, a member of the national board of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and executive officer of the Universal Peace Union, and one of the founding members of the National Association of Colored Women.—Dorothy Mains Prince

X  Betty was the wife of Malcolm X.  Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster parents largely sheltered her from racism. She attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where she had her first encounters with racism. Unhappy with the situation in Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she became a nurse. It was in New York that she met Malcolm X and, in 1956, Sister Betty joined the Nation of Islam.  Along with her husband, Shabazz left the Nation of Islam in 1964. She witnessed his assassination the following year. Left with the responsibility of raising six daughters as a single mother, Shabazz pursued a higher education, and went to work at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.  Sister Betty is one whom I cannot begin to imagine the amount of pain and struggle she had to endure.  To stand with and live with a man such as Malcolm X, she had to live the life of a revolutionary.  Inside the four walls that they possessed with their children we can’t even begin to conceptionalize the conversations they had with one another.  But if anything in the world I am sure that he told Sister Betty to be strong no matter what.  Nothing could give them paradise on this earth except for what THEY WERE TRYING TO ACHIEVE AND THEY KILLED HIM FOR IT.  Through killing Malcolm they tried to kill us too!!  We have to be just as strong and willful as Sister Betty was to know and foresee the dangers that may lie ahead and still do battle.  Just like her husband she was a revolutionary.

Yaa Asantewaa was the queen mother of the Edweso tribe of the Asante (Ashanti), the peoples of our beloved Ghana. At the time, the Gold Coast was under constant attack of British colonial rule in all its forms. The British supported their campaigns against the Asante with taxes levied upon the local population. In addition, they took over the state-owned gold mines thus removing considerable income from the Asante government. Missionary schools were also established and the missionaries began forcing their ideas and beliefs on the people in their efforts to exploit them.  When the Asante began rebelling against the British rule, the British attempted to put down the unrests. Furthermore, the British governor, Lord Hodgson, demanded that the Asante turn over to them the Golden Stool, i.e. the throne and a symbol of Asante independence. Capt. C. H. Armitage was sent out to force the people to tell him where the Golden Stool was hidden and to bring it back. After going from village to village with no success, Armitage found at the village of Bare only the children who said their parents had gone hunting. In response, Armitage ordered the children to be beaten. When their parents came out of hiding to defend the children, he had them bound and beaten, too. This brutality was the instigation for the Yaa Asantewaa War for Independence which began on March 28, 1900. Yaa Asantewaa mobilized the Asante troops and for three months laid siege to the British mission at the fort of Kumasi. The British then brought in thousands of troops and artillery to break the siege. Also, in retaliation, the British troops plundered the villages, killed much of the population, confiscated their lands and left the remaining population dependent upon the British for survival. They also captured our Queen Yaa Asantewaa whom they exiled along with her close companions to the Seychelle Islands off Africa's east coast, while most of the captured chiefs became prisoners-of-war. Yaa Asantewaa remained in exile until her death twenty years later. Yaa Asantewaa was a fearless woman a shining example of an African Woman in defense of her nation and she will forever be this for us.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba South African singer and revolutionary not only had a music career spanning more than three decades, she also was a powerful voice in the fight against apartheid.  Often referred to as "Mother Africa” Makeba worked very hard to bring the rhythmic and spiritual sounds of Africa to the West. Her music is a soulful mix of jazz, blues, and traditional African folk songs with heavy political issues.   Using music as a primary forum for her social concerns, the singer has become a lasting symbol in the fight for racial equality and has come to represent the pain of all South Africans living in exile. Makeba's first encounter with the severity of government rule in her native land came when she was just two and a half weeks old: Following her mother's arrest for the illegal sale of home-brewed beer, the infant served a six-month jail term with her. Makeba's formative years were equally difficult; as a teenager she performed backbreaking domestic work for white families and endured physical abuse from her first husband. She found solace and a sense of community in music.   Makeba traveled to London, where she met respected American entertainer and social activist Harry Belafonte. Impressed by her unique and profound renderings of African folk songs, he served as her mentor and promoter in the United States, arranging performances for her in New York City clubs, this exposure brought Makeba worldwide acclaim and launched a cross-cultural music career of uncommon proportions. The 1960s proved an especially tumultuous decade for Makeba.  Her outspoken opposition to the repressive political climate in South Africa set the stage for harsh government retaliation. Makeba's call for an end to apartheid became increasingly powerful, and her recordings were subsequently banned in South Africa. More than three decades of exile began for the singer in 1960, when, seeking to return to her native land for her mother's funeral, her passport was invalidated by the South African government. In   1968 she married Stokely Carmichael, revolutionary Pan-Africansist, also known as Kwame Ture.  Makeba became aware of the reaction her marriage had on her career.  Married to a revolutionary wasn’t so embraceable by western society, especially a socialist.  In her autobiography Makeba: My Story, she recalled her suddenly unwelcome status in the United States: "My concerts are being canceled left and right. I learn that people are afraid that my shows will finance radical activities. I can only shake my head.  Makeba moved with Kwame Ture to Guinea, West Africa. Although Makeba's marriage ended in 1978, she remained in Guinea for several years. She continued performing in Europe and parts of Africa, promoting freedom, unity, and social change.

Scde. Kilaika Anayejali Baruti 

Read More