Category Archives: The Ancestors’ Call

Africa 500, Wednesday, April 26, 2023: An Ancestor Speaks, A Tribute to New Ancestor Randall Robinson; Rest in Power (July 6, 1941-March 26, 2023)

The Wednesday, April 26 edition of Africa 500 features a tribute to New Ancestor Randall Robinson. Show hosts Sis. Tomiko and Bro. Ty welcome Special Guests Mama Efia Nwangaza, Baba Francois N’Dengwe and Honorable Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr. Terrance M. Drew.

Randall Robinson
Human Rights Activist, Lawyer, Author. Founder: TransAfrica

Human rights advocate, author, and law professor Randall Robinson was born on July 6, 1941 in Richmond, Virginia to Maxie Cleveland Robinson and Doris Robinson. He graduated from Armstrong High School in Richmond, Virginia in 1959; attended Norfolk State College in Norfolk, Virginia; and during his junior year, entered the U.S. Army. Robinson earned his B.A. in sociology from Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia in 1967, prior to receiving his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1970.

In his final year of law school, Robinson co-founded the Southern Africa Relief Fund, and after graduation, worked as a Ford Foundation fellow in Tanzania, East Africa. Upon his return to the United States, he worked as a civil rights attorney at the Boston Legal Assistance Project until 1975, when he served as speech writer in the office of Missouri Congressman Bill Clay. He worked as a staff attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in 1976, prior to serving as administrative assistant, i.e. chief of staff, in the office of Michigan Congressman Charles Diggs.

In 1977, Robinson founded TransAfrica Forum to promote enlightened U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. He served as the organization’s president until 2001, when he and his wife, Hazel, moved to St. Kitts. In 2008, Robinson was named a Distinguished Scholar in Residence by The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law, where he taught human rights law until 2016.

Robinson was a best-selling author, with his works including Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America; The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks; The Reckoning – What Blacks Owe to Each Other; Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land; An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President; and two novels: The Emancipation of Wakefield Clay and MAKEDA.

Randall Robinson passed on to the Honored Ancestors on March 24, 2023 at the age of 81.

This is where Randall Robinson spent his final days upon leaving America. His book ‘Quitting America …’ is based on his self-exile…
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/randall-robinson-dead.html

Guests

Efia Nwangaza
Human Rights Activist, Attorney, Founder; Malcolm X Center for Self Determination

Mama Efia Nwangaza is a New Afrikan colonized in the USA. She is Founder/Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, WMXP Community Radio, member of the Black Belt Human Rights Coalition Criminal Punishment System Sub-Committee, Black Alliance for Peace, and a veteran of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The SNCC Atlanta Project laid the foundation for today’s Black Lives Matter Movement in its 1966 call for “Black Power” and declaration that “Black is Beautiful”. As a member of the USA Durban 400 Delegation, she attended the 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism, a global gathering. From Durban, the world — governments and civil society — reached a consensus and issued the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA). The world declared colonialism, slavery, apartheid, and genocide crimes against humanity, without statute of limitations and a basis for reparations due.

She has testified on the results of “Putting Imprisoned COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era USA Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War/Exiles on the Global Human Rights Agenda: 2010-2016” Campaign. It was a campaign she conceived and conducted at the United Nations over a period of 6 years, with official Shadow Reports and in-person advocacy at the White House, USA agencies, and UN Committees. Her reports have continued relevance and are frequently referenced.

Mama Efia’s testimony, as expert and legal observer, at the 2021 Spirit of Mandela Tribunal allowed the prosecutor, Nkechi Taifa, and a panel of jurists to establish a baseline regarding Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War/Exiles resulting from her Shadow Reports. The UN Human Rights Council Treaty Review Committee made demands pursuant to the Campaign and the USA’s continued failure to come into treaty compliance and respect movements of independence and self determination.

She more recently testified at the 1st Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent that was held from December 5-9 in Geneva, Switzerland. There she called on the Forum to respect the Durban Declaration and Program of Action and received a standing ovation. The Forum is scheduled to meet again in New York, May 29 – June 2. All are urged to attend to support and advance the self- determinative DDPA.

Francois N’Dengwe
Founder; African Advisory Board
Publisher; Hommes and Femmes d’Afrique Magazines

Baba Francois Ndengwe’s education is multidisciplinary including mathematics, mechanics, economics, and political science. He is a researcher and magazine publisher.

Francois Ndengwe is the producer and host of “Fresh News From Africa”. His show has been featured in previous editions of Africa 500.

He is editor of Hommes d’Afrique Magazine and Femmes d’Afrique Magazine. He is also Founder and President of African Advisory Board.

Honorable Dr. Terrance M. Drew
Prime Minister, St. Kitts and Nevis

Honorable Dr. Terrance M. Drew is the 4th Prime Minister of the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis following General Elections on August 5th, 2022, in which he led the St. Kitts – Nevis Labour Party to secure an outright majority in Parliament, winning 6 of the 11 seats in the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Drew also currently holds the portfolios of Minister of Finance, National Security, Immigration, Health, and Social Security.

Dr. Drew is serving his first term as the elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of St. Christopher 8.

Prime Minister Drew serves as the Lead Head of Government within CARICOM bearing responsibility for Health.

A medical doctor, Prime Minister Drew has provided health care as a General Practitioner at the Joseph Nathaniel France General Hospital as well as via private practice in St. Kitts, following his studies at Instituto Superior de Ciencias Médicas in Santa Clara, in Cuba (from 1998), and has specialized in Internal Medicine in St. Kitts, following his studies at the Paul Foster School of Medicine in Texas (2010-2013)

Prime Minister Drew is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).

Prime Minister grew up in the community of Upper Monkey Hill located in the parish of St. Peter and is the son of Ras Gerzel Pet Mills and Michael ‘Mic Stokes’ Heyliger.

Prime Minister Drew founded the C.A.R.E. Foundation in February 2021, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that aims to provide assistance to citizens nationally, across both islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Africa 500 broadcasts every Wednesday at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HandRadio (https://handradio.org). After the broadcast, the show can be listened to on an update of this post as well as on the Audio-Visual Media Pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).
—
AFRICA500
Wednesdays @3pm EST.
https://handradio.org/
https://kuumbareport.com/
https://webuyblack.com
https://kweli.tv

Listen to the April 26 show here:

An Ancestor Speaks: Educator Dr. Barbara Sizemore (1927 – 2004), on Africa 500, Wednesday, March 8, 2023

The Wednesday, March 8 edition of Africa 500 features a lecture from one of our prominent Afrikan American educators from the Ancestral Realm, Dr. Barbara Sizemore (1927 – 2004).

The Web page Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Sizemore) had this to say in their article about Ancestor Barbara Sizemore:

In 1973, she became the first African American woman to head the public school system in a major city, when she was elected superintendent of District of Columbia Public Schools. …

Sizemore began her career in Chicago public schools, teaching English and reading in elementary and high schools from 1950 to 1963, and serving as principal of elementary and high schools from 1963 to 1967. In 1969 she was named district superintendent of the Woodlawn Experimental Schools. She was also a member of the adjunct faculty at Northeastern Illinois University from 1965 to 1971.  Sizemore taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1975 to 1992. It was there that she began her research on low-income African American students and standardized tests, which she continued as dean of the School of Education at DePaul University in 1992.  Sizemore’s first book, a version of her doctoral thesis titled The Ruptured Diamond: The Politics of the Decentralization of the District of Columbia Public Schools, was published in 1981. Her second book, Walking in Circles: The Black Struggle for School Reform was published posthumously in 2008.

From a bio provided by Africa 500:

Pioneering educator and school administrator Barbara Sizemore was born in Chicago, Illinois to Sylvester and Delila Lafoon. Her father died in a car accident when she was eight years old. Her mother remarried and the family moved to Evanston. Growing up in the 1930’s in the Midwest, Sizemore experienced Jim Crow whose laws were adopted and enforced. Although her elementary and middle schools were segregated, she had highly educated African-American teachers and received an excellent education.

In 1944, Sizemore enrolled in Northwestern University and graduated with a degree in classical languages in 1947. She dreamed of being a translator for the United Nations but because there were few professional opportunities for black women at that time, she began teaching in Chicago public schools that led her to her life’s calling.

In 1954, Sizemore earned an M.A. in elementary education from Northwestern. She left teaching in 1963 to become the first black female to be appointed principal of a Chicago school. In 1965, she became principal of Forrestville High School and initiated efforts to turn the school from a haven for gangs into an innovative educational experiment. By 1969, she was named director and district superintendent for the Woodlawn Experimental Schools Project and instructor at Northwestern’s Center for Inner City Studies, an innovative multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic graduate school program in Chicago’s South Side.

In 1973, Sizemore was elected as superintendent of the District of Columbia Public School System. This was the first time an African-American woman had been chosen to head a public school system in a major U.S. city. During her tenure, Sizemore tackled highly controversial and polarizing issues such as the abolishment of standardized testing whose “Anglo-Saxon bias” she believed put African American students at a disadvantage. Sizemore’s educational views challenged the more traditional views of the school system and she was fired in 1975. Her book, The Ruptured Diamond (1981), chronicles her experiences in Washington.

After leaving Washington, Sizemore taught at the University of Pittsburgh where she conducted research on schools that served low-income African-American children. In 1992, she assumed a professorship at DePaul University in Chicago. As dean of the School of Education, she created her School Achievement Structure (SAS) program. SAS was designed to enable black students to compete successfully on any standardized exam. This was a radical departure from her earlier belief in abandoning the tests. Sizemore now argued that integrating SAS into a school’s curriculum would help low-achieving schools in Chicago become high performers. The program is used in many school districts around the country.

Sizemore served as Professor Emerita at DePaul University. She earned a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Chicago as well as four honorary doctorate degrees. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Urban League, NAACP and Phi Delta Kappa. In the last years of her life, she advised the Chicago public school system and continued to write and speak on educational issues.

Ms. Sizemore died from cancer in June of 2004. She was the mother of six children and had seven grandchildren.
https://www.visionaryproject.org/sizemorebarbara/

Africa 500 is broadcast every Wednesday at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org).  After the broadcast, the show can be listened to by clicking below or by visiting the Audio-Visual Media pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) or the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).

Listen to the Wednesday, March 8, 2023 show here:

The Ancestors’ Call: Marshall “Eddie” Conway

I first met Baba Marshall “Eddie” Conway in 1998. I had become familiarized with his case as a result in my membership in the Organization of All Afrikan Unity-Black Panther Cadre (OAAU-BPC) under the leadership of Baba Ade Oba Tokunbo from 1994. In that organization, much of the mystery of the Panthers was lifted from my up-to-then confused mind, and the plight of America’s Political Prisoners was gradually revealed to me. OAAU-BPC’s main contribution to the issue of Political Prisoners was their direct involvement in the campaign to win the exoneration and freedom of Marshall “Eddie” Conway, a US Army Veteran (as many Panthers were) and a leader in the Baltimore Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Baba Eddie, as I had come to call him, had exposed the existence of police agents within the Baltimore organization, and had informed Panther leadership in New York and the Bay Area of the degree if infiltration of the Baltimore organization by the Baltimore City Police Red Squad and probably other intelligence operatives. For this, Baba Eddie was targeted. He was arrested at his job at the Main Post Office in Baltimore in April 1970 and accused of murdering a Baltimore City police officer and seriously injuring another. Despite Baba Eddie’s protestation of innocence and a lack of any physical evidence linking him to the case, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. It was in prison, at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, Maryland, not-so-affectionately known as “The Cut”, that I met Baba Eddie. I had talked with him over the phone a couple of times, and I was at “The Cut” specifically to meet him and be introduced to the Writers’ Club, a group of inmates who used prose, poetry and other literary pursuits to help them heal their psyches and, for those who could look forward to release one day, prepare them to better cope with the world outside. I was impressed with the calm that Baba Eddie exuded, and I wrote about my encounter with him in the newsletter I was writing at the time (KUUMBAReport), along with an explanation of his case from Nana Njingha, also a member of the Baltimore Chapter, a testimonial by Baba Paul Coates, another member of that Chapter and now founder of Black Classic Press; commentaries by fellow Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and The MOVE Organization; and a short commentary by Baba Eddie himself. I would begin to sign off on emails, letters and radio shows by wishing everyone “Peace and Power” in large part because of inspiration by Baba Eddie’s example.

KuumbaReport Newsletter Issue 6 June 1998

I would get to see him two more times, I think, before an incident at “The Cut” led to a lockdown and a stop to all visits for a while. Still, the effort to secure his exoneration and release continued. The Marshall Eddie Conway Support Committee had been formed under the guidance of his first wife, Nana Njingha, who continued to tirelessly champion his cause. This was a group of dedicated Pan-Afrikanists and Black Nationalists who were committed to seeing Baba Eddie go free. There was also the Friends of Eddie Conway, an integrated group that included several White “allies” who shared many of the revolutionary beliefs of the Black Panther Party and supported freedom for all Political Prisoners. These groups had a connection with the larger national organization known as Jericho, which advocated for the hundreds of Political Prisoners being held in penitentiaries, prisons and jails in the US, from Mumia Abu-Jamal and MOVE in Philadelphia, to Indigenous First Nations Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier and the American Indian Movement (AIM), to White Political Prisoners such as Thomas Manning and Marilyn Buck, to Panthers imprisoned across the country that included Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, Veronza Bowers, Hugo “Yogi” Pinnell, Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa and Ed Poindexter, to exiles such as Assata Shakur, and of course to Baba Eddie.

The following report, from the group Justice For Eddie Conway, was reprinted in the January-February 2001 issue of KUUMBAReport:

Justice for Marshall Eddie Conway January February 2001

I’m sure there were those of us who believed that Baba Eddie would never be released from prison. The opponents of Political Prisoners, despite the usual lack of conclusive evidence, the use of suspect jailhouse informants, the withheld exculpatory evidence, the manufactured evidence, the contradicted and often blatantly false testimony, the police and judicial misconduct and the denial of competent legal representation to the defendants, were many, were in places of political power, and were adamant that despite all the indications that the trials were unfair at best, that they had their man (and sometimes their woman), that justice had been served (at least to their satisfaction), and that these “criminals” should never see the light of day. Still, after much legal maneuvering and wrangling, Baba Eddie was finally released from prison on parole on March 4, 2014 after 43 years and 10 months of imprisonment.

His release had been prompted by several previous events. A few years earlier, Jack Johnson, who was also convicted in connection to the police officer’s murder, was released from prison on compassionate parole. Another domino dropped when a Maryland Court of Appeals ruled in the case Unger v. State in May 2012, which bolstered the argument that in Baba Eddie’s trial, the jury instructions had violated his Constitutional rights to due process, as reported in an article on the Web site of Truthout (https://truthout.org/articles/political-prisoner-marshall-eddie-conway-released-from-prison-after-44-years/):

Despite Eddie Conway’s insistence on his innocence, it took years for Conway and his attorneys to find a way to overturn his conviction. Finally, in May 2012, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Unger v. State that a Maryland jury, to comply with due process as stated in the US Constitution, must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that someone charged with a crime is guilty before that jury can convict the defendant. What made this decision momentous for many people in prison, including Conway, is that it applied retroactively.

Robert Boyle and Phillip G. Dantes, attorneys for Conway, filed a motion on his behalf based on this ruling, arguing that the judge in Conway’s trial had not properly instructed the jury that this “beyond a reasonable doubt” proviso was mandatory for conviction. Based on this motion, they negotiated an agreement whereby Conway would be resentenced to time served and be released from prison. In exchange, Conway and his lawyers agreed not to litigate his case based on the Unger ruling.

Since his release, Baba Eddie lived a relatively quiet life compared to the revolutionary activism of his youth, but he continued to work on behalf of the rights of the people and the truth. He began working at The Real News in Baltimore (https://therealnews.com/), his most prolific work being on regular programs such as “Rattling The Bars”, which he hosted with fellow former Political Prisoner Mansa Musa to “put the voices of the people most harmed by our system of mass incarceration at the center of our reporting on the fight to end it.” In the meantime, he had an opportunity to enjoy those moments life still had for him with his second wife, Dominique, who also worked with him on several programs centered on prisoners and on youth, and with his extended family. 

I had one more chance to visit with Baba Eddie at his office at The Real News in Baltimore, where he showed me around the building, which was still expanding, and asked me about my continuing activist work since I had visited him in The Cut. I hope my answers to him about my activities in the intervening years were satisfactory to him.

I would see him in person two more times, at the intersection of North and Pennsylvania Avenues during the 2015 protests against the police murder of Freddie Gray, and later at an event about the community and the police at Ida B’s Table, an eatery and cultural meet spot that was named after legendary civil rights activist Ida B. Wells in The Real News Building that was still under construction when I was there before. I did not have an opportunity to speak at length with Baba Eddie at these events, but he seemed well and at peace with his long, tortuous journey through life as an activist and the personal price he was forced to pay for his commitment.

Over the last few months, I had heard that he was dealing with health issues, problems that he had been confronted by for years from the time of his imprisonment, but the quiet strength and dignity with which he had handled himself, at least outwardly, led me to believe that he would overcome these challenges and come out the other side swinging. It came as a shock to me to hear on Monday, February 13, that Baba Eddie had transitioned to the Honored Ancestors in Long Beach, California. At this point, the real toll of decades of political imprisonment hit home. Baba Eddie was robbed of over four decades of freedom, locked away in the infamous “Cut”, and in the end, this undoubtedly led to health problems that would end his life well before it should have happened.

In the end, our hearts ache that Baba Eddie is no longer with us on the physical plane.  We were gratified that he at least had almost nine years to breathe the free air before his transition.  Several of our Political Prisoners who were finally released had only a few months to enjoy their freedom, and some sadly died in prison.  The community at least had the opportunity to honor Baba Eddie and show our appreciation for his incredible work and sacrifice, allowing him to receive at least some of his flowers while he was still among us.  Baba Eddie leaves behind a number of family, friends, followers, associates and admirers, but he also leaves behind a great legacy of commitment, struggle and love of the people. May we all strive to approach the level of commitment Baba Eddie showed for truth, justice and righteousness.

Below are several links to just a few of the articles, videos and podcasts that have been produced to pay tribute to Baba Eddie:

Marshall “Eddie” Conway (1946-2023): A life committed to the people and revolutionary change, Liberation News, https://www.liberationnews.org/marshall-eddie-conway-1946-2023-a-life-committed-to-the-people-and-revolutionary-change/

Marshall Eddie Conway, former Black Panther imprisoned for 44 years, dies at 76, Radio Havana Cuba, https://www.radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/313730-marshall-eddie-conway-former-black-panther-imprisoned-for-44-years-dies-at-76

Marshall “Eddie” Conway, Former Black Panther Imprisoned for 44 Years, Dies at 76, DemocracyNow!, https://www.democracynow.org/2023/2/14/headlines/marshall_eddie_conway_former_black_panther_imprisoned_for_44_years_dies_at_76

Tribute to Marshall “Eddie” Conway, Black Power Rewind, https://www.youtube.com/live/RIXRIIdZhq4?feature=share

 

The Words of Rev. Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango on Africa 500, Wednesday, January 11, 2023

The January 11, 2023 edition of Africa 500 will feature the words of the Rev. Dr. Ishakamusa Barsashango.

Rev. Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango

Rev. Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango, affectionately known as “Baba”, began his journey to Nsamando, the land of the Ancestors on January 14, 2004. He apparently succumbed to a heart attack during his morning walk. The dynamic minister, author, historian, educator and motivational speaker was born April 27, 1938 in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Barashango received his Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. He studied for his Master’s degree at Northeastern Seminary in Takoma Park, Maryland. The New Afrikan University Network System of Washington, D.C. saluted him with an honorary Doctor of Philosophy Degree in 1979. Rev. Barashango founded the Temple of the Black Messiah, School of History and Religion and co-founded Fourth Dynasty Publishing Company of Silver Spring. He also taught history and religion at several colleges and universities.

As well as releasing a series of audio lecture compact disks, Dr Barashango was the author of several books including: Afrikan People And European Holidays: A Mental Genocide Book One; Afrikan People And European Holidays: A Mental Genocide Book Two; God, the Bible and the Black Man’s Destiny; Afrikan Woman: The Original Guardian Angel; and Afrikan Genesis: Amazing Stories of Man’s Beginnings. Dr Barashango was completely dedicated to the physical, mental, and spiritual liberation of New Afrikan people – he dedicated his life to this cause!

Dr. Barashango also was the brother-in-law of longtime Political Prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal, being wedded to Jamal’s sister Lydia since 1996: (https://web.archive.org/web/20181012052003/http://archive.prisonradio.org/10-9-11LydiaBarashangoPresente.html).

Oath To The Ancestors by Ishakamusa Barashango
Oaths in the bible

The Reverend Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango gave us the Oath To The Ancestors. One thing about the oath most people may not recognize is it is bible based. There are many instances of this.

the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham.
— Luke 1:73

Thus I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the one you have today. “Amen, LORD,” I answered.
— Jeremiah 11:5

You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.
— Micah 7:20

Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
— Deuteronomy 8:18 NLT

Based on those and other instances, African Christians need to know this oath is completely in line with their beliefs. As Dr. Barashango himself said,

“now you know I use the Bible as a revolutionary textbook because I am a African nationalist freedom fighter and I come in the tradition of the theology of black liberation founded by such great masters of that genre as the Right Reverend Nat Turner, the Right Reverend Gabriel Prosser, Henry Highland Garnett and a host of many others only one possible way I can approach this book or any other book and that has a freedom fighter for the liberation of our people and because it was originally our book before was tampered with we can define it in any manner and interpret it in any manner that we desire to and we always define it in the context of African historical reality.”
— Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango: Solving the Mystery of 666 (https://youtu.be/jT4VK4f4uwU)

The Oath To The Ancestors by Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango

Oh Ancestors!!!

Blacker than a thousand midnights.
African ancestors!!!
It is to you, we your children, give respect and honor.
O Ancestors!
We call upon You and welcome you in this place.
Afrikan Ancestors!
Let your presence fill this place.
O Ancestors!
Who have been purposely excluded from the history books, so that the world would not know of your greatness.
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave civilization to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave the arts to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave music to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave the sciences to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave mathematics to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave medicine to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave literature to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave philosophy to the world…
Our Afrikan Ancestors! Who gave God consciousness to the world…
O Ancestors!
We thank you for devoting your life to make a future for us, your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Now stand with us, strengthen us, guide us, teach us, and protect us from the snare of our enemies!
Rise up, O Afrikan Ancestors, and let our enemies be scattered
And give us the wisdom and the boldness to deal with our oppressors and those who would hinder the liberation and empowerment of our people.
Rise up, O Afrikan Ancestors, and live in us.
We will not fail to honor you!
We will not fail to respect you!
We will not fail to hear you!
And we will Not betray you!
Àṣẹ
Àṣẹ 

—

Africa 500 airs every Wednesday at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org). Listen to the Wednesday, January 11 show here:

AFRICA500
Wednesdays @3pm EST.
https://handradio.org
https://kuumbareport.com
https://webuyblack.com
https://kweli.tv

Africa 500 Presents Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Starting in January 2023, Africa400 is now renamed Africa 500 to more accurately reflect the more than 500 years of the Ma’afa, the Great Disaster, the enslavement of Afrikan People in Europe, the Americas and the so-called Middle East.

The Wednesday, January 4 edition of Africa 500 features a speech by Pan-Afrikan Ancestor Dr, John Henrik Clarke, one of the giants of Pan-Afrikanism, Black Nationalism and Afrikan and Afrikan-American history.

The Web site of the Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry (https://bepaa.wordpress.com/about-2/), “an institution housed at the John Henrik Clarke House dedicated to advancing the culture, principles and education of people of African Ancestry”, founded in 1992 by a group of educators, clergy, historians and activists “to define, monitor, formulate and implement policies and practices affecting the education of students of African Ancestry in both public and private educational systems.”  BEPAA is located at the Dr. John Henrik Clarke House at 286 Convent Avenue in New York.  The Web site includes a biography of Dr. Clarke, as well as an interview, Dr. Clarke in his Own Words: Education at the Crossroads, as well as a video, “Education”, the Highest Form of Struggle, at https://bepaa.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/dr-clarke-in-his-own-words-african-education-at-the-crossroads-by-john-henrik-clarke/.

This is what the Web site Black Past (https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/clarke-john-henrik-1915-1998/) wrote in its article about Dr. John Henrik Clarke:

John Henrik Clarke, historian, black nationalist, and Pan-Africanist, was a pioneer in the formation of Africana studies in the United States.  Principally a self-trained historian, Clarke dedicated his life to correcting what he argued was the prevailing view that people of Africa and of African descent had no history worthy of study.  Over the span of his career Clarke became one of the most respected historians of African and African American history.

Clarke was born on New Year’s Day, 1915, in Union Springs, Alabama.  He described his father as a “brooding, landless sharecropper,” who struggled to earn enough money to purchase his own farm, and his mother as a domestic.  Clarke’s mother Willie Ella (Mays) Clarke died in 1922, when he was about seven years old.

In 1932 Clarke left the South at age eighteen and he traveled by boxcar to Chicago, Illinois.  He then migrated to New York City, New York where he came under the tutelage of noted scholar Arthur A. Schomburg.  While in New York City’s Harlem, Clarke undertook the study of Africa, studying its history while working full time.

In 1949 the New School for Social Research asked Clarke to teach courses in a newly created African Studies Center.  Nineteen years later Clarke founded the African Heritage Studies Association in 1968, and was principally responsible for the creation of the Black and Puerto Rican Studies Department at Hunter College in New York City.  He later lectured at Cornell University as a distinguished visiting Professor of African history.

Clarke’s numerous works include A New Approach to African History (1967), African People in World History (1993), and The Boy Who Painted Jesus Black (1975).  He died in New York City in 1998.

These are just two sources for published books by Dr. John Henrik Clarke:

https://www.afriwarebooks.com/blog/books-by-john-henrik-clarke
https://ourtimepress.com/otp-interview-with-professor-john-henrik-clarke/?amp=1

The entire January 4 show is devoted to one of his speeches, often referred to as “The Illusion of Inclusion”.  Listen to it here:

The video of his speech can be seen on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ivlXwXGCoDc

Africa 500 airs every Wednesday at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on HandRadio, https://handradio.org.  For more information on the show and links to more information, click here.  After the show airs, it can be listened to again in an updated version of the post and on our Media Page.

African Liberation Day in Lafayette Square Park, Baltimore, Maryland

The Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE), All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), All African Women’s Revolutionary Union (A-AWRU), Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP), Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), Woodson Banneker Bey Division 330 of the UNIA-ACL RC2020 and Pan-Afrikan activists from across the Maryland-Washington, DC area will converge on Lafayette Square Park in West Baltimore (West Lafayette and North Arlington Avenues) for an observance of African Liberation Day on Sunday, May 29 from 1:00 – 6:00 PM.

The event will feature a number of tables and displays, including Vendors, a Children’s Festival Tent, Food, an Information Table and Health Screenings.

Invited Speakers will include:

  • Charlie Dugger, Camp Harambee (The people)
  • Erica Caines, Black Alliance for Peace (BAP)
  • Rafiki Morris, All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP)
  • Brandon Walker, UJIMA Peoples Progress Party (UPP)
  • JY’MIR, Howard University (The Kwame Touré Society)
  • Dante O’Hara, Claudia Jones School of Political Education
  • Senghor Baye, UNIA-ACL RC2020
  • Minister Abdur Rahim Shakoor, Reparations & Self Determination
  • Baba Mosi Matsimela (President, UNIA-ACL DIV. 330 RC2020)

Among the performers will be:

  • Internationally Known “PROVERBS” Reggae Band
  • Storyteller “Grandmother Edna”
  • High Priestess of Poetry “Abena Disroe”
  • SONGBIRD “Freedome EL”
  • Xaala Mainama Drumming
  • Park Vibe Drummers

For more information, contact the following:

Come on out and observe African Liberation Day with the Maryland Council of Elders!

The Ancestors’ Call, December 2021

As the year 2021 draws to a close and we celebrate the season through Christmas and Kwanzaa, we would like to pause and give praise and honor to those Pan-Afrikan giants we have seen pass on to the Honored Ancestors in December.

We commemorated the transition of Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd of KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science (December 5) in this article.  Here, we recognize four others who passed on to the Ancestors in December: Organizer and Teacher Babatunji Balogun (Soul School Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, December 15), Author bell hooks (December 15), Political Prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz (December 17) and South African Anti-Apartheid Activist and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu (December 26).

Baltimore-Area Activist, Leader and Teacher Babatunji Balogun, December 15, 2021

Though I was not a member of the Soul School Institute, the organization he founded, I have many fond memories of Babatunji. From his brief time with an earlier version of the Council of Elders in Maryland (2009) to my attendance on his annual bus tour to commemorate the birthday of Ancestor Malcolm X which visited several points of interest in New York, including Ferncliff Cemetery and a historic eatery where Minister Malcolm often dined, Babatunji was always ready to teach, talk to and encourage us. His passing to the Honored Ancestors on December 15 came as a shock to many of us.

The following information comes from the blog of the Soul School Institute, https://thesoulschool.blogspot.com/2012/04/this-is-soul-school-institute.html:

This is the Soul School Institute (dated Tuesday, July 3, 2012)

Origin of the Soul School Institute

The Soul School Institute was established in May 1992. It is the successor to the S.O.U.L School which existed from March 1968 until 1973 when it was forced to close its doors. However, the Soul School Institute embodies the ideology of the original Soul School, which is Revolutionary Black Nationalism. The Soul School Institute takes its ideology from the teachings and legacy of the Rt. Excellent Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey and El Hadj Malik el Shabazz, popularly known as Malcolm X.

Program of the Soul School Institute

The program of the Soul School Institute is to train organizers to implement a program of Black Nationalist reconstruction of the African-American communities. This entails education and projects designed to have African people work in unity.

Current program of the Soul School Institute

Our current work consists of educational and cultural tours:

Malcolm X Tour–A Tour given each year on Malcolm X’s birthday (May 19) to New York to celebrate and honor the work that he did on behalf our race.

ODUNDE–A cultural trip to Philadelphia to participate in one of the largest African-centered street festivals in America. ODUNDE, which means Happy New Year in the West African language of Yoruba presents an opportunity to immerse ourselves in African culture.

Nat Turner Tour–This is our most recent tour. It is a trip to Southampton, Virginia, scene of one of the most bloody slave revolts in American history. Nat Turner and his small army of fighters struck against the slave system on August 21, 1831. Killing 55 white slave owners and their families. The Tour retraces the steps that Nat Turner took in his march toward freedom.

We Shall Reap What We Sow–This is our organic gardening program. We endeavor to teach the basics on growing food, storing food, and cooking organically. We are also determined to explain and promote healthy eating habits and to expose the dangers of processed food that comes from a factory not from a farm.

African Media Workshop–The Soul School Institute publishes the Positive Action Bulletin and the African Historian Reference Calendar.

We are not sure what the future holds for the programs of the Soul School Institute now that Babatunji has left this earthly plane.  We can only hope that others will successfully take up the mantle he has left us.  Aside from the work he did through Soul School Institute and its quarterly newsletter, Positive Action Bulletin, we will all miss his easygoing manner, his commitment to his people, his warm welcome and manner, and most of all, his wisdom.

Author and Academic bell hooks, December 15, 2021

Author bell hooks, who was born Gloria Jean Watkins but chose the pen-name bell hooks, which she borrowed from her grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, and always wrote in lowercase to emphasize her ideas over her identity, passed on to the Honored Ancestors on December 15. Wikipedia described her thus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks):

Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The name “bell hooks” is borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.

The focus of hooks’s writing was the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. She published more than 30 books and numerous scholarly articles, appeared in documentary films, and participated in public lectures. Her work addressed race, class, gender, art, history, sexuality, mass media, and feminism.

Also an academic, she taught at institutions including Stanford University, Yale University, and The City College of New York, before joining Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, in 2004, where a decade later she founded the bell hooks Institute.

Noliwe Rooks wrote in a tribute to her on December 27 for Politico (bell hooks: The Author Who Challenged the Norms of Academia, https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/bell-hooks-the-author-who-challenged-the-norms-of-academia/ar-AASaUFx?ocid=uxbndlbing) about how she was inspired and led by her personal interactions with Ms. hooks and about the impact Ms. hooks’ academic activism had on academia as a whole:

“… how she moved through academic institutions demanding respect, but not expecting love. She showed women and Black people, including Black women academics like me, that there is a price to pay for believing that the goal and meaning of Black freedom is bound up with learning to survive easy digestion in the “belly” of various institutional “beasts.” Her life offers something of a parable about how difficult it is for professors like us — no matter how brilliant, brave, irreverent, iconoclastic, charming, committed or popular we are — to remain in institutions built on the structural foundations of patriarchy, racism, capitalism and misogyny, especially when we, and our scholarship, are there to dismantle those very things. …

“Because of bell hooks, we know we can bring our whole selves to our work. We can trust and believe in our intellect. We can be complicated in our humanity. We can be gentle with our critiques. We can be fierce in our protection. We can keep talking to, and talking with, and talking back, until the last breath.”

Yahoo also has presented an article detailing the numerous tributes that have come forth to celebrate the life and legacy of bell hooks (https://www.yahoo.com/now/people-sharing-beautiful-lessons-tributes-044602205.html).

Political Prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, December 17, 2021

   On December 17, the Pan-Afrikanist, Black Nationalist and Revolutionary Activist communities mourned the passing of longtime Political Prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz.  He was an active member of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia as then-police chief Frank Rizzo was directing a vicious campaign to stamp out the BPP and other “militant” groups in the summer of 1970.  He had been captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a retaliatory attack on a police station in Philadelphia in September 1970 that killed a police officer, Frank Von Coln.  He would earn the nickname “Maroon” because of his several escapes from prison.  He had been given medical parole and compassionate release from his prison sentence when it was determined that his cancer was terminal so that he could transition to the Ancestors at home with his family.  A brief bio is available at the Web site of Prisoner Solidarity, https://prisonersolidarity.com/prisoner/maroon-shoatz:

Russell “Maroon” Shoatz

Russell Maroon Shoatz is a dedicated community activist, founding member of the Black Unity Council, former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army. He is serving multiple life sentences as a US-held political prisoner/prisoner of war.

Personal Background

Russell was born August 1943 in Philadelphia. He was one of 12 children.  At the age of 15 he became involved in a gang, and was in and out of reform schools and youth institutions until the age of 18.

As a young man, he married twice and became the father of seven children. In the mid 1960s, Russell started becoming active in the New Afrikan liberation movement. He founded the Black Unity Council, which merged with the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1969.

Tensions were high in Philadelphia in the summer of 1970 because Philadelphia Police Chief Frank Rizzo had ordered a crackdown on militant groups in the run-up to the national convention of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia on September 5, 1970. These tensions intensified when police killed a black youth in Philadelphia. A retaliatory attack was carried out on a police station, killing officer Frank Von Coln and injuring one other.

The shooting of Von Coln prompted a 2 a.m. raid on the Black Panther headquarters in North Philadelphia. After the raid, police officials allowed news photographers to take humiliating photos of the Black Panthers being strip searched on the street.

Russell and four others (who became known as the “Philly Five”) were immediately charged with the attack. They went underground and continued to struggle for New Afrikan self-determination as part of the Black Liberation Army.

Legal Case

In January of 1972 Russell was captured. He was convicted of the attack on the police station and sentenced to life.

1977 Prison Escape

Russell escaped with three others from Huntingdon State Prison in 1977. Two were recaptured and the third was killed during the escape. Russell remained at large for 27 days, leading to a massive manhunt by local, state and federal forces, as well as citizen recruits from nearby white, rural areas.

From his capture in 1977 until 1989 Russell was shipped from state, county and federal prisons, kept in long term solitary confinement the entire time. In 1979 he was forcibly transferred to the Fairview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. While at Fairview he was forcibly drugged, which in one case led to him being hospitalized when he was overdosed.

1980 Prison Escape

In March of 1980 he escaped prison with a fellow revolutionary after a New Afrikan activist smuggled a revolver and sub-machine gun into the institution. Three days later all three were captured after a gun battle with local, state and county police, and FBI agents.

Camp Hill Prison Riot

In 1989, Pennsylvania prison Camp Hill erupted in a riot because of overcrowding and inhumane conditions. Despite being held in a Dallas prison and having nothing to do with the incident, Russell was implicated in it and as a result was transferred to the notorious Marion Supermax prison over 1,000 miles from friends, family and supporters.

Supporters fought to have Russell removed from solitary confinement in Marion and released into general population. They were finally successful in December of 1989, when Maroon was released into the general prison population in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Russell Returns to Solitary Confinement

Unfortunately Russell was placed back into long term solitary confinement in 1991 at SCI Greene in Waynesburg, PA. It was only after a lawsuit was filed in May 2013 that in February of 2014, Russell was released from solitary confinement after roughly 22 consecutive years.

Health in Prison

In August 2019, he was transferred to the medical facility at Fayette for treatment of stage 4 colorectal cancer. Due to lack of proper medical care in the DOC, a judge granted him medical parole in October 2021.

Baba Russell “Maroon” Shoatz’ family has fought for his release as a Political Prisoner and on medical grounds for decades and are usually represented at Philadelphia-area rallies for MOVE, Mumia Abu-Jamal and other Political Prisoners.  We are saddened to hear of his passing, but we are heartened that he was able to make his transition at home, surrounded by those he loved and who love him.

South African Anti-Apartheid Activist and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, December 26, 2021

This comes from an article on the NBC News Web site, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/archbishop-desmond-tutu-south-african-anti-apartheid-leader-dies-90-rcna9971:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid leader, dies at 90

Dec. 26, 2021, 2:18 AM EST / Updated Dec. 27, 2021, 4:53 PM EST
By Max Burman and Doha Madani

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped lead the movement that ended the brutal regime of white minority rule in South Africa, has died at age 90, the country’s president confirmed Sunday.

“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement early Sunday.

“Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”

Tutu gained prominence through his work as a human rights campaigner. In 1984, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless and nonviolent fight against apartheid in South Africa, and he later played a key role in downfall of the segregationist policy.

Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and was hospitalized several times in recent years to treat infections associated with his treatment.
“Ultimately, at the age of 90, he died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Centre in Cape Town this morning,” Dr. Ramphela Mamphele said in a statement on behalf of the family.

She did not give details of the cause of death.

Tutu, an Anglican clergyman, used the pulpit to preach and galvanize public opinion against the injustice faced by South Africa’s Black majority.

Tutu, the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later the first Black archbishop of Cape Town, was a vocal activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights not just in South Africa but around the world.

In 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela spent his first night of freedom at Tutu’s residence in Cape Town.

After the fall of the apartheid regime, with Mandela leading the country as its first Black president, Tutu headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which laid bare the terrible truths of white rule.

“His contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement.

Tributes poured in from around the world.

Tutu’s legacy surpasses borders and “will echo throughout the ages,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday.

“We were blessed to spend time with him on several occasions over the past many years,” Biden said on behalf of himself and his wife, Jill. “His courage and moral clarity helped inspire our commitment to change American policy toward the repressive Apartheid regime in South Africa.”

Biden was outspoken about apartheid when he traveled to the country as a senator in 1976, when he said he refused to be separated from his Black colleagues. A clip of him arguing against apartheid in a Senate hearing in 1986 resurfaced during this 2020 presidential campaign.

We hope we will not need to make addenda to this December 2021 Ancestors’ Call.  The last two years have been trying for so many around the world, and for the Pan-Afrikan community in particular, with the disproportionate impact of COVID, the twin scourges of police brutality and the brutality we inflict upon ourselves, and the increased stress that all of these conditions bring.  We wish all of you a safe and healthy holiday season, blessed and guided by the Creator and the Ancestors.

The Ancestors’ Call: Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science

In August of 2013, the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) held its annual International Summit in Los Angeles, California. Every Summit includes at least one event or gathering that underscores the cultural and spiritual essence of Pan-Afrikan organizing, a reminder of exactly what we all are struggling against our oppressors to protect and build. In 2013, that event was held at the KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science. The event included video presentations, musical performances, guest speakers and exchanges with the audience. Personally, it was my first and, so far, only visit to KRST, but the impact I felt from that one visit was deep and lasting. That spirit can largely be traced to the leadership of Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, the Senior Minister of KRST. He has now been called by the Ancestors to the realm of the infinite, to minister to our community from the other side.

The official announcement came on Wednesday, December 8 from the KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science:

With heavy hearts the Board of Directors of KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science and the Ministerial Staff announce the transition of our beloved Senior Minister, Reverend Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd into the Ancestral Realm on Sunday, December 5, 2021.

Reverend Byrd served as Senior Minister of Christ Unity Center/KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science for 33 years and dedicated his life to Spiritual Principles and Life Enrichment to his congregation and the community at large.

As per his direction, the mission of the Center will continue its operation under the leadership of Associate Ministers Reverend Erica Ni Ma’at Byrd and Reverend Abut Semsut Sa-t Beset.

Calls and inquiries may be directed to the Center regarding details of the memorial and community celebration of Reverend Byrd’s life which will take place on Friday, December 17th, 2021.

We gratefully receive your affirmative prayers, thoughts and gifts as you use this time to reflect on his life. We already know that this loss is deeply felt by many in our community and he would want us to remember to stay strong and to love one another.

All donations and contributions should be made payable to:
CUC/KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
7825 S Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90047
323-759-7567

Cash App and PayPal info can be found on the KRST Unity website @ www.krstunitycenter.org

The first Sunday Service after his transition was set for December 12, 2021:

Join the KRST Unity family this Sunday, December 12, 2021 at the 10:30a.m. Empowerment Service.

Celebration of Life

KRST Unity Center also announced a special Celebration of Rev. Byrd’s life.  Those who are in the area and wish to attend the service should go to the Website links below, or call the KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science at 323-759-7567 for further information:

A Celebration of Life for Rev. Richard Meri Ka RA Byrd

A community memorial service to honor Rev. Meri Ka Ra has been scheduled for Friday, December 17, 2021, 3:00p.m. to 8:00p.m.

RSVP Required

WLCAC (Watts Labor Community Action Committee)
10950 S Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90059

Please reserve your seat on EventBrite by clicking this link:

Celebration of Life Reservation Link

The memorial service for Rev. Meri Ka RA is open to all.
COVID Compliance guidelines will be strictly adhered to.
Face masks are required and temperatures will be taken.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations and contributions be made payable to:
CUC/KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
7825 S Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90047

Cash App 
$CuckrstUnityCenter

Paypal 

KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
www.krstunitycenter.org
Cash App and PayPal info can be found on the KRST Unity website
For questions or concerns, please contact the Center at 323-759-7567

Africa400 Goes on Hiatus; Check Out Classic Shows on Our Media Page

Africa400, the weekly Pan-Afrikan radio show hosted by Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty, with Special Episodes guest-hosted by Grandmother Walks On Water (“Mothership”) and Baba Francois Ndengwe (“Fresh News From Africa”), is taking a break from broadcasting as they make plans for the coming year.

Africa400 has discussed issues of children’s education (with a variety of guests including Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu), women’s issues, political prisoners (especially Imam Jamil Al-Amin), Afrikan-centered business ventures, Afrikan and Afrikan-American history (significantly, with historian Dr. Gerald Horne), culture, music (most notably highlighting pioneering jazz bagpiper Ancestor Rufus Harley and singer-rapper-songwriter Sis. Maimouna Youssef), health and spirituality (with health and spiritual experts such as Mama Ayo Handy-Kendi), among other compelling topics and guests.

While we will not have live shows for the immediate future, we are certain our readers have not had the opportunity to listen to all the shows of Africa400.  To remedy that problem, you are invited to visit our Media Page, which features every Africa400 episode from the show’s inception on traditional radio (WFBR in Baltimore) and even the show’s predecessor that was briefly broadcast under the Little Africa title.  All of these shows are available, with written introductions to the shows’ topics and guests, on our Media Page.

And keep visiting this site for updates on when Africa400 will resume live broadcasts.

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.

Mama Maisha (center) in the lobby of the Great Blacks In Wax Museum with attendees at the 2018 SRDC Summit in Baltimore, Maryland.