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It’s past time to release our wrongfully imprisoned political leaders
by Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at
6261 AAAK/April 2021 JC-PG
Africans Deserve Reparations! Cause, Black Lives Matter!
Blessings of IMANI (FAITH), Victorious G-o-ds, Esteemed Elders, Sis-Stars, Bro-Stars and Youthful Revolutionaries!
May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and incredible Ancients and Ancestors from millennia past, yesteryears and, literally, yesterday – find you and (y)our extended Family staying healthy, safe and keeping in positive Spirit.
WE hope you and yours continue to practice great health, by masking up; safe physical distancing; healthy live-t (die-t) with veggies, fruits and multivitamins; drinking plenty of clean water; meditation and prayer; as much exercise and healing sun rays as you can get; and informed research as well as self-determined decision-making around medicines, vaccinations etc. Asé.
Honoring our new Ancestors
WE remember and honor the lives and special Gifts of our new Ancestors. These include our beloved Baba GENE HENNAN, an incredible singer and father of my main music collaborator of two decades, Phil “The Trill(ionaire)” Hennan, owner of Sepia Sounds Studio and Mood City Photography in Oakland! Asé.
Our dear Queen DOROTHY KING, owner of Oakland’s Everett & Jones Barbeque restaurants in Oakland and around the Bay Area! Queen Dorothy, and her Queen Mother DOROTHY EVERETT before her, supported many of our social justice causes, especially to uplift our homeless residents, and our movements around the world – particularly on the African continent and in Ayiti/Haiti. Asé.
ALVIN SYKES, based in Kansas City, leaves an incredible record of advocacy for social justice. Baba Alvin helped many traumatized families re-open decades-old criminal cases. He used his persistence and skills to help win some truth, justice, new convictions and overdue sentencing of previously acquitted American terrorists by mostly all-white juries for murdering Black people – like EMMETT TILL, our friend and jazz musician STEVE HARVEY, State Rep. LEON JORDAN and others.
Before his Spiritual Transformation, Baba Alvin was also working to get the false weapons charges dropped against Mzee Pete O’Neal, Black Panther Party leader who has been in exile for five decades. Asé. And two more of my high school class-mates, Dr. GLENDA MORRIS-ROBINSON, MD, and Baba DAVID SKANNAL. Asé.
Long Live the Spirit, legacies and numerous contributions of these new and all our incredible Ancestors. Asé. Asé. Asé-O!
Free Them All, ASAP!
WE must collectively demand and build more powerful movements to win the immediate release, amnesty and restitution for our unjustly incarcerated political leaders. For decades, these Elders have endured torturous conditions and a denial of their basic human rights.
The pandemic has made matters worse, with severe overcrowding making it impossible for any safe physical distancing; lack of proper hygiene and protective wear for those encaged or staff-persons; denial of high-quality information, food, water, medical care; and reduced security checks and communication from relatives and supporters outside the prison walls. WE CHARGE THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS WITH GENOCIDE!
This month, WE were informed that one of our most well-known political leaders, Baba Mumia Abu-Jamal, has been dangerously sickened in the capitalist for-profit prison state of Pennsylvania. After suffering for almost forty years, 30 on death row, he now has been diagnosed with not only congestive heart disease but also the COVID-19 virus.
Elders like Dr. Mutulu Shakur and Baba Sundiata Acoli were denied release even after winning victories in the courts or with parole boards. They are now all in their late 60s, 70s and 80s. WE MUST FREE THEM ALL NOW! AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
These newly diagnosed conditions come after Mumia has also been battling serious eczema and other skin disorders contracted in state facilities and not given adequate treatment. As he approaches his 67th sacred birthday on April 24, WE have to increase our collective efforts to get him released ASAP.
Here in our current home state of Cali-bama, Baba Ruchell Magee, who communicates regularly with our Bay View newspaper, has also been diagnosed with this dangerous virus. Baba Ruchell has been locked down since the early 1960s. WE must demand his immediate release, amnesty and proper medical care. Asé.
These are brief reports on just two veteran activists who have sacrificed their lives to help change this society for future generations to have better opportunities for a quality life. Leaders like Babas Veronza Bowers, Russell Maroon Shoats and Iman Jamil Al-Amin are also confronting major health challenges after many decades of unjust confinement.
Other Elders, like Dr. Mutulu Shakur and Baba Sundiata Acoli, were denied release even after winning victories in the courts or with parole boards. They are now all in their late 60s, 70s and 80s. WE MUST FREE THEM ALL NOW! AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Please join us by visiting the website of our Jericho Amnesty Movement to learn more about their cases and how you can assist them, at https://thejerichomovement.com/.
Destination REPARATIONS
Our N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) continues to organize for passage of H.R. 40 and S. 40, “The Commission to Study Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act,” in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, respectively.
Again, i/WE are so grateful to those of you who have over the past few months, taken time to study, endorse and make calls to elected officials on the bills. Respectfully, i am asking all residents of California to call our new U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at (202) 225-2435 to insist he follow the positive actions of now Vice-Prez Harris and Sen. Feinstein as co-sponsors of S. 40.
End Slavery in California! Deep gratitude to Sister Jamilia Land of the Abolish Slavery National Network and Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of Los Angeles for introducing ACA 3: The California Abolition Act.
WE urgently need your participation, leadership and vision in our growing Reparations movement, particularly here on the west side of the U.S. Please become a member of our N’COBRA and encourage your groups and institutions to join with us in building our collective power.
Go to www.ncobraonline.org or contact me at support@africansdeservereparations.com or the address below. Asante Sana. Asé.
Also, please take a moment to review, consider, sign-on and forward our FONAMI’s “Change the Name of the ‘white’ House Petition” to your networks: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-change-name-of-white-house.
CONGRATULATIONS!
End Slavery in California! Asante Sana (Many Thanks and Gratitude) to Sister Jamilia Land of the Abolish Slavery National Network and Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of Los Angeles for introducing ACA 3: The California Abolition Act.
CONGRATS to Assemblyman Ron Bonta for being nominated to serve as California’s first person of Asian American Pacific Islander ancestry to serve as our state’s Attorney General!
This bill will remove the words “involuntary servitude” from the California constitution, which now allows state and corporate prisons to super-exploit the labor of our incarcerated brothers and sisters. Through education and passage of ACA 3, this will give us more momentum to overturn the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which promotes “slavery for those convicted of crimes.” Similar positive laws have already passed in Nebraska, Utah and Colorado. Asé.
CONGRATS to the visionary Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) for its years of work to Defund the vicious Oakland Police Department! These incredible leaders have moved our City to take positive action on recommendations from the Re-imagining Public Safety Task Force. Highlights include transformative proposals such as professional medical responses to mental health crises, rather than racist armed soldiers who too often respond with unnecessary and deadly violence. Asé. Visit and support APTP at https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/blog-entire/2nd-defund-victory-this-week.
CONGRATS to my/our Assemblyman Ron Bonta for being nominated to serve as California’s first person of Asian American Pacific Islander ancestry to serve as our state’s Attorney General! WE must now come together to get a qualified African American to assume his seat and represent the Bay Area in the Assembly. WE have not had any Black representation in the Assembly or Senate for nearly a decade. Asé.
CONGRATS to our incredibly talented Bay Area artists for their honors at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. This includes Sis-Star H.E.R., who won two awards, including Best Song for “I Can’t Breathe.” Queen Ledisi, Brother Fantastico Negrito and others who received awards and special recognition. Asé.
Finally, our Bay View Newspaper deserves (y)our support! Please send your check or money order in any amount to us at 4917 Third St., San Francisco, CA 94124. Or, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-for-the-bay-view-newspaper.
Continue to take (y)our righteous steps … knowing our Divine will do the rest. And, walk in the Power of IMANI (FAITH) … on each and every day. Amen-RA Hotep! Asé.
#BlackLivesMatter #AfricansDeserveReparations #BringOurEldersHomeNow #AbolishPrisonsandPolice #LoveandDefendMotherEarth #BlackNewDeal
Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at is an ascendant of the Yoruba and Ewondo nations in Alkebulan-Afrika, a Baba (Elder), Pan Africanist, socialist and (inter)nationalist. He is also a “FREE-tired” community-labor-environmental and justice organizer; a writer, composer, yogi, martial artist, vegan and author of several books, including “Many Paths to Kujichagulia (Self-Determination).” In addition, he is a Life Member, former National Male Co-Chair and Acting West Regional Representative of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA). Take a listen to a few songs from his musical catalog at https://soundcloud.com/search?q=jahahara Invite Baba Jahahara to present at your group, school, spiritual gathering or event c/o support@africansdeservereparations.com or FONAMI, P.O. Box 10963, Oakland, CA 94610.
