Being one of the signers of the Republic Of New Africa’s Declaration of Independence, March 31, 1969, at the then revered 20 Grand Motel, and has been one of its soldiers and leaders, in The Simba Wa Chunga (Young Lions) paramilitary of youngsters, I, with all my heart and soul, believed in the struggle for land and independence for black folk in the USA I learned very early on that it was an improbable proposition.
The thing between my father [ Dr. Imari A. Obadele, one of the founders of the New African Independence Movement and the Father of the current movement for Reparations] and I was one of strategy. I mean, I was up for some armed struggle, in fact, I relished it, but my piece was that we could not win a war with white folk about the land. BUT, we could buy the land. Dad would be like “let’s take the political approach; we take it to the people.”
Then there was the issue of getting the message to the people, the correctness of what we were attempting. No problem. If we have the MONEY to get the message to the people.
I was an avid follower of Malcolm X. I understood/stand that “by any means necessary” meant just that: ANY. By the time I was 14 I had read and half-understood the Communist Manifesto, the history, as they wrote it, of the birth of the “Jewish” State, Burning Spear, by Jomo Kenyatta, most of J. A. Rogers books, etc. and one thing I learned is that they were not squeamish about how they got the money to fund their struggles. I’m talking drug running, prostitution, gun-running, whatever they had to do. They understood that one cannot have a moral revolution. How are you going to have a revolution without some immorality? I think they call that collateral damage when people get hurt that you never intended to be hurt. It’s the cost of doing business.
Things have changed in the communications business. We can talk to folk worldwide just by getting behind a keyboard, creating podcasts, and just about anything to reach people. But, for me, it’s about the money. Buy the shit.
Submitted by – Imari A. Obadele 2/tu.