One Africa Worldview

On November 19, 2021, 18-year old Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges.  Rittenhouse had been charged with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, and one count of curfew violation following an incident August 25, 2020.

In a seeming contrast, the three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery, an African jogger in Glynn County, Georgia were found guilty on November 24, 2021.  On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, an avid jogger, was lynched by father and son George McMichael and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William Bryan.

We know that power in the hands of the African Working Class is the highest form of true justice and liberation, no colonial courts can give us this.  In this episode, we will deepen the analysis of these differing judgements by hearing the words of various Uhuru Movement leaders Chairman Omali Yeshitela and President Kalambayi Andenet and speaking with Kobina Bantushango, the African People’s Socialist Party’s Southern Regional Representative.  It is there that Kobina is organizing the Black People’s Court to take the African community from Protest to Power.  

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

In this episode, we say NO THANKS TO COLONIALISM. We expose the colonial mythology of Thanksgiving as the ideological support for Manifest Destiny and European/White North American colonial-capitalist domination; namely but not only the project of settler-colonialism.  We speak with two activists and educators about the long history of anticolonial resistance and African and Indigenous solidarity. 

We discuss a variety of topics such as the colonial origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, created amidst the genocide of indigenous people, namely the mass lynching of Lakota people by the US military, the struggle for an America without borders, and the continued resistance of indigenous people. 

Our guest are Dr. Jimmy Patino and Ron Gochez.

Dr. Patino holds a PhD in Chicano History from the University of California San Diego and is a Professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Patino is the author of the book Raza Si, Migra No! Chicano Movement Struggles for Immigrant Rights in San Diego which chronicles the activism of Chicano movement activist Herman Baca and the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR). 

Ron Gochez is the Undersecretary of Union Del Barrio in Los Angeles, California.  Ron is also a history teacher in South Central Los Angeles.  In 2013, he ran for Los Angeles City Council.  He currently leads work with the Association of Raza Educators and the Committees of Resistance.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On November 6th and 7th, the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held its 13th Annual Black People’s March on the White House followed by its annual Conference in Washington DC.  Africans, other colonized people and white people in solidarity gathered at Malcolm X Park and marched to Lafayette Park where they held a rally to mobilize for justice and self-determination for black people.  The next day local and remote representatives of the various organizations that make up the Black is Back Coalition came together - some in-person and some virtual - and held their annual conference, broadcast online for the safety of the audience during the current pandemic.

In this episode, we present some excerpts from the rallies, the march and the conference.  Full coverage of the conference can be found at the Black is Back Coalition’s Facebook Page.

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On October 24, 2021, Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was honored with the unveiling of a bronze bust at the intersection of Mandela Parkway and Dr. Huey P. Newton Way (formerly 9th street) in West Oakland, California.  Ninth Street was changed to Dr. Huey P. Newton Way on what would have been Newton’s 79th Birthday, February 17, 2021.  The revealing of the bust marked the 55th anniversary of the Black Panther Party. 

Today we talk with Bakari Olatunji is the Western Regional Representative of the African People’s Socialist Party about the Uhuru Movement's historic defense of Huey and the Black Panther Party.  Bakari led a contingency of six forces who served as the honor guard for the unveiling.  

Bakari was raised in Oakland and still lives there.  His organizing efforts span from to Little Bobby Hutton Mobile Health Clinic, to the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, to Uhuru Foods and Pies. 

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On October 24, 2021, the African National Women's Organization held the Arrest CPS organizing conference to bring together parents, organizers and lawyers as a strategy to strengthen parents’ defense of their children and offer a network of support that is rooted in empowering African families.  The organizing conference featured panel discussions from members of the Uhuru Movement, Union Del Barrio, Operation Stop CPS and Movement for Power.

This episode features excerpts from that conference.  It establishes the state-sponsored child welfare system as part of a long history of colonial domination of African and Indigenous people and provides practical ways for people to organize in their best interest.

To view the full conference go to the African National Women's Organization Facebook Page.

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Today on The People’s War Radio Show, we are looking at the water crisis in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Benton Harbor is 85 percent Black and more than 45 percent of the residents live below the poverty line.  As far back as 2015, residents began to notice high amounts of lead in their water. 

Residents began to raise the alarm but local and state officials did nothing.  After years of complaints, a 2018 was finally done that showed the presence of lead in the Benton Harbor water at rates that exceeded the highest point of the Flint Water Crisis. That was three years ago.  Thanks to the efforts of organizers, this issue has finally gained international attention. 

The Benton Harbor water crisis is another example of the colonial virus. The Benton Harbor Water Crisis, the Flint Water Crisis and all other environmental crises are the result of an unjust economic system where white people in the US and Europe, less than 20% of the world’s population, consume over 80% of the world's resources.

This status quo is unsustainable but we know that there will never be peace until African people and colonized peoples all over the world have control over their own land and resources.

Today we talk with two activists from Benton Harbor, Reverend Edward Pinkney and Akinsheli Sayero’ Oshosi.

A longtime activist, Rev. Edward Pinkney has organized for African independence in Benton Harbor in the face of their subservience to the Whirlpool corporation. Rev. Pinkney is the President and CEO of the Benton Harbor Water Council.  He is also leader and founder of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization as well as a member of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.

Akinsheli Sayero’ Oshosi is a member of African People's Socialist Party and resides in Battle Creek, Michigan.  He also works with the Louisiana United International Working Group and the Black is Back Coalition. From 1969 to 1975, he was a member of the Black Panther Party.  He continued his fight in defense of the constitutional rights of Benton Harbor Residents.  Sayero’ is a lifelong revolutionary in spirit, deed and thought.

Rev. Pinkey and Sayero speak about the Benton Harbor Water Crisis, the colonial conditions the African community suffer under the Whirlpool Corporation, corrupt politicians and heavy-handed policing.  They also propose ways forward. 

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

At the height of the African Revolution of the 1960s, Italian Communist Filmmaker Gilo Pontecorvo released what is possibly his magnum opus, the greatest work of his career, The Battle of Algiers.  The Battle of Algiers was shot in the streets of Algiers in a documentary style, dramatizing a key period in the Algerian independence struggle against French colonialism.

The film has much to teach us now, as the struggle against western colonialism and neo-colonialism rages around the world. It explores the role of Islam in anti-colonial resistance throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, and it shows how an out-gunned people can win against a powerful oppressor.

The Battle of Algiers film was released in September 1966, 55 years ago, and made a crucial mark on the International African Revolution, including the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense which was founded just weeks after the release of the film on October 15, 1966 in Oakland, California. The film brings to life the tactics and strategies that the Algerian people used to win their liberation from French colonial rule.  For African viewers, the film displayed examples of anticolonial struggle and African unity. 

To discuss this with us today, we have Professor Sohail Daulatzai .  Born on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Sohail is currently a Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies, the Department of African American Studies, and the Program in Global Middle East Studies at UC Irvine. His research-based practice explores the afterlives of empire and utilizes scholarship, essay, short film, video, and the curatorial.

He has directed short films and videos with Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and the band Algiers. Sohail has also authored and co-edited a total of five books: Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic, Return of the Mecca: The Art of Islam and Hip-Hop, With Stones In Our Hands: Writings on Muslims, Racism and Empire, Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom Beyond America, and Fifty Years of The Battle of Algiers: Past as Prologue.

Prof. Daulatzai addressed a variety of topics that gave deeper context to the film such as:

• The anticolonial politics that informed the film

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

There is a growing interest in socialism amongst Black people in the United States.  A recent poll by Axios/Momentive found that a growing sector of the US public favors socialism and a decreasing number of people favor capitalism.  While the poll found that 41 percent of people in the US favored socialism and 49 percent favored capitalism, a number that has dropped in recent years, the numbers out of the African community have risen profoundly.  Sixty percent of Africans in the US favor socialism.  That number is up from 53 percent in 2019.  These rising numbers reflect a clear political awakening amongst the African community in the US.  AS WE SAY IN THE UHURU MOVEMENT, THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM IS PAINTED BLACK!

The rising popularity of socialism amongst African people also represents Imperialism in Crisis.  Imperialism is suffering because the colonized peoples who came under imperialist rule are now fighting back and reclaiming our resources.  It also represents the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement for the past 49 years.  In 1972, the African People’s Socialist Party was founded with the expressed goal of reviving and completing the African Revolution of the 1960s.  As Chairman Omali Yeshitela notes, the movement had been ideological successful but was militarily defeated through the strategy of US Counterinsurgency.  Amongst the counterinsurgency tactics deployed against African people was the assassination and imprisonment of our leaders, the infestation of our community with drugs and guns, and the mass demoralization of African people.  The US Counterinsurgency used neocolonialism (white power in black face) and the promotion of Black Capitalist ideologies to mislead and confuse the masses of African people.

The 2021 Convention of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement was entitled It’s 2021, African Workers Unite, Let’s Get it Done.  The final panel of this convention was entitled, Completing the Black Revolution.  This panel consisted of talks from Akile Anai, director of Agitation and Propaganda for the African People’s Socialist Party, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, and Chairman  Omali Yeshitela, head of the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement.   To hear that panel in its entirety, visit the Burning Spear TV Youtube Channel.

In this episode, Chairman Omali Yeshitela is discusses Capitalism Versus Socialism and what is needed to complete the Black Revolution of the 1960s.  He outlines the distinguishes democratic socialism from revolutionary socialist thought, identifies the struggle against colonial-capitalism as the true class struggle, and layouts out what needs to be done to complete the Black Revolution.

This episode also features the song, "Uhuru Means Freedom" by Elikya Ngoma featuring Chairman Omali Yeshitela.  

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

In this episode we look at the mass deportations and brutal violence inflicted on African people from Haiti taking place at the colonial border between the US and Mexico.  In late September 2021, images of Haitian refugees, being corralled by US border patrol agents mounted on horseback at the border crossing in the southwest Texas city of Del Rio. One image showed a mounted border cop wielding a whip as he attacked African refugees. These photographs sparked immediate comparisons to images from the colonial enslavement of African people.

As many as 15,000 women, children, and men from Haiti were being held captive in barracoons under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.  Over the past few weeks, thousands of people from Haiti have arrived at the US-Mexico border.  The Biden administration has been deporting them upon arrival.  At least 2,000 migrants have been flown to Haiti and 8,000 others have been forced to return to Mexico.

The events in Del Rio, Texas are not separated from the anticolonial struggle for African Liberation. Haiti was the site of the first workers revolution and the people of Haiti will surely play an essential role in the freedom of Africans and all colonized and oppressed people.  

To discuss this with us today, we have Elikya Ngoma.  

Elikya is the Haiti Editor for The Burning Spear Newspaper where she provides revolutionary analyses on the struggles in Ayiti. Her family is from Haiti, she speaks Kreyol and maintains a close connection to politics in Haiti.  She has done extensive research on Haiti, the Haitian Revolution and other cultural and political events coming out of Haiti and the Caribbean.

Elikya is known as the Revolutionary Musician.  Elikya’s recording, “Colonial Virus' ' serves as the Intro and Outro music for our very own People’s War radio show.

In December 2020, Elikya released the album Freedom in The Mix, an African Internationalist album that combined a variety of African musical genres and promoted a way forward for African unity and liberation.  In this episode, we feature some selections from that album:

• Lanmou Pou Ayiti (ft. Gessica Généus

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

In this episode we present Part Two of a 2-part series titled “The Truth About Afghanistan - Colonialism: the graveyard of imperialism”. That was the title of a September 7th web broadcast, put on by the African People’s Socialist Party to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the implications that this defeat has for the liberation struggle of African and other colonized peoples.

That broadcast featured presentations by Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary General of the African Socialist International; Yejide Orunmila, President of the African National Women’s Organization; Tafari Mugeri, Director of Organization for the ASI Africa Region; Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party; and Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee.

In part one we heard presentations delivered by Secretary General Luwezi Kinshasa, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee and Yejide Orunila, President of the African National Women’s Organization.  Today we’ll hear from Director Tafarie Mugerie of the African Socialist International Africa Region and Chairman Omali Yeshitela.

First up was Director Tafarie Mugeri an organizer on the ground in Occupied Azania, commonly known as South Africa.  In his address, Director Tafarie began by offering a salute to the people of Afghanistan and notes that the defeat of the US in Afghanistan happened amidst a moment of imperialist crisis.

Tafarie goes on to expand his analysis of the anti-imperialist victory of the Afghan people.  He notes that Africans must also not compromise in our pursuit of total liberation and self-government.  Tafarie urges people to reject notions of the moral superiority of the Western Imperialist powers.  He notes that anticolonial resistance is the only way forward for African people.

Chairman Omali Yeshitela, who delivered the main presentation.  Chairman Omali Yeshitela began his presentation by recognizing that it as an anti-colonial philosophy that led to victory.  Chairman identified colonialism as the mode of production for this society. It was colonialism that gave birth to capitalism, not the other way around. He went on to recognize Afghanistan’s victory as an indicator of a drastically weakening US hegemony.

He explained that a system whose survival relies on the continued subjugation of the people will not survive the masses of the people rising up and concluded by emphasizing the African socialist international as the vehicle through which the masses of African people will rise up and overturn the system of colonial capitalism.

The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.