The Ancestors’ Call: Mama Maisha Washington, Maryland Council of Elders, Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus

The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) and the Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) have lost one of the mainstays of the Pan-Afrikan Elders Community in Maryland. Mama Maisha Washington passed on to the Realm of the Honored Ancestors sometime between October 20 and 21, 2020.

Mama Maisha (center) with Professor David Horne of SRDC (left) and attendees at the November 2018 SRDC Summit in Baltimore.

Mama Maisha was first and foremost a teacher. She taught regularly in the Baltimore City Schools, imparting her knowledge as well as her love for and commitment to the uplift of Afrikan People to her students, teaching them to be proud of their heritage and of what they would become with a thorough and conscientious education. Her Pan-Afrikan activism was always imbued with her commitment to showing us all what we could accomplish with a commitment to excellence as well as to truth, justice and righteousness.

Mama Maisha (far right) at a November 2018 SRDC Summit meeting with members of MCOE and the SRDC Secretariat.

Mama Maisha had been a longtime member of the All-Afrikan People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) dating back to the time of Ancestor Kwame Ture, and maintained her ties to that great organization to the end. More recently, she was an Elected Representative from Maryland in the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) in 2007, and became a member of the Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) when it was established in December 2017. Mama Maisha was a prominent presence at the 2018 SRDC Summit in Baltimore, Maryland and the 2019 SRDC Summit in Charleston, South Carolina.

Mama Maisha makes a strong point at the October 2019 SRDC Summit in Charleston, South Carolina.

Over the last year, she was involved in preliminary discussions with engineers, architects and project managers for the building of what will be the first Public Library in Liberia’s history. Her most recent achievement was her leadership, in cooperation with the Liberian activist organization Sehwah-Liberia, of the 2020 Pan-African Virtual Summer Camp, which was held during the months of July and August of this year and brought over 40 students from Liberia and from the Baltimore, Maryland area together in a series of virtual classes in subjects from Project Management, Environment and Computers to Linguistics, Oral History and Yoga. The Summer Camp was a tremendous success, and plans were being made to launch a second Summer Camp in 2021 and, possibly, the establishment of a similar year-round virtual learning project.

Memorial Ceremony

The Memorial was held at March Funeral Homes in West Baltimore on Saturday, October 31 and Monday, November 2, and the Interment was at King Memorial Park on Monday, November 2. Because of the CoVID-19 pandemic, standards of social distancing and the schedule of events were followed closely.

Seated: Mama Maisha, Baba Yahya Shabazz (MCOE/SRDC), Bro. Ben Enosh, Baba Rafiki Morris (MCOE), Mama Marcia Bowyer-Barron (MCOE/SRDC). Standing: Mama Satay Israel, Mama Abena Disroe (MCOE), Mama Ujimma Masani (WOMAN), Baba Nati (Everyone’s Place), Baba Kaleb Tshamba (Arch Social Club), and two Fellow Activists at Afrikan Liberation Day 2019. (Photo courtesy Mama Ujimma Masani)

Mama Maisha will be sorely missed and mourned by her immediate family, by her colleagues in the Maryland Council of Elders, by her colleagues in SRDC, in particular the Maryland Organization, by her comrades in the All-Afrikan People’s Revolutionary Party and the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union, by the many committed activists in the other Pan-Afrikan organizations with whom she worked and interacted, by her co-workers and friends in the Baltimore City Schools, and also by the many students she taught regularly in Maryland and the young people in Liberia who, in the short time they knew her, quickly came to love her for the enthusiasm she inspired in them for learning and the love and care she showed to them all.

Rest In Power, Mama Maisha. We know the Creator and the Ancestors are pleased with your work and have a Place of Honor reserved for you. We only pray we will ourselves live up to your example and earn the right to join you one day in Eternal Paradise.