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by Abbas Muntaqim, edited by Delency Parham
On Oct. 22, 2021, a historic tribunal will take place as the In The Spirit of Mandela Coalition will be charging genocide against the so called United States on six different accounts. These accounts are:
- Racist police killings of Black, Brown and Indigenous people;
- Hyper-incarceration of Black, Brown and Indigenous people;
- Political incarceration of Civil Rights and National Liberation era revolutionaries and activists as well as present day activists;
- Environmental racism and its impact on Black, Brown and Indigenous people;
- Public health racism and disparities and their impact on Black, Brown and Indigenous people; and
- Genocide of Black, Brown and Indigenous people as a result of the historic and systemic charges of all the above.
As New Afrikans, we know that all of these charges, when applied to the United Nations’ definition of genocide, are scientifically true. In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”:
- Killing members of the group.
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Afrikan people have been murdered on this land since Europeans forcibly stole us from our ancestral homeland. This has occurred through lynchings, murder on the plantation, police killings and white supremacist vigilante killings in the cases of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin and the many names that we don’t know. We also know that this racial terrorism has created PTSD symptoms in our community.
Afrikan people have been murdered on this land.
More Black men are under correctional control than were enslaved. Black women are the most rapidly growing prison population – even though Black women are the most educated group in the United States. If you remove Black men and Black women from society and force them into concentration camps, this affects births in the New Afrikan Nation.
New Afrikan youth have been forced into foster care.
This is largely why our population hasn’t grown much in the past 20 years. We would have more power on this land if we had more people. In addition, our New Afrikan youth have been forced into foster care due to racist child protective services and the hyper incarceration of Afrikans.
Black, Brown and Indigenous women have been forcibly sterilized.
We also know that Black, Brown and Indigenous women have been forcibly sterilized by this terrorist nation. There’re many more examples that can be given, but it must be ever clear: The New Afrikan condition in amerikkka is nothing short of genocide.
As New Afrikans, we believe that the Republic of New Afrika will bring about true independence for our people. We understand that this historic tribunal, which follows in the spirit of Paul Robeson and William Patterson’s “We Charge Genocide,” has evolved and is occurring as another historic epoch in the fight for New Afrikan Independence.
Our right to a nationality is being deprived by the so-called United States.
Thus, we fully understand the importance of bringing these charges directly to the United Nations. This has the potential to be a stepping-stone and lay the foundation for our people to revolt for the formation of the New Afrikan Nation.
This tribunal is important because it not only creates the conditions for the U.S. to be held accountable for its settler colonial imperial crimes on an international level, but it simultaneously establishes New Afrikan relations with the United Nations. If we want nationhood, it is necessary we develop relations at the UN level, as it will allow us to begin to build with other states, which is one of the four components that makes a nation.
Secondly, if the United Nations agrees with our argument that New Afrikans have been held under genocidal conditions by the United States, it lays the international conditions for us to argue for self-government for national independence.
This shows that there’s a genocidal war on our nationality, which is New Afrikan. And, according to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has a right to a nationality.”
Our right to a nationality is being deprived by the so-called United States, which again violates UN law. Once genocide is found, it also develops the international conditions for us to be able to militantly defend ourselves from the genocide. Through making the international community aware of our genocide, we can now lobby for support from nations allied to the cause of Black and New Afrikan independence in this illegal settler colony called amerikkka.
It will also convene UN intervention into prosecuting the genocide. It is through this that New Afrikans will be able – at the international level – to demand reparations from the so-called United States. Those reparations would be in the form of the Black Belt being given to us plus monetary reparations for the centuries of genocide against our people.
This will bring about our own free New Afrikan nation, where we can govern ourselves and abolish all systems of oppression that have been weaponized against our people for centuries.
Lastly, this convention will bring like-minded people throughout the New Afrikan communities to come to New York. It will allow us to be in community, take tangible next steps and help us develop more cadres for the Front for the Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation (FROLINAN)! This will look like cadres throughout the country being developed under the ideological framework of New Afrikan independence.
Through establishing decolonization programs, it will point out the contradictions of the state – while also building autonomous institutions to serve the masses of New Afrikan people in the locale of different New Afrikan cadre organizations.
This looks like free food programs, free healthcare programs, community political development programs, the development of gardens etc. It is through this that people will begin to realize that “We Are Our Own Liberators” – as we become dependent on ourselves and not the genocidal state. It is through this process of class struggle that we will be able to develop national unity.
This, above, shows us how significant this tribunal is! There’re a variety of different outcomes from this tribunal. Regardless of the outcome, we encourage New Afrikans to build cadre organizations that develop decolonization programs to free the land.
It is through building autonomous institutions as a part of class struggle that we will become unified nationally. It is through this in which we will see that we can govern ourselves, which will lead to ultimately fighting for national liberation.
Learn more and register for the Spirit of Mandela International Tribunal 2021
To learn more about the Tribunal and why we still charge genocide, visit spiritofmandela.org.
The Tribunal will be held Oct. 22-25 in New York City. In-person attendance has reached capacity and is now closed. You can, however, participate via Zoom. Please register at tinyurl.com/spiritofmandela.
As the list of speakers and performers is being finalized, here is the basic time structure:
- Friday, Oct. 22: Cultural event 6:00-9:00 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 23: Tribunal 10:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 24: Tribunal 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
- Monday, Oct. 25: Verdict and press conference in the morning.
Please send any question or comments to The Tribunal Logistics Committee, spiritofmandela.logistics@gmail.com.
We will be free! It is our God (Allah) given right!
Free the Land, Free the People,
And never forget, We Are Our Own Liberators.
Abbas Muntaqim is a New Afrikan organizer and educator. He co-chairs People’s Programs, a New Afrikan Organization in Oakland, and is the co-host of Hella Black Podcast. Contact him at abbas@peoplesprograms.com and check out hellablackpod.com. To learn more about the Tribunal and why we still charge genocide, visit spiritofmandela.org.
