We include here comments and statements from Maryland and Washington, DC-based Pan-Afrikan and progressive organizations, activists and commentators about the Capitol Siege of January 6, 2021 and what this may mean for Afrikan People and grassroots communities.  As we receive more commentaries from truth-and-justice and Pan-Afrikan organizations, we will include them in this page.

Ujima People’s Progress Party

The Ujima People’s Progress Party (https://www.facebook.com/UPPMaryland/) is a Black worker-led independent political party based in Maryland. It is committed to Black people finding our own independent political voice, free from the capitalist control and influence of either the Democratic or Republican parties.

January 8, 2021, 7:00 AM

Statement on far-right rebellion on U.S. capital and the escalating crisis in the U.S. capitalist ruling class.

These are dangerous times for Black people. Yesterday’s assault by far-right white nationalist elements on the U.S. capitol while senators attempted to ratify the votes of the 2020 electoral college has reminded us all that Donald Trump’s defeat does not mean the Black community is now safe.

Millions of people watched as hundreds of far-right forces stormed the capitol building in an attempt to force a coup that would allow Donald Trump to remain in power. Despite the death of one protester and arrest of 50+ rioters, this attack happened with muted and sluggish responses from police agencies. We are painfully aware that had similar actions in Washington D.C. come from members of the Black community, that our people would have been brutally put down by that state, and hundreds would be arrested.

This conflict is not a crisis of democracy as put forward by ruling class media; instead, this is a crisis in the capitalist ruling class that has busted out into rebellion in the streets. The unity of white supremacist domination of the economic, political, and social structures of the U.S. nation is in great danger because capitalist exploitation has increased for all workers, and sectors of the white working-class have been mobilized by contending capitalist forces to demand their cut at the expense of all other workers.

The incoming Biden administration inherits the immediate task of trying to solve how to hold the union together. It has only two basic options to choose from in dealing with these unleashed far-right capitalist forces: move to suppress and defeat them by force or make economic, political, and social concessions to appease them.

The far-right shows that their perceived suppression will be met with resistance and open conflict that could split the white ruling class. Appeasement of these forces will come by implementing austerity allocating resources away from Black, Brown, and oppressed communities and into rust belt and heartlands of America. Neither option will make it safe or comfortable for the Black community to move forward in the wake of Trump’s departure.

The actions by the state to allow the far-right forces to storm the capitol lets us know that the state apparatus under the Biden administration will not be able to protect the Black community from physical or political attacks by elements of the far-right.

Black working-class people must organize for their economic & class interests. We must build the capacity to protect our interests, communities, and our very lives in lieu of the fact that the racist U.S. state continues to fail us as a people and as a class.

We must be organized, and we must build independent Black political action. We must better define for potential allies what they must do to align themselves with our movement for power and true liberation. It is not acceptable o continue to tail the liberal and so-called progressive wings of capitalist parties and activities.

We cannot afford to wait for the Biden administration, the Democratic party, and especially America to conclude that Black power matters; we must do this for ourselves and with the allies we choose.

Askia Muhammad

Washington, DC’s Askia Muhammad (https://www.facebook.com/askiaaa) is a veteran print and broadcast newsman, journalist and commentator. He has been a mainstay of Pacifica Radio’s WPFW-FM in Washington, DC for several decades.

This brief but to-the-point commentary on our neglect of the increasing right-wing resurgence in the media was written January 8 at 6:06 PM.

Over the decades, we’ve watched public attention to wacko white nationalists morph from Goldwater, to Nixon, to Reagan, to Bush, to the Tea Party, to the Freedom Caucus, to Q-Anon, to the Boogaloo Boys, to the Proud Boys, to #45; each one becoming more toxic than the one who went before.

But with Black folks, we’re still mostly focused on, and eager to applaud “first Negroes” integrating this-that-or-the-other field of endeavor; entertainers, or athletes, sex symbols–boobs and abs–and folks accumulating mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money; with each “success” we cheer simply a reflection of that someone winning the approval of and acceptance into the White, Neoliberal establishment by being more acquiescent than the Blood who went before.

Baltimore People’s Power Assembly

The Baltimore People’s Power Assembly (https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesPowerAssembly) grew out of the All People’s Congress, which had established itself as a multi-racial, progressive organization in East Baltimore in the 1980’s through the early 2000’s. It works through direct action campaigns, political education teach-ins and public meetings and supports efforts to fight police brutality, exonerate and release political prisoners, stamp out institutional racism and pressure government and political officials to enact more progressive, people-centered domestic and foreign policies.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/01/07/coup-attempt-is-the-danger-over/?fbclid=IwAR37pwpJQNZ5JUUVWp8r7kcgcGokGofwaW45-aHxcVkaD0cykul9oAVB2sU

Coup attempt: Is the danger over?
January 7, 2021, by Sharon Black

Jail Trump, his fascist mob, and killer cops

The storming of the U.S. Capitol by white supremacists incited by President Trump, which temporarily halted the certification vote, had to have the collusion of multiple federal police agencies. It is implausible that there was no preparation when these very events had been telegraphed for months by Trump himself. “Civil War January 6, 2021” was printed on the MAGA sweatshirts; this was no secret. The only way that the racist mob could freely occupy the Capitol is if the police made a deliberate decision to let them.

The world watched while armed fascists carrying Confederate flags and metal battering rams breached metal detectors, held Congress hostage, took over offices, smashed windows, openly carried ladders to scale the Capitol, posed for selfies with police and were eventually escorted out of the building without arrest.

Two pipe bombs were confiscated, along with weapons and ammunition, and four people are reported dead. A KKK-inspired noose was erected on the west end of the Capitol.

This was reminiscent of how the Alabama authorities allowed the Klan to attack the freedom riders in Anniston, Ala., on May 14, 1961, nearly killing several people. Local police did nothing for at least 15 minutes.

The storming of the Capitol was consciously in the tradition of the previous overthrow of the democratically elected, majority-rule Reconstruction governments in South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and the rest, which culminated in the coup and massacre in Wilmington, N.C., in 1898.

Contrast this with Kenosha, Wis. In anticipation of community anger at the refusal to indict police in the shooting of Jacob Blake, streets were shut down and the National Guard was mobilized in advance of the acquittal.

What happens next, is the danger over?

Biden’s extremely weak response is deeply problematic in terms of pushing back the fascists and what it means for the future. Rather than making a call for disbanding the fascist thugs, the racist mob or arresting Trump, Biden called for unity.

Unity with who and for what?

Here was an opportunity for Biden and the Democrats to strike a definitive blow against Trump and the movement he has spawned. He could have called for Trump’s arrest or made an appeal for people to mobilize against the racist and reactionary threat. He didn’t.

In many respects it was a betrayal of the Black voters, especially in Georgia, who courageously resisted racist threats to vote against racism and reaction.

The timidity of Biden and the Democrats is not surprising.

What underlies these developments and girders the fascist reaction is the contraction of the capitalist economy and the deep decay and crisis of the system. While seemingly hidden, it supersedes the will of capitalist politicians who attempt to represent one section or another of the ruling class.

It is an important lesson. The capitalist class, regardless of its divisions, has no will to put these racist scum in the dustbin of history. Like the bankers and businesses that were financing Hitler up to the last bullet, they are hedging their bets. They are reluctant to crush them.

Danger of imperialist war in the next 14 days

We would be seriously amiss to not state the obvious threat of imperialist war most immediately aimed at Iran, but ultimately — regardless of which administration is in office — directed at any country that seeks to chart an independent course from imperialism — whether it is Venezuela, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or Cuba. See the call for emergency response actions.

There are still 14 days before the Jan. 20 inauguration. Just as we demand the jailing of killer cops, we must mobilize the movement to call for the immediate arrest of Trump and stop the white supremacist mobs.

Trump should not only be arrested but also extradited for war crimes. Trump is now wanted by Iraq for ordering the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Iraqi Commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis; Iran has also issued an arrest warrant through Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) for the same crime.

The antidote to fascism is workers’ solidarity and socialism

While billionaires are raking in unprecedented profits, cashing in while the deaths of COVID victims piles up, the vast majority of the people are finding themselves living in deeper misery. Capitalist governments have not been able to stop the COVID pandemic and have failed miserably at providing health care for the vast majority. Widespread unemployment threatens not only low wage workers but also the middle class. Millions are facing evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs.

Traditionally it is the middle class, the small business owners, and others like them who are isolated and in despair, who are duped by fascist ideology. It is only a strong, united anti-capitalist and anti-racist working-class movement that can pull them away from such an destructive dead end.

“Such a situation can only exist in periods of extraordinarily acute social crisis when the capitalist state is so torn by accumulating inner contradictions and weakened by its inability to overcome its social crisis that it inevitably gives way to extra-parliamentary, extra-legal forms of rule,” Sam Marcy said of the struggle against fascism.

It will take the organization of the broad working class and the leadership of its most oppressed, Black, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous, Arab, Asian, women and LGBTQ2S people, to both develop a defense of its own class interests and place socialism on the agenda.

White Males Invade the US Capitol
An Analysis from US History

I first wrote this article in 2009 when it was posted on Counterpunch and decided that I would send it out yet again. After the 2009 posting I received numerous emails. One was from a woman in North Carolina who said her ancestors had helped union soldiers and southern confederate deserters to maneuver through the Appalachian Mountains to reach the Union Army lines. Suffice it to say the resistance in the South to the Civil War, as well as anger about the succession from the Union, was immense.

In 2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, there was, in fact, an abundance of new scholarship about the 19th century. Some questioned the long-standing myths about Lincoln but also of the Civil War itself and the Confederacy. With an amalgam of earlier scholarship, these studies have included a consideration of the impact of the hedonism of the southern slaveholding planters along with their complicity in the Confederate defeat. In other words, the southern plantation owners worked against their own interests.

This article is, in fact, a brief summary of that complicity and offers a fresh look of the South during the Civil War, which includes narrative on the South’s battle with itself. The focus is mostly about the Civil War and its impact on non-slaveholding southern whites and the role played by African slaves in the Confederate defeat. It is largely taken from the work of historian David Williams at Valdosta State University and his excellent book   Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War (2008).

The myth of the “Lost Cause” emanating from the defeated South after the Civil War is of an antebellum genteel planter class with its happy contented slaves. ‘God was responsible for slavery’, the elite said, ‘not the South’, as the South was but civilizing an inferior Black race through its contact with the superior white civilization under the auspices of slavery. 

The South also maintained, as it re-wrote history, that the white supremacist South was unified in its fight against the marauding North during the Civil War. But there is another story that has been debated for the past century!

What is also so impressive about this understanding of the Civil War in the South was the role played by African slaves. For one, they coordinated from plantation to plantation with codes (such as waving sheets in certain ways) to assist southern deserters and union soldiers not only with food but to reach the Union lines. As Williams wisely notes, the slaves played a significant role in the defeat of the Confederacy.

The Other Story Regarding the Southern White Elite vs Poor Whites

What angered the Southern plantation elite was that with the 1860 election of Lincoln as president, they knew that their hopes of spreading slavery into the western territories were at an end. Lincoln wanted the movement west to provide opportunities for “free labor” white homesteaders to fulfill the Jeffersonian dream of agrarian independence. He did not want slavery in the west nor did he want black folks moving west as freed men. Plus, first and foremost, Lincoln wanted to save the Union.

The South realized with the election that it was not going to have its way with the Republican Party or with the northern Democrats. Karl Marx, as ever the profound analyst, wrote in the German “Die Presse” in 1861, “When the Democrats of the North declined to go on playing the part of the poor whites of the South” the Southern elite took their sword from the scabbard  (Marx,1861).

The southern elite also faced a growing poor white population that was becoming harder to control. Poor white voters were increasing and they were making more demands through their franchise. Some have inferred, including Williams, that one reason the South went to war was because the elite were more concerned about poor whites than anything else. “The poor hate the rich” was the cry from South Carolina planter James Henry Hammond, who went on to say that the poor make war on the rich “especially with universal suffrage” (Williams, 2008). The elite began to explore ways to control the vote through class-based restrictions on white suffrage. Placing this “class” antagonism and passion of poor whites into a war was certainly one way to control them and diffuse the anger.

_________

“The poor hate the rich” was the cry from South Carolina planter James Henry Hammond, who went on to say that the poor make war on the rich “especially with universal suffrage”(Williams, 2008)
_________

By expanding further west, the South could also provide more opportunities for poor whites to become slaveholders – at least the hope of it. Slavery, after all, required large acreage and mass labor to be profitable and because land in the South was being “exhausted” by mono-crops, such as cotton, there was less fertile land available. In addition, slaveholders in the South were also in the business of “raising” and “selling” slaves and they wanted to expand that market. 

Regarding the slave market, Marx wrote, “Indeed, by force of circumstances South Carolina has already been transformed in part into a slave-raising state, since it already sells slaves to the sum of four million dollars yearly to the states of the extreme South and South-west” (Marx 1861). Marx contended that more territory was, in fact, essential for slavery’s survival.

Marx again writes, “Only by acquisition and the prospect of acquisition of new Territories, as well as by filibustering expeditions, is it possible to square the interests of these poor whites with those of the slaveholders, to give their restless thirst for action a harmless direction and to tame them with the prospect of one day becoming slaveholders themselves” (Marx, 1861).

But slaveholders also had political ambitions and were obviously aspiring imperialists – they wanted their own colonies in the western territories from which they could gain even more control over the U.S. government by adding more states to the slaveocracy.

All over the South, however, there were pockets of communities opposed to the South’s secession and angry at the arrogance of the ruling elite for seceding. The planters after all, controlled the secession conventions and the decisions from the state conventions were not sent to the people for a vote. Some communities even declared secession from the Confederacy itself. Many wanted to avoid what they thought would be an invasion by the North. West Virginia, for one, that was composed largely of small non-slaveholding white farmers, broke off from the planter slaveholding “old” Virginia and sided with the Union. 

Ultimately many in the South recognized that the “Confederacy was in a two-front war: one against the North and one against it’s own people” (Williams, 2008).

Resistance from Free and Enslaved Blacks and Poor Whites

It was against this backdrop that the Civil War began and in which Williams writes that the resistance and desertion of poor southern whites during the war was to begin, and of the resistance of southern blacks both slave and free. Most of the Confederate soldiers were non-slaveholding farmers and many acquiesced to the war but conditions intensified and discontent grew everywhere.

It didn’t take long for non-slaveholding white farmers and other poor whites to recognize that this was a rich man’s war being fought by poor men. Even after the firing at Fort Sumter in 1861 that launched the beginning of the war, officers began to go home, but enlisted men were forbidden to resign. Williams reports that the class distinction of this policy was not lost on the southern soldiers.

The non-slaveholding farmers in the war were largely subsistence farmers. They grew what the family needed, rather than commodity mono-crops such as cotton or rice. Further, they didn’t have enough land for these crops nor did they have the labor. Many describe the South’s non-slaveholding yeoman farmers as the essence of the independent agrarian America, like their farming brothers in the North.

As Steven Hahn writes in the ‘The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890‘ the farmers in north Georgia didn’t need the planters telling them what to complain about regarding the Yankees. They simply wanted to be left alone and didn’t want anyone threatening their way of life. But off to war they went. These were not military men, however. They were farmers trying to protect their region from an invading army. Hahn states, however, that the north Georgia yeoman farmers were among the largest community of deserters in the state.

After the first major battle and Confederate victory of the war in the “First Battle of Bull Run” in July 1861, Confederate soldiers left for home in droves to all areas of the South. They had won a major battle and for many the conflict was over.

_________

At one point during the war, according to Williams,
two-thirds of the Confederate army had deserted.
_________

But the fact remains that wives across the region were writing their husbands to come home. They were needed to plant the crops. Not long into the war, families began to struggle and starve and the requests from the families to come home were too compelling. At one point during the war, according to Williams, two-thirds of the Confederate army had deserted. Deserters also needed to hide from the authorities, resulting in an underground system being created throughout the South to assist and hide them, but many were ultimately killed or jailed. The book Cold Mountain (1997) by Charles Frazier and the subsequent movie graphically portray the brutality of Confederate officials in their quest for deserters and the disdain for their families.

But there were also anti-war and peace associations (mostly underground efforts) across the South that organized to protect deserters, help union prisoners escape as well as attempt to undermine the Confederate authority. Examples are the Atlanta Union Circle, the Closet Fellowship in Montgomery, the Union Association in Charleston and countless others.  

Assistance to Deserters who were known as “Heroes of America”

Another was the “Heroes of America” formed in North Carolina that spread through South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The group encouraged desertion of Confederate soldiers and promised to protect them once home. All across the ‘mountain South’ there were efforts to assist deserters and those who had ‘run afoul’ of the Confederate authorities to hide and/or leave the South. One guide, “Daniel Ellis, was said to have piloted over four thousand people out of the Confederacy….In north Georgia’s Union County, Austin Mason organized a chain of safe houses to shelter prisoners and deserters as they fled north through the mountains” (Williams, 2008).

_________

“Heroes of America” formed in North Carolina that spread through
South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The group encouraged
desertion of Confederate soldiers and promised to
protect them once home.
_________

Because of the high rate of desertion, in April 1862 the Confederate government under President Jefferson Davis conscripted southerners into the army. It was the first general Conscription Act in the United States. Williams notes that under the Act, men with money could pay a fee to stay out of the military. As a result, bribing officials became a common practice. Plus, there was the most hated provision that allowed slaveholders with 20 slaves or more to be exempted from the military. Tennessee Private Sam Watkins said, “We wanted twenty negroes. Negro property became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of ‘rich man’s war, poor man’s fight’…from this time until the end of the war a soldier was simply a machine. We cursed the war…we cursed the Southern Confederacy. All our pride and valor was gone” (Williams, 2008).

Planters Grew Cotton and Tobacco Rather than Food for the
Confederate Army

Partly to appease the anger over exemption, the planters essentially said that they would grow food for the Confederate army and take care of the farmer’s families. They had the most fertile land and labor after all. But the fact is, the planters did not grow food as promised and southerners starved both at home and in the military. As the price of cotton went up considerably during the war, the planters grew cotton as well as tobacco instead.

…common folk quickly learned that planter patriotism was more apparent than real. Food production never came close to meeting demand because planters devoted far too much acreage to cotton and tobacco. In 1863, cotton production reached its second-highest level on record to that time, declining after that year due in large part to rising slave resistance. Even so, labor devoted to cotton in the growing alone, not to mention processing and transport, amounted to 2.3 million man-years between 1861 and 1864, more than went into defending the Confederacy (Williams, 2008).

In 1863, cotton production reached its second-highest level on record
at that time, declining after that year due in large part to
rising slave resistance.
_________

Further, rather than insisting on the planters growing food, the Confederacy ultimately “impressed” 10% of farm production for the war effort. The problem was that many of those responsible for impressing the food off farms paid little attention to the 10% provision and took everything they could find. This made matters worse, of course!

In the meantime, food riots largely organized by women took place throughout the region from Virginia to Texas.

“It was the same all over the South. A letter to Florida’s Governor Milton reported that starving soldiers families in Hernando County ‘are becoming clamorous for meat, and are killing people’s cows wherever they can get hold of them.’ About a dozen women in Floyd County, Virginia ransacked a Confederate supply depot and stole a large supply of bacon. Fifty miles to the west a dozen mountain women brandishing pistols and knives descended on Abington and looted the town. The raid’s success inspired a second band of women, who shortly afterward, swept through Abingdon taking what was left” (Williams, 2008).

Reverse Underground Railroad: Slaves help ‘white’ deserters

Williams also describes how deserters formed guerrilla groups throughout the south to steal food off plantations and to hide from conscript officers. Some of the groups were composed of escaped slaves and whites that at times resulted in a “reverse underground railroad” as slaves organized to help them. Slaves in plantations helped the deserter groups secure food, helped them hide and also provided information about safe havens north to the Union lines. One Union soldier, John Kellogg, who was assisted by blacks to escape through the Georgia mountains, was impressed with what he called the slave “telegraph line.”

_________

Slaves in plantations helped the deserter groups secure food,
helped them hide and also provided information about
safe havens north to the Union lines.
_________

Black resistance and efforts to undermine the Confederacy were impressive and significant in contributing to the defeat of the Confederacy. They were credited with burning ships and storehouses to spying and destabilizing plantations. Throughout the South, plantation owners began to fear their slaves and were shocked at slave resistance to authority. The tables had turned!

Conclusion

What has been described here is but a summary. Williams outlines in detail the tremendous discontent and suffering during the war. Ultimately, there were 300,000 white southerners who fought for the Union and 200,000 blacks. Nearly a quarter of the Union army was composed of southerners.

Williams ends his book by stating that:

“Most southerners eventually came to feel that they would be better off with the war over and the Union restored. To many the Confederacy was the real enemy. It conscripted their men, impressed their supplies, and starved them out. It favored the rich and oppressed the poor. It made war on those who dared withhold their support and made life miserable for the rest. One South Carolina farmer, after having his livestock impressed, spoke for many when he insisted that “the sooner this damned Government fell to pieces the better it would be for us” (Williams, 2008).

Scholarship on the South from the poor non-slaveholding white perspective is a significant contribution. Interestingly, Williams offers more of a class analysis of the Confederacy than is usually the case. Small white farmers and poor whites generally are stereotyped as those who are browbeaten, controlled and manipulated by the wealthy southern elite with rarely a voice of their own. In this article I have not addressed the issue of race, however, and the attitudes of poor whites toward slavery, which is also important. Nevertheless, this short article is offering a new and refreshing look at challenges by poor whites to the social and economic arrogance of the southern elite during the Civil War.

This is also yet another narrative on the perils of concentrated wealth of the likes of southern slaveholders and unfettered capitalists of today, and the depths to which they will go for their own benefit at the tragic expense of everyone else. In this instance, however, thanks to their greed, the southern slaveholders managed to defeat the very goals they aspired to achieve. While tens of thousands of Southerners and Northerners suffered because of their greed, the fact is that, contrary to their aspirations, and in response to this exploitation, the Civil War slaveholders managed to work against their own interests and instead helped to save the union and end slavery. 

Williams also contends that one of the reasons we’ve not heard this version of the war is because both the South and the North have had a vested interest in the myths. The South wanted the world to think that the “white” South stood united against the enemy, which makes it easier to victimize itself. Although the North had its resistance as well, the North has had an interest in a version of the war that stresses its victory over a united South, rather than one that was split apart. Williams and others are now offering scholarship to challenge these myths, and/or have brought forward previous writings on the Confederacy. 

References:

*Hahn, Steven. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

*Marx, Karl. The North American Civil War. Die Presse, No. 293, October 25, 1861, in Marx/Engels Collected Works, Volume 19. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964.

*Williams, David. Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War. New York: Free Press, 2008.

For many of us, 2020 was an undeniably terrible year, and we look forward to 2021 with hope for a better year for ourselves, for our families, for humanity and for the planet.  Join Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty as we look ahead to the year 2021 on the December 30 edition of Africa400.

Also, Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty welcome author Shonta Watson to open up the show, discussing her new book, part of the Shea Buttah & The Herbal Kids series™️ that is available now, ready for Kwanzaa.  Her Web site is www.sheabuttahandtheherbalkids.com, her Instagram page is https://www.instagram.com/aspire_by_tay/, and her book can be purchased there and through Cash App: $AspirebyTay or PayPal: paypal.me/ShontaW.

Several of you called in to the show to share your thoughts as you reflected on 2020 and prepared to bring in 2021.  Listen to the audio of the show here:

Africa400 can be heard every Wednesday at 2:00 PM (Eastern Time in the United States) on 1590 AM WFBR in Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland.  The show is also live-streamed on several Web sites, including Famous 1590 – WFBR – AM 1590 – Glen Burnie, MD – Streema Player and WFBR 1590AM Baltimore, 1590 AM, Glen Burnie, MD | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn.  After the show airs, it will also be featured in an updated version of this post as well as on our Media Page.

 

 

Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater, the National Association of Kawaida Organizations (NAKO) and the International African Arts Festival present 

the Virtual 54th Annual Kwanzaa Celebration on Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
Sunday, December 27, 2020
2:00 – 4:00 PM Eastern Time (US)

Featuring a Special Lecture by Dr. Maulana Karenga: “Kwanzaa and the Well-Being of the World: Living and Uplifting the Seven Principles”

For More Information, visit the Website: www.iaafestival.org; or Phone: (718) 789-3264.  For Vending Opportunities: (646) 291-7254.

 

The December 23, 2020 edition of Africa400 marked the approach of 20 years of imprisonment for Political Prisoner Imam Jamil Al-Amin, who was once known as H. Rap Brown.  Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty welcomed their Special Guests Bro. Kairi Al-Amin, the son of the Imam, and Dr. Maulana Karenga, Creator of Kwanzaa and Professor & Chair, Department of Africana Studies, Cal State University-Long Beach.  His Web sites are https://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org and https://www.maulanakarenga.org.

Listen to the audio of the show by clicking here:

Dr. Karenga wrote an April 25, 2019 commentary on Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s continuing fight for freedom, which can be read in its entirety at Achieving Justice for Imam Jamil: A Battleline For All of Us – Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | Black News (lasentinel.net).

“Clearly, his trial was grossly flawed and his conviction was deeply wrongful. His targeting and imprisonment was political. His transfer from a prison in Georgia for a state conviction to federal prisons in Colorado and Arizona and being placed in solidarity confinement for 8 years is vindictive, vicious and designed to isolate him from family, community and legal counsel, and punish and break him. The refusal to allow journalists and academics to see and interview him is to muzzle him and eliminate the regular monitoring and checking on their savage treatment of him. And the denial of adequate and appropriate treatment for him is inhumane, a violation of his human rights and creating conditions for his death. Thus, we must see and engage this as a moral obligation to resist and reverse these unjust and evil actions.”
– Dr. Maulana Karenga, Achieving Justice for Imam Jamil: A Battleline For All of Us

The Web site Prisoner Solidarity (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Imam | prisonersolidarity.com) describes the events leading up to the Imam’s incarceration thus:

“On March 16th, 2000, Fulton County Deputy Sheriff Ricky Kinchen is shot and later dies, while another deputy Aldranon English is wounded after being shot by a man outside Imam Jamil’s store. English identified the shooter in the March 16 incident as Imam Jamil, yet testified that he shot the assailant—who “had grey eyes”—in the exchange of gunfire. Imam Al-Amin’s eyes are brown, and he had no gunshot injury when he was captured just four days later.”

An important support Web site that has been established by Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s son, Bro. Kairi Al-Amin, is https://whathappened2rap.com.

There is also a YouTube video featuring Bro. Kairi Al-Amin (https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR3R1v4ZWUZf8IJ_JEt4w4wUaBJW-sNv60ozfp-L71wRP_SKzordVwjmazQ&v=0SELtMGzx0w&feature=youtu.be) which appears on the WhatHappened2Rap site.

A Change.org petition (Sponsor Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard : New Trial For Imam Jamil Al-Amin FKA H. Rap Brown (change.org)) currently seeks signatures and support for a new trial in the effort to exonerate and free Imam Jamil Al-Amin.

Africa400 can be listened to on the radio in the Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland areas on 1590-AM WFBR.  The show is also streamed over the Internet on a variety of platforms, most notably on WFBR 1590AM Baltimore, 1590 AM, Glen Burnie, MD | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn and Famous 1590 – WFBR – AM 1590 – Glen Burnie, MD – Streema Player.  After the show airs, it will be recorded and featured in an update of this post as well as on our Media Page.

Edited by SRDC International Facilitator Professor David L. Horne, The New African World is a publication of the UNIA-ACL Rehabilitating Committee 2020 which adds its voice to the discussion around the nature and essence of Pan-Africanism and Pan-African organizing in this often difficult time.  We will feature this publication on this Web site as new issues are published.  For now, we invite you to enjoy and be informed by the first issue of this new publication:

The New African World Newsletter Issue 1

We now receive regular news and updates from a variety of sources related to African issues.  RSS Feeds from the African Union, United Nations and news service AllAfrica.com bring you the most recent news stories from Africa and the World Stage.  Check out our Newsfeed Page for updates from these sources as well as links to AfricaFocus, Pambazuka News and other sources to stay updated on news of importance to Africa and the African Diaspora.

Africa400 discusses the topic “Restitution Movement: Returning Stolen African Art and Heritage” on Wednesday, December 9 and Wednesday, December 16.  Hosts Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty welcome Special Guest, Mwazulu Diyabanza Siwa Lemba, international spokesperson of the pan-African movement YANKANKU (Unity Dignity Courage).  He will be assisted by his translator, Baba Francis Ndengwe, editor of Femmes and Hommes d’Afrique magazine.

This interview was done in two parts.  The December 9 show (Part One of the interview) can be heard on our Media Page or by clicking below:

A combination of bad weather and technical problems forced the postponement of the second part of the interview from December 16 to December 17, when the show was broadcast by the good people at HAND Radio (Home – HAND RADIO) who made a recording of the full show.  Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty then made the show available to us, and we include it below:

Here is a little background information on Mwazulu Diyabanza Siwa Lemba:

ENGLISH/ENGLAIS

MAN AND HIS CONVICTIONS: Unfailingly attached to Bumuntu: African humanism Mwazulu Diyabanza remains convinced that the human person coming out of Africa has in him the key to the solution to all his great evils and that he must also look at him. profound as it may be to operate its upliftment and the transformation of its society. He also remains convinced that the unity of Africa is the sinequanone condition for its full economic and political realization.

Mwazulu is today, general secretary of the OTID union, independent researcher in African politics and culture and the international spokesperson of the pan-African movement YANKANKU (Unity Dignity Courage) and summarizes his pan-African commitment in 14 points included in the manifesto of Yankanku / MANINKANKU .

FRENCH/FRANCAIS

L’HOMME ET SES CONVICTIONS: Indéfectiblement attaché au Bumuntu: L’humanisme Africain Mwazulu Diyabanza demeure convaincu que la personne humaine sortie d’Afrique à en elle la clef de la solution à tous ses grands maux et qu’elle doit regardée en lui aussi profond que cela puisse être pour opérer son élévation et la transformation de sa société. Il demeure également convaincu que l’unité de l’Afrique est la condition sinequanone pour sa réalisation économique et politique complète.

Mwazulu est en ce jour , secrétaire général du syndicat OTID, chercheur indépendant en politique et culture Africaine et le porte-parole international du mouvement panafricain YANKANKU( Unité Dignité Courage) et résume son engagement panafricain en 14 points inscrits dans le manifeste de Yankanku/MANINKANKU.

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His commitment to the restitution of African artifacts of art and heritage has, as one might expect, landed him in hot water with Western authorities who wish to keep these Afrikan treasures for themselves.  He has endured numerous court dates, and more such trials are forthcoming.  As part of his legal defense, the Web site CotizUp has established a fund for his lawyers and the cost of the movement.  The site, SOUTIEN AVOCAT MWAZULU SUPPORT LAWYERS MWAZULU UDC – CotizUp.com, is similar to what is normally seen in the United States on a GoFundMe page. 

SUPPORT LAWYERS MWAZULU UDC
This pot is made to pay the lawyers who defend Mwazulu Diyabanza the activists who act in museum since June 12, 2020 and for the costs of managing our movement around the fight against the theft of invaluable cultural works and obtain their direct restitution to the underprivileged peoples of the planet.

Another fund-raising effort is the release and sale of his book Bumuntu: Humanisme Africain, on the Web site Cagnotte : CAGNOTTE POUR LE LIVRE NUMERIQUE BUMUNTU: HUMANISME AFRICAIN – Leetchi.com:

OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THE POCKET BOOK BUMUNTU; AFRICAN HUMANISM.
Mwazulu Diyabanza restores The spiritual, cultural and architectural heritage of Africa. It also introduces us to the human person who came out of Africa in its existential whole and in all its social fullness.  The book is available for purchase on the site.

More Articles on Mwazulu Diyabanza

There are several articles on Mwazulu Diyabanza from several sources on the Web.  Here are links to some of them:

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/marseille-mwazulu-diyabanza-1924953
A French Court Acquits Four Anti-Colonial Activists Who Removed a Spear From a Museum, Saying the Gesture Counts as Free Speech
The Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza says the verdict sets an encouraging precedent.
by Naomi Rea, November 19, 2020

https://www.art-critique.com/en/2020/11/mwazulu-diyabanza-aquitted-for-theft-in-marseilles/
Mwazulu Diyabanza Aquitted For Theft in Marseilles
By Katherine Keener, Published on 19 November 2020

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/11/11/emery-mwazulu-diyabanza
Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza: ‘France is still a colonial country’
The activist on a mission to return colonial-era art to Africa has recently been fined for his protests, but promises to continue.
By Peter Yeung, 11 Nov 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/arts/design/france-museum-quai-branly.html
To Protest Colonialism, He Takes Artifacts From Museums
Mwazulu Diyabanza will appear in a Paris court this month after he tried to make off with an African treasure he says was looted. France and its attitude to the colonial past will be on trial, too.
By Farah Nayeri, Published Sept. 21, 2020, Updated Sept. 30, 2020

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/mwazulu-diyabanza-arrested-louvre-1234574985/
Activist Mwazulu Diyabanza Arrested After Attempting to Take Artifact from Louvre
By Claire Selvin, October 26, 2020 11:50am

 

Africa400 can be listened to on the radio in the Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland areas on 1590-AM WFBR.  The show is also streamed over the Internet on a variety of platforms, most notably on WFBR 1590AM Baltimore, 1590 AM, Glen Burnie, MD | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn and Famous 1590 – WFBR – AM 1590 – Glen Burnie, MD – Streema Player.  After the show airs, it will be recorded and featured in an update of this post as well as on our Media Page.

The Wednesday, December 2 edition of Africa400 discusses the topic “Decolonizing Relationships to Holidays, Food and Security” with returning Special Guest Grandmother Walks On Water, who will join hosts Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty for this inspiring discussion. 

Africa400 can be heard on the radio every Wednesday afternoon from 2:00-3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on WFBR 1590 AM in Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland.  It can also be heard over the Internet on a variety of platforms, including https://mytuner-radio.com/radio/wfbr-famous-1590-am-426025/, as well as http://streema.com/radios/play/WFBR and https://tunein.com/radio/WFBR-1590AM-Baltimore-s29972/.  After the broadcast, we will post the show in an update of this post as well as on our Media Page.

The November 25, 2020 edition of Africa400 explored the topic of “The Awakening: Children of the Light”.

Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty’s Special Guest was Kwame Sunhorse.  He is a researcher of African History, Indigenous American Culture and Spirituality.  He is founder of A.T.U.M. (Awakening True Universal Minds).

To listen to the show, click below:

Africa400 can be heard on the radio every Wednesday afternoon from 2:00-3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on WFBR 1590 AM in Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland.  It can also be heard over the Internet on a variety of platforms, including https://mytuner-radio.com/radio/wfbr-famous-1590-am-426025/, as well as http://streema.com/radios/play/WFBR and https://tunein.com/radio/WFBR-1590AM-Baltimore-s29972/.  After the broadcast, we will post the show in an update of this post as well as on our Media Page.