Category Archives: Ourstory

Baba Ty with “Precise Time” on Africa400, Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Africa400 features host Baba Ty on Wednesday, August 11, as he discusses the topic “Precise Time”.  Call-ins are welcome at (410) 598-4242.  Baba Ty consistently sounds the alarm for us to become educated about the roots of racism and oppression in this society, and to understand the need for struggle and resistance against injustice.

Listen to the August 11 show below:

Africa400 can be heard live every Wednesday at 2:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org), or by downloading the HandRadio App.  After the broadcast, the show can be heard by visiting the HANDRadio Podcasts Page, an update of this post and the Media Pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).

AFRICA400
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“Mothership” with Host Grandmother Walks On Water on Africa400, Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Africa400 features frequent guest and now alternating guest host Grandmother Walks On Water, as she presents Mothership for the Wednesday, August 4 show.

Grandmother Walks on Water, also known as Nata’aska Humminbird is of Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee and African Heritage.  She is also co-founder of Baltimore based Wombwork Productions which utilizes art, theatre, and cultural healing modalities to empower youth and community.

For the August 4 show, click below:

Africa400 is heard every Wednesday at 2:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org).  After the broadcast, the show can be heard on HANDRadio’s Podcasts Page, an update of this post and the Media Pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).

Africa400 Calls for Assistance for School Girls in Okere Village, Uganda

On the Wednesday, July 21 edition of Africa400, show hosts Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty are calling for support for young girls at Okere Village in Uganda.

Okere City was profiled in the June 9 Africa400 show, as was described in this post as well as on our Media Page.

Despite the tremendous efforts of strong activists and leaders like Ojok Okello, founder and developer of the Okere Community Development Project in Okere City, Otuke District, Northern Uganda, who was profiled in the June 9 Africa400 show, it is still difficult for school children and the general population in Uganda to enjoy the things many of us take for granted.  Some specific points that are being stressed by the campaign:

  • 1 out of 10 African schoolgirls drop out due to a lack of menstrual products.
  • 30% of Ugandan girls drop out of school because of a lack of sanitary pads.
  • 80% of girls entering primary school will never complete their primary education for a variety of reasons.
  • 41% of Ugandans in general live on less than $1.90 a day.

Anyone who is interested in donating or purchasing sanitary pads, underwear or soap, or who want to assist in other ways, please CashApp $AFRICA400 or email africa400radio@gmail.com.

 

 

Bridging the Gap Between Ourselves (Our African Connection)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2021 International Summit of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) will be held November 8-13 in Monrovia, Liberia.  SRDC will be advancing its outreach to the Mother Continent through concrete projects and programs with grassroots organizations on the ground there, starting with the effort to build Liberia’s first public library and sponsoring the 2021 Summit in cooperation with the Liberian grassroots organization Sehwah-Liberia.  The official announcement of the 2021 International Summit, with Registration Page and information regarding travel and accommodations for the Summit, will be made in the next week.  Meanwhile, we invite our readers to enjoy this brief history of some of the connections between Africa and the Diaspora, specifically as they relate to the Republic of Liberia, from Baba Kumasi Palmer, SRDC-South Carolina Facilitator.

Lott Cary

Daniel Coker

The Republic of Liberia was established as an independent nation state off the coast of West Africa in 1847 by freedmen from the United States. The first set of freedmen from the U.S. settled on Sherbo Island in modern day Sierra Leone in 1820. After a year of hardship at Sherbo Island the returnees moved on further along the coast landing at Providence Island in 1821 which is today known as Liberia. Lott Cary (1780-1828) and Daniel Coker (1780-1846) were the first group of pioneers that arrived in the newly formed colonies of Sierra Leone and Liberia, Coker being one of the founding members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church founded in Philadelphia in the year 1816.

It was through the aid and support of the American Colonization Society (formed in 1817) to send freed Blacks to the colony of Liberia. During this same period Freetown, Sierra Leone was established by the British (1808) as a colony that served

Paul Cuffee

as a refuge for enslaved Africans. Paul Cuffee (1759-1819), a freedman and owner of his own shipping vessel, was one of the earliest pioneers with the vision to repatriate freed Blacks from the United States to a new home in Sierra Leone. But it was Liberia that eventually became the new home for Repatriated Blacks from the US. This migration started by ship in 1820 and continued into the 1880’s.

The search for political, economic and physical security by Africans in the southern United States at the ending of Reconstruction created the condition for many Black families to seek refuge to Africa. Liberia was at the center of this migration and reconnection.

Henry McNeal Turner

Edward Wilmot Blyden

Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912), Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915) and Martin R Delany (1812-1883) were three prominent 19th century Black leaders at the forefront to reconnect the Diaspora to Africa by way of Liberia during and after the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. Blyden was the foremost intellectual thinker and activist to advocate Diasporan Blacks to repatriate to Liberia. Blyden, the originator of the concept called “The African Personality”, was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands but migrated to Liberia in 1850. Turner, who made numerous trips to Africa, was born in Newberry, South Carolina and became the 12th bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E) in 1880. Delany was born in West Virginia and served in the Civil War, and was commissioned as a medical doctor with the rank of major.

Martin R Delany

The early repatriates to Liberia also emigrated from the West Indies islands of Barbados, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica. From the United States they came from the states of Virginia, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Ohio.

We find cities in Liberia named after the states and towns where the early repatriates came and settled. Greenville, (Greenville-SC) and Maryland County (Maryland) are some of the names similar to names of US cities and states. Then there are cities named after families that emigrated from the Caribbean such as Barclayville, (president Barclay-born-Barbados-West Indies), Bensonville-(president Benson-born in Maryland-U.S.).

Joseph Jenkins Roberts

William R Tolbert Jr

All elected presidents of Liberia from 1848 until 1980 were born in the Diaspora or were the children of those born in the Diaspora. The first ten (10) presidents of Liberia were born in the Diaspora. Liberia’s first president, Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1848-1856), was born in Virginia. The grandfather of William Richard Tolbert Jr., the 20th president of Liberia (1975-1980), was born in Charleston, South Carolina.

Bridging the gap between Liberia and the Diaspora is a continued legacy established in the 19th Century by men and women who built the bridges for our Pan African connections. Many of those who left the United States for Liberia during the 19th Century embarked on ships docked at the Charleston Harbor located in South Carolina. Join us as we continue the journey of our pioneering ancestors who reconnected us over 200 years ago.

Our organization, The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC), is presently working with our partner organization in Liberia (SEHWAH) to construct a public library in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia. Books for nation building are welcome. Contact us at panafricanlibrary@gmail.com or our website: https://srdcinternational.org.

“Okere City; Building Community Owned Developments to Sustainable Cities” on Africa400, Wednesday, June 9, 2021

The Wednesday, June 9 edition of Africa400 covers the topic “Okere City; Building Community Owned Developments to Sustainable Cities”. Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty welcome Special Guest Ojok Okello, founder and developer of the Okere Community Development Project in Okere City, Otuke District, Northern Uganda.Ojok Okello earned a master’s degree in rural development and worked for international NGOs like War Child UK and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in England, He earned a second master’s at the London School of Economics.

He is co-founder of Refugee Innovation and Sustainable Enterprise – Urban Project (RISE-UP) and Team Leader at its adjunct initiative, RiseUp Hub, a social enterprise with the mission to expand economic opportunities for urban refugees in Uganda. Okello founded Okere City in 2019.

Okere Community Development Project (Okere City) is a community development and social enterprise providing a collaborative and holistic ecosystem to promote integrated rural development in Okere parish, Adwari sub-county, Otuke District, Northern Uganda. Okere City project seeks to be an enabler for the rural community in the parish to be more imaginative, cooperative, creative, innovative and enterprising as pre-requisites to make them more successful and be champions of rural poverty reduction.

Okere City has an ambitious plan to position Okere Shea Cooperative Society as one of the leading Shea producers in the world.

Okere City started an early childhood development center in 2019 with 50 children all taught in 1 classroom. The center has now grown into a fledged 3 tier center with 80 children in baby, middle and top classes.

The end of May 2020 brought the Okere City Project a new gift — the Okere City Community Health Centre. The facility will provide essential health services.

Listen to the June 9 show here:

Africa400 is broadcast live every Wednesday at 2:00 PM Eastern Time (United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org). After the broadcast, the show can be listened to on HANDRadio’s Podcasts Page, in an updated version of this post and on the Media Pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).

A-APRP African Liberation Day Observance Saturday, May 29

The Maryland Pan-Afrikan Community participates in the African Liberation Day activities of the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).

ALD, founded in 1958 by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, is observed “to mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.”  (African Liberation Day – All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (aaprp-intl.org))  ALD officially falls on May 25, though the original Africa Freedom Day was observed in April, and these days ALD is observed on the weekend before or after May 25. 

The Maryland Council of Elders is spearheading the coordination of the observance in the DMV (District of Columbia/Maryland-Virginia) area, with cooperation and support from a number of local Pan-Afrikan organizations:

  • Pan-African Community Action (PACA)
  • Black Alliance for Peace (BAP)
  • Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS)
  • Al-Awda (Palestinians Right to Return)
  • Ujima Peoples Progress Party (UPP)
  • Amilcar Cabral Ideological School Movement
  • Revolutionary Socialist League-Kenya
  • Fondasyon Mapau
  • Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC)
  • All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party (Host)

The online event will feature a virtual round-table discussion, “Spooks, Grunts & Pigs: Know The Enemy!”

The event is being held on Saturday, May 29 at 2 PM Eastern Time (United States), which will vary depending on your time zone:

  • Los Angeles, California: 11 AM
  • Chicago, Illinois: 1 PM
  • New York City: 2 PM
  • Washington, DC: 2 PM
  • Coordinated Universal Time (URC): 6 PM
  • South Africa: 8 PM
  • Nairobi, Kenya: 9 PM

To participate, visit the following link to connect to Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83310568246?pwd=Zm1iVjlnQ1JINm1zYjlTc1NKREgrdz09

Meeting ID: 833 1056 8246

Passcode: 663754

One tap mobile: +16465588656,,83310568246#,,,,*663754#US (New York)
                              +13017158592,,83310568246#,,,,*663754#US (Washington, DC)

Or watch on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AAPRP

For more information, contact the Maryland Council of Elders at marylandcounciloreldersbmore@gmail.com, or visit the Web sites https://africanliberationday.net or https://www.aaprp-intl.org.

 

 

SRDC’s Pan African Library Book Donation Project

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on August 7, 2018 as “Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus Liberia Library Book Donation Project”.  This is an update of that article and a continuation of the Library Project.

Among the projects being developed by the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC), a Pan-Afrikan Diaspora organization dedicated to organizing the voice of the grassroots Pan-Afrikan Diaspora at the local level and merging them to take that voice to the World Stage through the African Union, United Nations and independent Afrikan Diaspora organizations, are a number of initiatives working toward the development of concrete institutions and services on the Afrikan Continent.  One of these is the Liberian Library Book Donation Project, being led by the South Carolina SRDC Organization and its State Facilitator, Mr. Joseph “Kumasi” Palmer.

As of this writing, there are no Public Libraries in Liberia, according to Mr. Palmer.  This comes as a surprise to many of us, partly because of our assumptions in the United States that a Library is so routine that we often ignore them, as well as the documented progress that Liberia has made since the removal of Charles Taylor as President in 2003 and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Afrika’s first woman head of state in 2006.  Mr. Palmer and several associates from South Carolina have met with Liberian officials to advance work on the development and supply of the first Public Library in Liberia.

Below is the public letter that was released in August 2018 by the South Carolina SRDC Organization concerning the project and the criteria for donating books.  Contact information for the South Carolina SRDC Organization is also included below.  If you have gently used books that you would like to donate, please feel free to contact them to arrange your donation.

July, 2018

Dear Friends and Associates,

The South Carolina branch of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) is embarking on a project to help establish a public library in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa. We have endeavored to collect book donations, create a working inventory and database, and ship books to Liberia. The key to the success of this type of project is a good and dedicated ‘on the ground’ partner with a proven track record. We have that in SEHWAH, a local and international Liberian organization. The Director of SEHWAH, the Hon. Ms. Louise W. McMillan-Siaway, was the Assistant Minister for Culture (Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism) under the former Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration. Ms. McMillan-Siaway is working closely with the current Liberian government to obtain a proper space and furnishings for the library.

“In America there is a public library in every community. How many public libraries are there in Africa? Every day there are new books coming out and new ideas being discussed. But these new books and ideas don’t reach Africa and we are being left behind.”
-George Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia, West Africa

This initiative, though absolutely necessary, is not without its challenges. Still, SRDC considers it a major responsibility and is excited to be the pioneering element of this project. Public libraries are essential in the process of providing citizens access to knowledge. It is certain that a well-stocked public library will have a positive impact on Liberian literacy and development. For this reason, we are taking a grassroots approach and are reaching out to you to donate and/or purchase books to donate. Grassroots interest and involvement is a way to ensure that the library is solidly developed, sustainable, accessible and well-used.

SUBJECTS NEEDED

  • History (World History/African History/African American History/Caribbean History/History of Blacks in Europe, etc.);
  • Political Science;
  • English (Grammar/Writing);
  • Music;
  • Arts;
  • Literature/Novels;
  • Geography;
  • Education;
  • Math;
  • Finance;
  • Banking;
  • International Trade;
  • Health;
  • Hygiene;
  • Wellness;
  • Science;
  • Ecology;
  • Medicine;
  • Nursing;
  • Farming;
  • Gardening;
  • Agriculture;
  • Animal Husbandry;
  • Law;
  • Business;
  • Computer Technology;
  • Construction and Building Technology;
  • Electrical;
  • Plumbing;
  • Engineering;
  • Electronics;
  • Photography; and
  • Children/Young Adult books.

We will accept “For Dummies” book titles (e.g., Digital Photography for Dummies).
See link for list of titles: https://www.dummies.com/store/All-Titles.html

GUIDELINES
•We seek gently used books – books that are in good condition.
•Books or novels that have “explicit” sexual content (pornography) will NOT be accepted and/or shipped to Liberia.
•Books that evangelize/proselytize/promote a particular religion will NOT be accepted and/or shipped to Liberia, unless we can determine historical value.
•Please send a listing of all books, along with your name, organization, email address and contact phone number to the email address listed below.
•Pack books carefully and deliver or mail to our warehouse:

Mr. Joseph Palmer
901B Long Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
Phone: 843.452.4880
Email: panafricanlibrary@gmail.com

In the future, we will need to set up a Board in order to oversee the development and supervision of staff and interns for the library; to create a proper atmosphere and establish methods to measure and maintain the progress of the library. Contact us with any questions or concerns. We will keep all of our book donors posted on all developments pertaining to the library (so please send us the list of books you are donating as well as your name and contact information).

Monetary donations in any amount can be made via PayPal at www.yaaba.org. YAABA is our 501c(3) charitable partner organization. Any donated funds will be used to defray costs and materials needed to ship the books to Liberia.

Please remember, A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life, so kindly assist us by becoming a benefactor of this important initiative.

Sincerely,
Joseph Palmer
Facilitator
SRDC – South Carolina
Email: panafricanlibrary@gmail.com
https://srdcinternational.org

We Are the Mothers of the Revolution: Message to Black Women on International Women’s Rights Day

Mama Julia Wright, Pan-Afrikan human rights champion and daughter of legendary author Richard Wright, wrote the following Message to Black Women for the Million Woman March Movement on International Women’s Rights Day:

We, Black women, are mothers in more ways than one.

We are the mothers or mothers-to-be of our Black daughters and sons.

We nurture our warriors with the hope and the love that is at the root of all resistance.

We are the mothers of the lynched ones – and of all those who died in the struggle but still live in our hearts.

It is to us that their spirits return because there were so often no bodies, no graves, no mourning.

We are the mothers of the Revolution.

I remember a story told by my father, Richard Wright, in “Uncle Tom’s Children” where a Black mother goes to retrieve the body of the son the white supremacists are about to lynch. She meekly carries a sheet outwardly intended as a shroud but secretly hiding a pistol. She is able to shoot down one of her son’s torturers before being slain with her son.

I remember Maimie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, who moved mountains to have her 14 year old son’s lynched remains returned from the oblivion of an unmarked Mississippi grave to Chicago. There she decreed an open coffin for the whole world to see. The child’s innocence and his mother’s love gave birth to the civil rights movement.

I remember Sister Yuri Kochiyama, mother of six, cradling Malcolm X’s agony after he was shot down, ten years after Emmett Till’s lynching, in the Audubon Ballroom.

Yuri’s scribbled notes on the events that night already presciently pointed to Raymond Woods’ implication.

I will always recall going with Yuri and Pam Africa to visit Mumia.

The voice of Chairman Fred Hampton Jr is still scarred by the staccato tempo of the bullets he heard in his mother’s womb.

And how can we forget George Floyd placing himself in his mother’s hands as he takes his last breath.

Mumia’s 39-year long struggle for justice behind bars speaks to the mothers we are.

He is our brother, father, grandfather but most of all he is our revolutionary native son because time froze his freedom prematurely at the age of 27 when he was brutally framed and nearly killed by the most corrupt police force in the country.

What will we Black mothers do for our native son ?

We, Black women, are legion.

Training prosecutors in Pennsylvania were taught to exclude us from their juries because we are said to be prone to anger.

We are demonized, deleted, shunned, raped – so yes we are angry.

Our anger is rooted in our deep capacity to love.

We ,who love Mumia and all he stands for, we who are legion, will know how to seize the time and stand for him as COVID-19 and congestive heart failure put his life at serious risk again in carceral isolation.

As Sister Assata said : “It is too late for Malcolm but we can still save Mumia.”

Let’s bring Mumia Home!

The only treatment now is Freedom!

Let all our elders and political prisoners go!

Message from Julia Wright to the Million Woman March Movement for International Women’s Rights Day

March 6th 2021

Sustainable Real Estate Development with Jessica Lewis of Mobu Enterprises on Africa400, March 10, 2021


The March 10, 2021 edition of Africa400 continues to profile strong Black Women as part of its “Black Woman Is God” Series for Black Women’s History Month.  Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty discuss sustainable real estate development and “green” building practices as they welcome visionary developer Jessica Lewis.

Jessica Lewis, founder of Mobu Enterprises, a Black woman-owned real estate development firm in the “green” building industry, is redefining residential and commercial spaces around the world with over 40 years of experience in operations, construction, and development.

Mobu Enterprises is restoring community education, advocating, and improving the environment with sustainable products and self-sustaining shipping container spaces and designs.

Empowered by a team of architects and designers, Mobu Enterprises has created award-winning designs distinct from each client’s unique vision. Building custom residential and commercial structures out of durable shipping containers, the company is pioneering the future of green living with structures that are waterproof, windproof, and fireproof. and able to withstand the demands of today and tomorrow for future generations.

To date, Mobu Enterprises has pioneered many major domestic and international projects, including a co-educational school for the gifted in Ghana and several single-family home communities, and multi-family complexes in Macon, Georgia.

Listen to the March 10 show here:

Africa400 can be heard every Wednesday at 2:00 pm (Eastern Time in the United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org).  After each live show, the audio is uploaded on an updated version of this post as well as on our Media Page.
—
AFRICA400
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Help Us Develop an Independent, Black Political Party

Editor’s Note: The following message was posted in February on behalf of the Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP), which is currently building a Black Worker-Led Independent Political Party in Maryland.

Hi Friend,

Happy New Year maybe. 2020 was terrible, particularly for black people in the US. I think that actually having a happy new year would require serious personal and collective growth. Growth requires a critical evaluation of the past in order to avoid repeating mistakes and one makes plans for the future. In that vein of reflecting on the past, I want to share with you a short video (9 min) of Michael B. Jordan reciting a famous speech by the Chicago Black Panthers’ Chairman, Fred Hampton. I pulled out these three statements to give you a sense of the speech.

“We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.”

“We say you don’t fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism.”

“I’m telling you that we’re living in a sick society. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before it’s cleaned up is a man who’s committing a crime against the people. If you walk past a hospital room and see a sign that says “Contaminated” and then you try to lead people into that room, either those people are mighty dumb, you understand me… cause if they weren’t, they’d tell you that you are an unfair, unjust leader that does not have your followers’ interests in mind.”

Chairman Fred Hampton was assassinated in his bed by the Chicago PD at 21 years old. At that time in 1969, Chicago’s City Council and Mayoralty were controlled by the local, post-Civil Rights, Democratic Party as it is today. In my opinion, Hampton was right and still is today: Integrating into a sick society and its sick political values hasn’t paid off in fifty one years. Fifty one years later, we still don’t even have enough equality to be killed by police and hospitals at the same rate as white people. Fifty one years later, the median net wealth of black households is trending toward $0 dollars. Fifty one years later, the Democratic National Convention rejected the Movement for Black Lives’ proposal of the Breathe Act while the largest civil rights demonstrations in US history were in full swing. (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t support the Breathe Act either.) I think that continuing to subordinate the political demands of black people, indigenous people and working class people to the priorities of capitalist, primarily white political parties is likely going to make 2021 as catastrophic for black people as was 2020. Asking Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to support the Breathe Act (or anything that black people, poor people or the biosphere need) again is not a “strategy” that our leaders should have the audacity put forward in 2021.

Fortunately, this Kwanzaa, many of us spent some time reflecting on the principle of self-determination. Being self-determined would include coming to our own decisions about community safety, imperialism, capitalism, socialism, racism, ecology, etcetera and creating our own agendas. I’m part of an organization that’s working on this in our state. Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP), a black, working class political party is planning a campaign to achieve ballot access in Maryland. If successful, UPP would become Maryland’s first, black, working class political party. (Roughly 30% of Maryland’s population is black.) No matter what state you’re in, any success that we have would probably produce positive spillover effects on independent, self-determining, black politics in your state. So I would be grateful for your involvement no matter where you live. If you’re not already connected to UPP and you support more choices for black voters, then hit me back and we’ll talk about the ways that you could consider supporting us.

…I hope that I’m communicating how imperative it is that black voters get greater ideological diversity on our ballots.

With the same old ideology in charge, 2021 is going to be as lethally anti-black as the last one. Black lives could matter, but they don’t because, fifty one years later, too many black leaders feel that a black political agenda is less important than the Democratic Party’s priorities. Too many black leaders feel that a back agenda is less important than the organized wealth of white liberals. Black lives will matter when black people link up, overcome our internalized racism enough to develop independent black power. Over 70 million voters just opted to re-elect the most overtly racist US President in recent history. And the incoming President won by trying to win over those same voters. If we don’t try something else, then in fifty one more years, my grandkids will have another lifetime of marching and asking America for equality to look forward to. Let’s try something else.

Happy new year “if you’re willing to fight for it”,
Thinq Tank

An update on the drive for a black, working class-led political party in Maryland:

One of our party leaders, Nnamdi Lumumba was recently interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball, a media and journalism professor here in Baltimore. This is a very important, 18-minute excerpt from that interview. It includes Nnamdi explaining why our party needs ballot access and our theory of power (within and outside of electoral politics). If you’re not sure about why black/African people in Maryland and the US need independent, political power, then I urge you to take a listen. And please consider making a contribution to our effort for ballot access.

I’ve been thinking that, ultimately, the success of this effort will come down to our own capacity to trust primarily black institutions as much as we trust primarily white institutions.

Can black people trust ourselves and other black people with independent, political leadership? Or is our internalized racism too deep for us to invest in a self-determined ideological vision?

Do we only trust a Colin Powell, a Barack Obama, a Kamala Harris or a Brandon Scott because their brown skin is backed up by the capitalist, imperialist, ecocidal politics of primarily white organizations?

Is our awareness of radical black politics so lacking and caricatured that we assume that a black-led party is just a bunch of “hoteps” who want revenge against white people?

From where does our endless confidence in the Democratic Party come – despite its persistent racism, over-policing, war and general shortcomings? And when will we start to keep that tireless energy for our own ideas and institutions?

I think that the answers to such questions are first answered on an individual basis. If, as individuals, we are going to wait until independent, black politics are embraced by the New York Times, CNN, Bernie Sanders, the NAACP, by mainstream America or by wealthier black people, then no, this initiative is going nowhere. But the reason why our organization even exists and why independent black power is even a possibility is because here in Maryland and around the world there have always been (and always will be) individuals who look to ourselves to affirm our own humanity and worth in spite of the violent exploitation that dominates the world. Many of those individuals got organized behind revolutionary ideas, despite the odds, which is what is happening right now in Maryland. If you’re one of those individuals, please make a contribution and let’s get organized!

Asante,

Thinq Tanq