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Black Power TalksWhile they say cut DEI, we say build Black Community Control of EducationIn this episode of Black Power Talks, we explore “Black Education and the Struggle for Anti-Colonial Free Speech.”
Upon his return to office, United States President Donald J. Trump amplified the attacks against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. His administration has renamed institutions for confederate figures and overturned previous diversity initiatives inside government employment. President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from educational institutions with DEI programming. This is the fourth and most intense wave of attacks against African-led education initiatives in recent years.
As DEI initiatives, Critical Race Theory and Black Studies come under atta...2025-02-2758 minBlack Power TalksAfrican Internationalism and the Struggle for Reparations...from the halls of academia to the hands of the peopleIn 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party formed the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO). ANRO was the first mass organization created to forward the reparations struggle and make reparations a household topic. ANRO’s reach was wide and even garnered the support of people like Michael Jackson who signed an ANRO certificate demanding reparations. ANRO held twelve successive reparations tribunals. The most recent reparations tribunal was in 2003.
The Party and ANRO succeeded. The reparations struggle moved from being solely a legislative and legal conversation. The Reparations struggle has been taken up by the masses of African people in the U...2025-02-1353 minBlack Power TalksThe Colonial Origins of the Santa Clause MythOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we learn about the colonial origins of Santa Claus, also known as Sinter Klaas or St. Nick, the patron saint of shipping.
Colonial ideology purports the Christmas holiday to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In fact, the Christmas holiday season is centered around the obsessive pursuit and aspiration to purchase gxifts, central to this is the Santa Claus Myth.
The Santa Claus myth has its origins in Dutch traditions surrounding the characters Sinter Klass and Zwarte Piet, Black Pete in English. These traditions are celebrated i...2024-12-2658 minBlack Power TalksBlack August and slavery inside U.S. prisonsBlack August is a month of remembrance and resistance dedicated to our African warriors imprisoned for their heroic stance fighting for African liberation.
It's also a month-long salute to the African liberation struggle, recognizing such historic milestones as the Haitian Revolution, the birth of Marcus Garvey, and the deaths of Jonathan Jackson and George Jackson.
The roots of Black August are in the uprisings and rebellions of African freedom fighters who were imprisoned as a result of their political activity during the height of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
The tradition of...2024-08-1156 minBlack Power TalksBlack Music Month and the Revolutionary Music of Miriam Makeba with Dr. Martin BostonJune is Black Music Month. On this episode of Black Power Talks, we uplift Miriam Makeba. Miriam Makeba’s music played an important role in the African Revolution by building bridges across the colonial borders that divide African people.
We discussed the role of Makeba's music and feature three of her songs: "Into Yam", "Pata Pata", and "Malcom X." We talk about the importance of her appearance in the film Come Back Africa (1959) and the importance of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in her own political transformation. Makeba had two uncles killed in the massacre. As Makeba appeared on the internatio...2024-06-2059 minBlack Power TalksFebruary 21st is African Martyrs Day!On this episode of Black Power Talks, we observe African Martyrs Day. At the first Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party in September 1981, APSP designated February 21 as “The Day of the African Martyr.” Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 by agents of United States repression and counterinsurgency.
Amidst the historical importance of the Hands Off Uhuru Hands Off Africa counteroffensive that we have waged, this year’s African Martyrs Day takes on an even deeper significance.
We hear excerpts from a webinar organized by the Hands Off Uhuru Hands Off Africa Defense Campaign, “Long Live Ou...2024-02-2159 minBlack Power TalksNo Thanks to Colonialism! Celebrating African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anti-colonial ResistanceIn 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...2023-11-1758 minBlack Power TalksSalute to the late Calypsonian Black Stalin with Trini Trent Part 1On this episode of Black Power Talks we lift up the memory of late Calypsonian Black Stalin of Trinidad and Tobago.
Black Stalin passed away in December 2022 at the age of 81. Black Stalin was a five-time winner of the Calypso Monarch competition and was donned Calypso king of the world in 1999. Still, Black Stalin was not merely a calypso singer, Black Stalin used his music to forward the liberation of African people specifically and all oppressed people generally. Even after our struggle suffered crippling military defeats, Black Stalin used his music to challenge colonial powers and profess the...2023-04-1353 minBlack Power TalksAfrican Internationalists take the Revolutionary discussion of Reparations into the halls of academiaIn 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party formed the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO). ANRO was the first mass organization created to forward the reparations struggle and make reparations a household topic. ANRO’s reach was wide and even garnered the support of people like Michael Jackson who signed an ANRO certificate demanding reparations. ANRO held twelve successive reparations tribunals. The most recent reparations tribunal was in 2003.
The Party and ANRO succeeded. The reparations struggle moved from being solely a legislative and legal conversation. The Reparations struggle has been taken up by the masses of African people in the U...2023-03-1653 minBlack Power TalksDOJ and FBI place economic sanctions on the African Liberation MovementIn this episode, we address current FBI and Department of Justice economic sanctions against African self-determination.
As Black History Month 2023 drew to a close, the U.S. government and its partners in the financial sector escalated its campaign against the right of today’s Black Power Movement to freedom of speech and association.
The DOJ and FBI have extended their efforts to stop the Uhuru Movement from continuing its 50-year history of work building African self-determination into the economic arena.
In early March 2023, Regions Bank notified the Uhuru Movement’s nonprofit African People’s Educ...2023-03-0957 minBlack Power TalksSalute to our African Martyrs! Hands Off Uhuru!On this episode of Black Power Talks, we observe African Martyrs Day. At the first Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party in September 1981, APSP designated February 21 as “The Day of the African Martyr.” Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 by agents of United States repression and counterinsurgency.
Amidst the historical importance of the Hands Off Uhuru Hands Off Africa counteroffensive that we have waged, this year’s African Martyrs Day takes on an even deeper significance.
We hear excerpts from a webinar organized by the Hands Off Uhuru Hands Off Africa Defense Campaign, “Long Live Ou...2023-03-0259 minBlack Power TalksBlack Power radio fights back against Florida censorship"We put these people in the same camp of what Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is doing here with the banning of black history from education. By taking out history; by taking out the actual voice and opinions and the world view of black people from the public eye, they're trying to prevent what is even able to be communicated to our people and to the rest of the world." - Akile Anai
This Black History month, independent black community radio came under attack by the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners who voted to revoke $86,801 in f...2023-02-2358 minBlack Power TalksFBI attacks Black Power leaders in St. Louis, St. PetersburgIn the early morning hours of Friday, July 29, 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), aided by local police, raided the offices and homes of members of the Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri, seizing computers, hard drives, phones, office equipment and files.
They temporarily detained APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela, APSP Deputy Chair Ona Zene Yeshitela, APSP Agitprop Director Akile Anai, APSC Chairwoman Penny, and APSC members Kitty, Jesse and Amanda.
This episode of Black Power Talks presents first hand accounts of the raids and an analysis of the government's a...2023-01-1259 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #120: The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin surveilled by COINTELPRO for 40 years; the arts are not refuge; African culture workers urged to get involvedJust months after the FBI's brutal assault against the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement, a report surfaced showing that the FBI surveilled the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin for four decades.
In today's program, we will turn the spotlight on some of the popular African artists who have been surveilled, harassed and targeted by the FBI and other government police agencies over the decades.
We discuss the surveillance, harassment, and sabotage of the careers of African culture workers and entertainers such as:
Billie Holiday
Paul Robeson
Miriam Makeba
Hugh Masekela
Hor...2023-01-0556 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #119: Russia releases Griner; Biden called to release Africans still in U.S. penal colonies on marijuana chargesIn this episode, we talk with Angelika Mueller-Rowry about her husband, Robert Rowry, an African man who died chained, inhumanely chained to a prison bed in 2014. This story is extremely relevant in conversation with contemporary discussions about mass imprisonment in the US.
On Thursday December 8, 2022, the Women’s National Basketball Association superstar Brittney Griner was released from a Russian penal colony where she had been held for a period of time following her conviction on drug charges.
Upon her release, President Biden spoke of the intolerable prison conditions in Russia. Yet, the cases we chronicle in t...2022-12-2959 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #118: The Colonial Origins of Santa ClausOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we learn about the colonial origins of Santa Claus, also known as Sinter Klaas or St. Nick, the patron saint of shipping.
Colonial ideology purports the Christmas holiday to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In fact, the Christmas holiday season is centered around the obsessive pursuit and aspiration to purchase gifts, central to this is the Santa Claus Myth.
The Santa Claus myth has its origins in Dutch traditions surrounding the characters Sinter Klass and Zwarte Piet, Black Pete in English. These traditions are celebrated i...2022-12-2258 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #117: Free Our Brothers! Wrongfully convicted Africans fight for justiceToday on Black Power Talks we examine the case of two wrongfully convicted African men and the organized pushback they are waging against the system that stole almost thirty years total from them.
The US prison system plays a significant role in the colonial mode of production. Chairman Omali Yeshitela notes that “Massive prison building projects were established all over the U.S. as white communities vied and fought for prisons to be able to provide colonizer nation white workers well-paying jobs at the expense of tens of millions of colonized African people stuffed into these concentration camp...2022-12-0858 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #116: No Thanks to Colonialism! Celebrating African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anticolonial ResistanceIn 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...2022-11-2458 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #115: DOJ indicts China: African, Indigenous activists respondOn Monday, October 24, 2022, the United States’ “Justice Department” held a press conference to accuse China of breaking U.S. laws in its efforts to challenge U.S. power on the world stage.
They charged several Chinese nationals with spying on behalf of Beijing and seeking to disrupt a U.S. government investigation into the Chinese technology company, Huawei.
In New Jersey, the FBI charged two Chinese nationals with conspiring to act as illegal agents on behalf of China by using a “purported academic center in that country to seek sensitive information from U.S. academic institutio...2022-11-0354 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #114: Long Live Thomas Sankara, hero of Burkina Faso, ”Land of the upright people”!In this episode of Black Power Talks we uplift the legacy of the martyred revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso. Sankara was killed 35 years ago on October 15, 1987, at the age of 37. His assassins were tried and convicted in 2022.
Sankara gave Burkina Faso its name, which means "land of the upright or incorruptible people."
Sankara’s program challenged French colonialism and neocolonial policies in Africa with policies focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health. Sankara built schools, health centers, wate...2022-10-1358 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #113: The Woman King film review round tableThis episode features a roundtable discussion about the 2022 film “The Woman King”, starring Viola Davis. The feature length movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9th, 2022 and opened in theaters on September 16th. Panelists explore key issues raised in the movie's plot, including:
The impact of slavery and the colonial mode of production on African people and on the rise of the European colonial nation
Class conflict within the African Nation
The role of African women as leaders, warriors, makers and shapers of history
Unification of the African Nation through destruction of tribal or country boundaries
He...2022-10-0657 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #112: Defending the African Community! We are our own liberators!From Friday September 2nd through Sunday September 4th, 2022, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement held its 30th annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri.
The theme of the convention was Defending the Black Community! We Are Our Own Liberators! The theme for the 2022 InPDUM Convention had historical and immediate importance to the liberation of African people.
In recent months, colonial-capitalism, and its collaborators, have increased their assaults against Africans and other colonized people. This includes the May 14, 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, the May 24, 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the July 2, 2022 flame...2022-09-2959 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #111: Now that you’ve seen ”The Woman King”, view the African Internationalist classic film, ”Bush Mama”Now that you have seen The Woman King, revisit the anti-colonial and African Internationalist film, Bush Mama.
On this episode of Black Power Talks we will be presenting to you a roundtable discussion on the 1979 film Bush Mama by Haile Gerima.
Bush Mama is described elsewhere as the story of Dorothy and her partner T.C. TC is a Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead TC is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Dorothy’s life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing...2022-09-2259 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #110: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana StudiesIn this episode, we speak with Professor Layla Brown about her scholarship, the covid-19 pandemic and the way forward. Professor Brown’s work is emblematic of that anticolonial turn, or might we say anticolonial return, that has taken place in Africana Studies. This anticolonial return has been directly impacted by the spread of African Internationalism, evinced in the Chairman Omali Yeshitela's 2019 Oxford Union "Africa Debate".
Professor Brown is trained as a Cultural Anthropologist, researcher, and educator. She earned her PhD from Duke University and specializes in the contemporary and historical study of social movements in the African Diasp...2022-09-1555 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #109:The Role of Black Students and Intellectuals in the African RevolutionOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we discussed the role of the African Intellectual in the world. African students and teachers everywhere are entering into their fall semesters. Some students are beginning the end of their educational journeys and some are just getting started.
On campuses, African students are organizing summits where they tackle some of the pressing issues in the world such as the mass imprisonment of African people, reparations, and the university investments into the colonial settler state of Israel.
On the flip side, many African students will increasingly feel the pressure to...2022-09-0955 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #108: The Revolutionary Power of Black PoetryIn this episode, we showcase several African poets and talk about the role of poetry and culture in the African anti-colonial struggle.
We know that the spoken word is powerful. If not, colonizers would not have stripped Africans of their names, their language, their traditions and their songs.
The anticolonial writer from Martinique Aime Cesaire wrote extensively on the power of poetry, the spoken word and culture. In the important essay, “Poetry and Knowledge”, Cesaire argued that poetry was an anticolonial tool because it challenged the conventions of colonial society and allowed the oppressed to imagine...2022-09-0150 minBlack Power TalksBlack August and slavery inside U.S. prisonsBlack August is a month of remembrance and resistance dedicated to our African warriors imprisoned for their heroic stance fighting for African liberation.
It's also a month-long salute to the African liberation struggle, recognizing such historic milestones as the Haitian Revolution, the birth of Marcus Garvey, and the deaths of Jonathan Jackson and George Jackson.
The roots of Black August are in the uprisings and rebellions of African freedom fighters who were imprisoned as a result of their political activity during the height of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
The tradition of...2022-08-2556 minBlack Power TalksBlinken’s bleak trip to Africa and America’s doomed effort to maintain colonial controlFrom August 7th through August 12th, 2022, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to South Africa, the Congo and Rwanda, to fight for continued access to the continent’s wealth in the face of growing competition from China and Russia.
He also sought to win support for the U.S. condemnation of Russia and arming of Ukraine, in the face of the refusal of African countries to budge from a neutral position in the United Nations. His visit followed visits to Africa by leaders of Russia and France.
To understand America's doomed effort to ma...2022-08-1957 minBlack Power TalksFBI raids Black Power leaders in St. Louis, St. PetersburgIn the early morning hours of Friday, July 29, 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), aided by local police, raided the offices and homes of members of the Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri, seizing computers, hard drives, phones, office equipment and files.
They temporarily detained APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela, APSP Deputy Chair Ona Zene Yeshitela, APSP Agitprop Director Akile Anai, APSC Chairwoman Penny, and APSC members Kitty, Jesse and Amanda.
This episode of Black Power Talks presents first hand accounts of the raids and an analysis of the...2022-08-1159 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #104: Black Music Month Spotlight On”Mama Africa” Miriam Makeba with Dr. Martin L. BostonJune is Black Music Month. On this episode of Black Power Talks, we uplift Miriam Makeba. Miriam Makeba’s music played an important role in the African Revolution by building bridges across the colonial borders that divide African people.
We discussed the role of Makeba's music and feature three of her songs: "Into Yam", "Pata Pata", and "Malcom X." We talk about the importance of her appearance in the film Come Back Africa (1959) and the importance of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in her own political transformation. Makeba had two uncles killed in the massacre. As Makeba appeared on the internati...2022-06-3059 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #103: A Roundtable Discussion of Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama (1979)On this episode of Black Power Talks we will be presenting to you a roundtable discussion on the 1979 film Bush Mama by Haile Gerima.
Bush Mama is described elsewhere as the story of Dorothy and her partner T.C. TC is a Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead TC is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Dorothy’s life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing poverty and unemployment. As a result of the film's events, both the main characters develop revolutionary consciousness. Bush Mama...2022-06-1659 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #102: Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers: An African Internationalist ReviewToday, we are excited to examine Kendrick Lamar and his new album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. Lamar has produced his first album in five years, following much anticipation. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers double album that engages a variety of topics that pertain to the lived experience of African people. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is representative of Lamar’s general intervention into hip hop.
Over the past 12 years, Lamar’s music has defied the form and genre that has historically been applied to hip hop culture and rap music. There has historically been a d...2022-05-2657 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #101: Malcolm X and Anti-colonial Struggle: The Importance of May 19Today on Black Power Talks we uplift and look at the importance of May 19th to the anticolonial struggle for liberation. Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm’s Birthday is an important day of political organization. Just six days before African Liberation Day, May 25th, Malcolm’s birthday is often celebrated as an important kick off to a week-long mobilization for African Independence.
Malcolm shares his birthday with Ho Chi Minh and Yuri Kochiyama. May 19 has often underscored the importance of Afro-Asian Solidarity. In this episode we explore this alongside t...2022-05-1857 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #100: African Liberation Day 2022 - 50 Years of Leadership Towards African Redemption
On this special 100th episode of Black Power Talks we uplift African Liberation Day. African Liberation Day is May 25. May 25, 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the first African Liberation Day mobilizations in the United States. May 25, 2022 also marks the 50th anniversary of the African People’s Socialist Party.
As African Internationalists, we know that Africa is not free and that the Organization of African Unity, now rebranded the African Union (AU), served the colonial and neocolonial interests of legitimizing the colonial borders in Africa. These colonial borders were forced upon African people through centuries of coloni...2022-05-0553 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #99: Reparations Series Part 2 - A Profile of Queen Mother Moore w/ Prof. Tiffany CaesarOn part two of our reparations series, we lift up a leader in the struggle for reparations to African People, Queen Mother Audley Moore. Elements of the reparation demand go back to the 19th century. Yet, in 1957, Queen Mother Moore gave the struggle an important mass character and organization when she formed the Universal Association of Ethiopian Women (UAEW) in New Orleans. Queen Mother Moore and the UAEW took their reparation demand to the United Nations. The UN shot it down but she passed on the legacy of her work to African National Reparations Organization and the Uhuru Movement.
2022-04-2854 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #98: Reparations Series Part 1 - Make Wall Street Pay ReparationsIn 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party convened the first international tribunal on reparations in Brooklyn, New York. The verdict is that Africans in the US are owed no less than 14 trillion dollars in damages, or about one million dollars per family. The African People’s Socialist Party aimed to make reparations a household word by taking it out of the hands of the legislative and legal sector and giving it to the African working class. It has succeeded.
Black Power Talks salutes the 40th anniversary of the Reparations Tribunal. Throughout 2022, we will be presenting a series of episod...2022-04-2153 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #97: The Role of the Artist in the African Revolution w/ Abiodun Oyewole of the Last PoetsOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we discuss the Black Arts Movement, the role of the African artist and African revolution with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. Abiodun is one of the founders of The Last Poets and penned some of their most widely known works such as New York, New York and When the Revolution Comes. He is one of the original emcees.
Abiodun discusses the origins of the Last Poets and their political inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to the poet Keorapetse Kgositsile from South Africa, father of Earl Sw...2022-04-1459 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #96: Africa and the Russia/Ukraine ConflictIt’s been a month since the beginning of Russia’s military campaign to stop NATO expansion in Ukraine.
The March 2nd vote in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution denouncing Russia revealed a split between the white countries of the world and many of the countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, 52 of which either voted against the resolution, abstained or did not cast a vote at all.
On today’s episode of Black Power Talks, we explore the African Internationalist perspective on this war.
Black Power Talks is...2022-03-2458 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #95: The Politics of Hip Hop with Jermaine ”Complex” SimpsonWe discussed hip hop and politics with our guest for this episode is Jermaine"Complex" Simpson. Complex is a rapper from San Diego, California.
Born Jermaine Simpson, Complex was raised in the heart of the African community of San Diego. Complex is the author of four albums, West Coast MC’n, State of Mind, A Beautiful Mess and Wrath and Roses. Much like his favorite artists, Ice Cube, Rakim, Tupac, and among others, Complex straddles the lines of a few genres of hip hop, namely the hardcore hip hop and the much more political genres of rap music. ...2022-03-0455 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #94: Colonialism as The Mode of ProductionIn this episode, we engage what is amongst the most important interventions into socialist and communist thought ever, Colonialism as the Mode of Production. Since its inception, the African People’s Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement and the ideology of African Internationalism has clearly stated that the African struggle for liberation is against colonialism.
In his recent treatise, Colonialism as The Mode of Production, Chairman Omali Yeshitela synthesizes 50 years of his relentless leadership and the Party’s relentless leadership on this question and points the way forward.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s “Colonialism as the mode of product...2022-02-1059 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #93: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana StudiesIn this episode, we speak with Professor Layla Brown about her scholarship, the covid-19 pandemic and the way forward. Professor Brown’s work is emblematic of that anticolonial turn, or might we say anticolonial return, that has taken place in Africana Studies. This anticolonial return has been directly impacted by the spread of African Internationalism, evinced in the Chairman Omali Yeshitela's 2019 Oxford Union "Africa Debate".
Professor Brown is trained as a Cultural Anthropologist, researcher, and educator. She earned her PhD from Duke University and specializes in the contemporary and historical study of social movements in the African Diasp...2022-02-0355 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #92: Project Black Ankh continues leadership in the fight against Covid-19On today’s episode of Black Power Talks, we discuss the Covid-19 Omicron Variant surge and a recent trip to Cuba with Dr. Aisha Fields.
Dr. Fields is a physicist who has dedicated her skills for the development and empowerment of African people. She is the International Director of the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP), a non-profit organization whose mission is to “collectivize the vast skills of Africans around the world in order to establish community based development projects that improve the quality of life for African people everywhere while promoting self-reliance and self-d...2022-01-2056 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #91:The Role of Black Students and Intellectuals in the African RevolutionOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we discussed the role of the African Intellectual in the world. African students and teachers everywhere are entering into their spring semesters. Spring semesters are often filled with academic conferences and graduations. On campuses, African students are organizing summits where they tackle some of the pressing issues in the world such as the mass imprisonment of African people, reparations, and the university investments into the colonial settler state of Israel. On the flip side, many African students will increasingly feel the pressure to decide their postgraduate career plans.
In his fundam...2022-01-1355 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #90:The Colonial Origins of Santa ClausOn this episode of Black Power Talks, we learn about the colonial origins of Santa Claus, also known as Sinter Klaas or St. Nick, the patron saint of shipping.
Colonial ideology purports the Christmas holiday to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In fact, the Christmas holiday season is centered around the obsessive pursuit and aspiration to purchase gifts, central to this is the Santa Claus Myth.
The Santa Claus myth has its origins in Dutch traditions surrounding the characters Sinter Klass and Zwarte Piet, Black Pete in English. These traditions are celebrated i...2021-12-3058 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #89: Keep the Spear Burning! The Oldest Black Power Newspaper Turns 53 Years Old!On December 22, 2021, The Burning Spear Newspaper turned 53 years old. The Burning Spear Newspaper is the oldest Black Power Newspaper in continuous print. The Burning Spear Newspaper was founded by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, then named Joseph Waller, in 1968, in St. Petersburg, Florida. First established as a newsletter produced on a mimeograph machine, the Burning Spear, or The Spear for short, became a full-spread newspaper in 1969.
Dubbed, the Voice of the International African Revolution, the Burning Spear Newspaper has been the leading organ of political and material support for the oppressed and exploited people of the world such as: Vi...2021-12-2356 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #88: Touch One! Touch All! Denzel Draughn acquitted for pepper spraying San Diego copsOn December 9, 2021, Denzel Draughn, an organizer with the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement in San Diego, California was found not guilty on all charges after a highly-profiled case of resistance to police terror.
Denzel faced eight felonies, two counts of pepper spraying a group of San Diego cops and six counts of preventing an arrest. Denzel faced as many as 11 years in prison and had been originally charged with almost 20 felonies. Denzel had testified that his actions were in defense of the protestors who had been brutalized by the San Diego Police Department, and the jury agree...2021-12-1655 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #87: Africans in St. Petersburg Florida Demands Reparations! Take Back the Dome!In this episode, we talk about the current surge in the movement for reparations to African people in the United States and elsewhere. In St. Petersburg, Florida, organizers with the Reparations Now Committee of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement are leading the Take Back the Dome Campaign in response to the decades of economic devastation that the building of the 86 acre Tropicana Field has caused the African Community in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The struggle over the Tropicana Field has implications for the liberation struggles of African people around the world. In the small Caribbean island of B...2021-12-0958 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #86: From Protest to Power: Kyle Rittenhouse, Ahmaud Arbery and the Black People‘s CourtOn 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...2021-12-0257 minBlack Power TalksEpisode #85: NoThanks to Colonialism--African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anticolonial ResistanceIn 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, an...2021-11-2558 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #84: Deepening the Resistance to Police Terror--The 13th Annual Black People‘s March on the White HouseOn 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 thei...2021-11-1958 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #83: Live like Huey!--The African Working Class Defends the Legacy of Huey NewtonOn 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 histori...2021-11-0458 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #82: ”Stop stealing our babies”–African Women organize against CPSOn 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...2021-10-2855 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #81: ”Water more poisoned than Flint‘s”--Activists on the Benton Harbor Water CrisisToday 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...2021-10-2058 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #80: 55th Anniversary of ”The Battle of Algiers”: Anticolonialism, Revolutionary Film, and Afro-Asian Solidarity
'Battle of Algiers' - Gillo Pontecorvo by kndynt2099 - Creative Commons
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 ro...2021-10-1459 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #79: The Road to Socialism is Painted Black!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 A...2021-10-0754 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #78: Organizers demand the US Stop the Deportations and Reparations to Haiti and All African PeopleIn 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 b...2021-09-3056 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #77: “The Truth About Afghanistan - Colonialism: the graveyard of imperialism Part 2”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...2021-09-2355 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #76: “The Truth About Afghanistan - Colonialism: the graveyard of imperialism”In this episode we present Part One 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 Organ...2021-09-1650 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #75: Getting Fit for the RevolutionToday’s show is entitled “Getting Fit for the Revolution” and incorporates excerpts from a panel by the same name that was presented at the 2021 International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement Convention from September 3 through 5th.
The convention observed the 30th anniversary of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement as well as the 50-plus year of Uhuru Movement mass organization. The panels were designed to confront the crises the African community face and provide an African Internationalist way forward.
African health is one arena the movement has always led on. In 1969, the Junta of Militant Or...2021-09-0958 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #74: It‘s 2021! African Workers Unite! Let‘s Get it Done!This episode looks at some history of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement which is celebrating its thirty year anniversary this year, 2021. The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement was founded in 1991 by the African People’s Socialist Party, as a mass organization designed to defend the democratic rights of the black community and to bring African people back into political life after the military defeat our Black Power movement of the 1960s had suffered.
Since its creation, InPDUM has fought courageously for the African community. The precursor to today’s formation, was founded in Oakland, California in 1985 und...2021-09-0256 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #73: The Revolutionary Power of Black PoetryIn this episode, we’re going to showcase several African poets and talk about the role of poetry and culture in the African anti-colonial struggle.
We know that the spoken word is powerful. If not, colonizers would not have stripped Africans of their names, their language, their traditions and their songs.
The anticolonial writer from Martinique Aime Cesaire wrote extensively on the power of poetry, the spoken word and culture. In the important essay, “Poetry and Knowledge”, Cesaire argued that poetry was an anticolonial tool because it challenged the conventions of colonial society and allowed the oppre...2021-08-2650 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #72: Long Live Marcus Garvey!Today on the People’s War Radio Show, we are celebrating the birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Every week, the People’s War Radio show brings you an African Internationalist perspective of world issues. African Internationalism, the theory of the African Working Class has its origins in the ideology and practices of Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Marcus Garvey organized one of the most important anticolonial African organizations in history. Garvey’s revolutionary journal, the Negro World, had a weekly circulation of at least 200,000 copies.
Garvey understood the power in Africans reclaiming control of the historical narrative and embraced...2021-08-1959 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #71: Black August: Free our political prisoners!Today’s episode is dedicated to the struggle for the release of African political prisoners, in honor of Black August.
The roots of Black August are in the uprisings and rebellions of African freedom fighters who were imprisoned as a result of their political activity during the height of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
Black August was started by incarcerated Africans in California in observance of the death of George Jackson. It’s now honored as a month-long salute to the African liberation struggle, recognizing such historic milestones as the Haitian Revolution, the birth...2021-08-1246 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Show, Episode #70: Tribute to Glen Ford, African freedom fighterThis episode of The People’s War show is dedicated to remembering the life and work of Glen Ford, heroic journalist and African freedom fighter, with commentary by:
Nia Ford, Glen's daughter
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Founder of the No Fear Coalition and the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition
New York State Assemblymember Charles Barron
Efia Nwangaza, manager of WMXP radio in Greenville, South Carolina
Nellie Bailey of Harlem Fight Back Against War at Home & Abroad
Zaki Baruti, President General of the Universal African People’s Organization
Belinda Parker-Brown, CEO of Louisiana United International
Chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People's Socialist Party
Gl...2021-08-0555 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #69: Africans continue fight against COVID, Vaccine protocols issuedThe Covid-19 Delta Variant has caused a new surge in the United States and other parts of the world. The Delta Variant of Covid-19 was first noticed in India in December 2020. It subsequently spread rapidly through India as well as places like South Africa, the United Kingdom and Canada. The first United States cases of the Delta Variant were found in March 2021.
There has been widespread political resistance to Covid-19 vaccines. Some opportunists in the colonial media have intentionally spread misinformation about vaccines even while being vaccinated themselves.
Many Africans have remained rightfully skeptical because of the...2021-07-2957 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #68: Africans struggle for Bread, Peace, and Black Power in Southern AfricaFrom July 9 to July 17 Africans took to the streets of South Africa in protest of the neocolonial government and brutal conditions they live under. As well, the African working class in the neighboring country of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, have also risen up in protest.
The colonial media has tried to explain the uprisings in South Africa as support for the jailed former-president Jacob Zuma. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has echoed the talking points of the former apartheid regime by blaming the unrests on agitation.
Covid-19, unemployment, and other immediate factors have also been pinpointed by...2021-07-2257 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #67: Haiti and the Global Black RevolutionOn July 7, Jovenel Moise, the president of Haiti was assassinated at his home in Petion-Ville. His wife, Martine Moise was critically injured in the attack and was transported to the United States for emergency medical care. Moise’s presidency had been marked by mass protests and political crises. Still, his assassination came as a sudden surprise to many.
This news came as a shock to the world and especially to the people of Haiti; even those who
had been demanding that he step down from office as well as those of us who recognized him
as a...2021-07-1559 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #66: Indigenous People of Canada the genocidal legacy of colonial educationOn May 27, 2021 a mass grave with the remains of 215 children was found at Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia Canada. On June 25th, Chief of the Cowess Nation reported that on June 2 they had embarked on a mission to search for unmarked graves, and found a mass grave of 751 remains in the southeast corner of the Saskatchewan province at the cemetery of the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
These discoveries have rocked Canada and soured this year’s commemoration of Canada Day, celebrated as Canada’s birthday, on July 1st.
The Indian Residential Schools was a ne...2021-07-0848 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #65: Black women athletes spark controversy at U.S. Olympic TrialsThe United States Track and Field Olympic Trials were held from June 18 to June 27 in Eugene, Oregon. The US trials are the first step for US athletes to compete in the Summer Olympic Games. This year’s Olympic games are shaping up to be historic on many levels.
African women athletes have taken center stage in these trials, creating a buzz and sparking controversy in both colonial and social media. At the Olympic Trials, sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson and hammer thrower Gwen Berry have made significant political statements in their performances and protests.
Slanderous comments about Rich...2021-07-0157 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #64: Juneteenth Not Yet Uhuru: Africans fight for control of history, salute African heroesOn June 17, 2021 President Joseph R. Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act making Juneteenth a national holiday. The establishment of Juneteenth as a federal holiday in the United States marks a particular moment in the African struggle over the power of history and remembrance in the US with international implications. Some people in the mainstream have celebrated this as a historical landmark but many in the African working class masses have met this with a mixture of skepticism and outright rejection. They see it as an empty gesture that avoids the meaningful political struggles waging.
The colo...2021-06-2454 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #63: To Protect, Preserve, And Perpetuate: Black Music and Black PowerJune is Black Music Month. Black Music Month emerged as a form of resistance to colonial domination of African people, African culture, and the African narrative. It was created in the late 1970s by the famous music producer from Philadelphia, Kenny Gamble and the Black Music Association. The original theme of Black Music Month was to “preserve, protect and perpetuate black music.” However, the narrative of Black Music Month has been depoliticized.
Popular news sources have credited President Jimmy Carter with creating the observance. As well, President Barack Obama rebranded the month, African American Music Appreciation month and noted...2021-06-1757 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #62: Black communities fight food insecurity and food apartheid and build Black PowerThe Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the contradictions of food insecurity in the African Community and other oppressed communities in the United States.
According to the Journal of Nutrition, Food insecurity is understood as “ the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”
Nearly 40 percent of black children in the United States are food insecure, this is almost twice the rate of white children.
A symptom of the larger colonial oppression of African people in the US, food insecurity has...2021-06-1053 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #61:Take Back the Dome! Reparations Now!Reparations is a hot topic in many political topics. Numerous colleges and universities have implemented reparations plans in response to legacy of colonial slavery that funded their institutions and the stolen and enslaved African labor that built their schools.
Some cities have begun to draft reparations plans as well. One that has received a lot of attention is the plan in Evanston, Illinois that has made housing grants available to some members of the African community of the Chicago suburb.
This has not come out of nowhere. It is the result of the revolutionary upsurge of th...2021-06-0357 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #60: Free, Free, PalestineOn this episode of The People's War Radio Show, we discuss the historic roots to what is being referred to as the 2021 Israel-Palestine conflict.
In early May 2021, Palestinians were protesting the continued illegal annexation of Palestinian controlled land by Israeli settlements. The Israeli supreme court was preparing to expel even more Palestinian families from East Jerusalem. This has been part of an increasingly aggressive and illegal Israeli settlement of Palestinian lands since 1967 but is part of more than 100 years of history.
This period is indeed only a recent moment in the Palestinian Arab struggle to k...2021-05-2758 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #59: Shut down the St. Louis Workhouse! Free 'em all!On April 4, 2021, incarcerated Africans rebelled at the St. Louis Justice Center, a city jail in downtown St. Louis. They broke the locks on their cells, busted out the windows and proceeded to throw chairs, tables and other furniture from the jail and set several fires in effort to draw attention to the inhumane conditions they have experienced.
This uprising was the most recent in a series of uprisings in local jails and prisons in the St. Louis area in the past years, including a rebellion months earlier in February.
A 2017 rebellion of inmates at the St. L...2021-05-2055 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #58: Mother's day special on the fight for the African familyAfrican mothers continue the fight for the African family against the continuing legacy of colonialism and slavery. We discuss the role of "Child Protective Services" and the foster care system. We envision a world with African self-determination and collective child-rearing.
With special guests:
Aniya Butler, who is fighting for the return of her six-year-old daughter, taken by the Arizona Department of Child Safety in 2020.
Adrienne Spellman, whose son John Andre was killed in February 2021 in a transitional housing complex for foster youth funded by Alameda County Social Services.
Shawntae Mitchum, Black Studies professor and sociologist f...2021-05-0657 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #57: Free Jamil Al Amin (H. Rap Brown) and honor Mafundi LakeThirty-four U.S. states are currently seeking to deny the right to free speech and political association by passing new laws. On April 26, 2021, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law an "anti-riot" bill making it a felony to block a highway or destroy colonial statues during protests among other measures designed to quash the growing resistance against police violence.
We talk with Bilal Sunni Ali about the case of Jamil Al Amin (H. Rap Brown), after whom the 1968 "anti-riot act" was named. This law made it a felony to cross state lines "with the intent to incite...2021-04-2956 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #56: Tribute to DMX, "Voice of the Streets"Hip-Hop artist, DMX, born Earl Simmons, died on April 9, 2021. The beloved rapper sold millions of records, was nominated for three Grammy Awards and was the first musician whose first five albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
DMX also held several acting credits including his appearances in the 2000 action movie “Romeo Must Die” with Jet Li and Aaliyah; and the 2001 action film “Exit Wounds” with Steven Seagal. He starred with Nas and Method Man in Hype Williams’s 1998 film, “Belly” and was profiled in BET's 2006 reality series “DMX: Soul of a Man.”
We talk with two East Coast blac...2021-04-2257 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #55: Daunte Wright and the struggle to stop police killingsIn the midst of Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police have killed another unarmed black man, Daunte Wright, in Brooklyn Center, just 12 miles from Minneapolis.
Once again, the people take to the streets demanding justice, the media works to criminalize the victim, the lawyers descend on the family to get paid and police departments across the country continue to carry out their mandate to contain the colonized African community and maintain the status quo.
We talk with Jamaal Abegaz from his home in Moorhead, Minnesota.
In 2020, the ci...2021-04-1552 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #54: White garbage dumps contaminate African townships in South AfricaAsa Anpu discusses the environmental, biological and psychological effects of pervasive toxic white suburban trash dumps and mining tailings in the black townships of South Africa.
Anpu is the Director of the Better Living Association, an organization working to improve health, economic and living conditions for African working class people in South Africa.
He recounts a struggle waged by Sharpesville residents for the restoration of electricity and the expulsion of white missionaries at this year's commemoration of the March 21, 1960 Sharpesville Massacre.
He discusses the latest initiative of the Better Living Association, Project Thuthukani, or...2021-04-0857 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #53: Music unites the African Nation, from the Caribbean to the U.S. to Africa!We talk with Trini Trent and Elikya Ngoma. Trini Trent is a unique creator from Trinidad and Tobago. Through his works and his popular "Trini Trent TV show" on YouTube, he explores popular culture to dissect matters of music, film, race, sexuality and identity. Elikya Ngoma is the Haiti editor for The Burning Spear newspaper. She's also a revolutionary musician who recently released the extended play album, "Freedom In the Mix".
We review various African musical art forms as unifying influences connecting the African experience and African people worldwide, including Calypso music as a manifestation of the W...2021-04-0158 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #52: 1-year anniversary celebrationListen in to current and former hosts of The People's War radio show for a recap and celebration of the events, topics and guests of the past year, in our 1-year anniversary broadcast.
2021-03-2552 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #51: Project Black Ankh and the leadership of African women building revolutionary self-determinationWe talk with two African women playing leading roles in the work of the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP) about the group's work to organize African health care providers, scientists, agriculturists and other skilled intellectuals to tackle the crisis of COVID and other colonial assaults on the health and well-being of the African community.
AAPDEP organized a nurse midwifery school, conducted Ebola community education and built rainwater harvesting in Sierra Leone. They organized disaster relief and rescue operations during Hurricane Harvey in Houston and have initiated backyard and community gardens throughout the U.S. ...2021-03-1857 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #50: Free Mumia! Interview with Mike Africa, Jr.66-year-old black political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal has tested positive for COVID-19, is having trouble breathing, has congestive heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver due to delayed hepatitis C treatment.
Mumia joined the Black Panther Party at age 14. By age 16 he was Lieutenant of Information for the Panthers. He served as President of the Philadelphia Black Journalists Association. When the MOVE Family Africa was brutally attacked and their house burned by Philadelphia police under the direction of the notorious mayor Frank Rizzo in 1978, Mumia was MOVE's most vocal defender.
In 1981 Mumia was framed for t...2021-03-1146 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #49: Justice for Kevin Desir who died in custody of Broward County, FL SheriffsOn January 27, 2021, Kevin Desir, a 43-year-old black man, died in the custody of the Broward County (Florida) Sheriffs Department - a week after an "altercation" with jail staff had left him in a vegetative state with irreversible brain injury.
Desir had been arrested and charged with possession of marijuana despite the fact that he holds a legal medical marijuana card issued by the state of Florida.
He is survived by a loving family including two young daughters. His brother Mikco said Kevin had "dealt with mental illness for 21-22 years, but he didn’t let th...2021-03-0455 minBlack Power TalksThe People’s War Radio Show, Episode #48: “Judas and the Black Messiah”, COINTELPRO and African martyrs, part2In this episode we talk with African People's Socialist Party Chairman about the recently released movie, Judas and the Black Messiah, putting it in context of the far-reaching U.S. government counterinsurgency program that militarily defeated the Black Power movement of the 1960s.
Judas and the Black Messiah recounts the FBI COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) responsible for the assassinations of Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton and member Mark Clark.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela is leader of the international struggle for the unification and liberation of Africa and African people. He is the founder of The Bu...2021-02-2558 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #47: "Judas and the Black Messiah", COINTELPRO and African martyrs, part 1On February 12, 2021, Judas and the Black Messiah, was released in theaters and on HBO. The film recounts the FBI COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) responsible for the assassinations of Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton and member Mark Clark.
We talk with L.A.-based activist, hip-hop artist, writer and student Honey Blu about the film and the legacy of the counterintelligence programs' war against the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
Besides Judas and the Black Messiah, we also touch on Regina King’s motion picture One Night In Miami, 41st and Central and the HBO...2021-02-1857 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #46: "How the streets were made", interview with Yelena Bailey
In this episode we talk with Dr. Yelena Bailey, author of How the Streets Were Made: Housing Segregation and Black Life in America. The hood, the ghetto, the streets, regardless of what we call it, in her new book, Dr. Bailey argues that the streets are not just a physical geographical space but that they are a “ sociocultural entity that has influenced our understanding of blackness in America for decades.”
Dr. Bailey explains the role of government policies, advertising campaigns, colonial social sciences, and popular culture plays in shaping the confinement of Africans within these urban...2021-02-1157 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio show, Episode #45: African women organizing collective childcare and resisting the colonial stateIn this week's episode we talk with Yejide Orunmila, President of the African National Women's Organization (ANWO) about:
Black Community Control of Childcare and the building of the Uhuru Kijiji Childcare Collectives in the U.S. and around the world
Struggles to defend African families and prevent Child Protective Services from taking African children from their homes
Critiquing "bourgeois feminism" and building African self-determination
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 Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the...2021-02-0352 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War radio show; Episode #44: African workers of the world unite and organize.African people on the continent, in Europe, in the Caribbean and in the U.S. are facing dire conditions of poverty, lack of healthcare during a pandemic, denial of quality education and housing, and suffering violent oppression from the police and military occupation forces.
This episode's guests are African Internationalists - leaders of the African People's Socialist Party -working to unify and liberate African and African people worldwide. They join us to discuss today's common experiences of Africans in the U.S. and Africa, and tomorrow's vision for the end of colonial capitalism.
Chimurenga Selembao w...2021-01-2857 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #43: All eyes on Louisiana, Justice for Reverend Errol VictorToday's episode looks at the campaign for the release of Reverend Errol Victor, framed and imprisoned in retaliation for challenging the system in Louisiana. We talk with:
Belinda Parker-Brown, founder of Louisiana United International, Inc., and member of the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Justice and Reparations.
Dr. Zena D. Crenshaw, Assistant Chief of Operations for Louisiana United International, Inc., legal scholar and human rights activist.
2021-01-2155 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode#42: 60th anniversary of the assassination Congo's Patrice LumumbaPatrice Lumumba was elected the first Prime Minister of the Congo and took power on June 30, 1960. Within months, Lumumba was forced out of office. On January 17, 1961, Lumumba was assassinated under the leadership of the United States and other imperial powers.
The assassination of Patrice Lumumba reverberated throughout the African world. In the United States, Africans rushed the floor of the United Nations in protest. In Cairo, protestors surrounded the United States embassy and set an embassy car ablaze. In Belgrade, the Belgian embassy was attacked. In London, people took to the streets and marched in protest from Trafalg...2021-01-1458 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #41: Celebrate Haitian Independence Day, Vive Ayiti!January 1, 2021 marked the 217th anniversary of the Haitian revolution against French colonialism. We talk with Elikya Ngoma, Haiti Editor for The Burning Spear newspaper and musical artist.
Elikya's family is from Haiti, she speaks Kreyòl and maintains a close connection to politics in Haiti. She is also a singer and musician who has just released an album "Freedom in the Mix" featuring freedom songs in various genres and languages.
In this interview we talked with Elikya about:
The African Revolution in Haiti, the first successful workers' revolution
Legacy and philosophy of Haitian General J...2021-01-0758 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #40: 2020 year in review with Chairman Omali YeshitelaIn our final episode of 2020, we talk with African People's Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela about:
African community's fight against the pandemic
Uprisings against police containment and violence
Global economic power shifts
Completing the black revolution of the 1960s
African political and economic unification and liberation
Chairman Omali Yeshitela is leader and founder of the Uhuru Movement. Over the past five decades, Chairman Omali has initiated campaigns to defend the democratic rights of the African community, to organize and raise up African women, to mobilize opposition to U.S. wars and to popularize the demand for reparations to...2020-12-3158 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War radio show, Episode #39: Sinterklass & Zwarte Piet, Jim Crow minstrels, black face and falling statues"The truth is that virtually every celebration done in this country and throughout Europe, certainly since the 15th or 16th century, have been celebrations of slavery and genocide.
"Sinterklaas was the patron saint of shipping in Holland. The first African captives to come to America were brought by the Dutch. I would imagine that the 'Good Ship Jesus' that brought us here was probably blessed by Sinterklaas. You could say that we were a gift from Santa to America." - Chairman Omali Yeshitela
Activists worldwide are fighting anti-African traditions and tearing down symbols of colonial...2020-12-2358 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #38: FBI war on today's black activistsOn December 4th, Grand Master Jay was arrested at his home in Ohio on a federal charge of pointing a rifle towards federally deputized task force officers perched on a rooftop during a rally in Louisville, Kentucky two months earlier.
57-year-old John “Jay” Johnson is leader of the Not F’in Around Coalition (NFAC), an armed black security force formed this summer. Over 500 NFAC members from across the U.S. marched in Louisville for justice for Breonna Taylor. If convicted Grand Master Jay faces 20 years in prison.
We talk with Rakem Balogun, leader of the Dallas-ba...2020-12-1757 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #37: 50 shots fired, 38 pierced the body of another black man killed by police in St. Petersburg, FloridaOn December 2nd, 2020, six Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies fired over 50 bullets into a car and hit 20-year-old Dominique Harris 38 times, killing him.
This police killing of another black man took place in a parking lot of a neighborhood store in south St. Petersburg in front of dozens of witnesses. It was filmed and went viral on social media.
On this episode we talk with lifelong St. Petersburg residents Ntambwe Bhekizitha and Akile Anai. Ntambwe is owner of Freedom Cutz Barbershop in south St. Pete and Akile's father. Akile Anai is Editor in Chief of The...2020-12-1056 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #36: Give us the land! Hands off the Bethesda African Cemetery!The Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland, holds the remains of hundreds of African people dating back to at least the 18th century.
Today the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition is fighting developers and Montgomery County to stop the desecration of the sacred site as bulldozers tear the land to build a self-storage compound.
We talk with Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and her husband Reverend Segun Adebayo about:
The brutal colonial kidnapping and theft of human and intellectual capital from the world's original universities in Africa to build the tobacco agricultural industry of the U.S.'s m...2020-12-0356 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #35: The "white people's State"- pilgrims, proud boys, policeLast week, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was released from jail where he was being held on murder charges after killing 2 people who were protesting the Kenosha, Wisconsin police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed African man.
Rittenhouse’s 2 million dollar bond was raised through a crowdfunding effort that drew popular support from white people around the U.S., including from the CEO of the My Pillow company.
Rittenhouse is associated with and influenced by armed white nationalist groups and individuals who are making a lot of noise around the country these days, threatening and carrying out vio...2020-11-2657 minBlack Power TalksThe People's War Radio Show, Episode #34: Culture, the "war of ideas" and the Black Power movement2020 has been a year of African resistance - resistance to police violence, poverty and mass incarceration.
This episode looks at the role that culture plays in the “war of ideas” - how books, movies and music can express the worldview and serve the interests of the oppressor or those of the oppressed.
Aundrey Jones, Ethnic Studies doctoral candidate at UCSD, and Curtis Howard, early Crips member who was incarcerated for decades in California prisons - both organizers with "All of Us or None" ex-prisoner advocacy organization - discuss the political and psychological impact of:
M...2020-11-1957 min