African Americans won’t turn the tide by going on a shopping spree, or leaving it to whites to decide what we can and cannot teach our children, where we work, and for how much, whether we are free or imprisoned, or whether we live or die. We need power over our own communities just as the white working class needs it over theirs. . . .
Theory Corner
Revolutionary African Culture for an End to Gender-Based Violence
ur focus must be on ideological and political development of the masses. The enemies of our people are in our midst and only mass, revolutionary African culture and organization can combat this reactionary behavior. We must collectively reconstruct not only the ethical and political foundation for a new African society but also reinvigorate revolutionary and principled people willing to build an ethical and principled society for the future of Africa and all our African communities. . . .
The Connection Between “No Pride in Genocide” and “FUCK the Fourth”
During the first week in July within the United Snakes, this side of the arbitrary colonial border, you will hear about a lot of events/demonstrations called, “FUCK the Fourth.” These events/demonstrations have historically been organized within Black Radical Tradition in true principled solidarity with the Indigenous people of the western hemisphere, their collective sovereignty, and their continued and consistent struggle against the active colonization of their land, since first contact with European pillagers. “FUCK the Fourth” events/demonstrations are centered around abandoning the practices of our oppressors, observing the traditions of our Ancestors, and celebrating ourselves as Africans forced into diaspora. . . .
The Responsibilities of Caribbean Intellectuals
Aaron Kamugisha is Professor of Caribbean and Africana Thought at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus The tradition of Caribbean intelligentsia insists on a grounding with the masses against the elites. What then are the responsibilities of Caribbean intellectuals? I draw my definition/sense of the intellectual here from figures as diverse as Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, Claudia Jones and Audre Lorde. For the purposes of this essay I am twinning the thought of George Lamming and Walter Rodney – specifically Lamming’s succinct description of an intellectual as someone whose fundamental orientation is a life of the mind, . . .
The African Woman: The Invisible Soldier
A society without women can be compared to humans without air. Africa without African women is like a mango tree without roots. The indispensable role that African women play in the development of society in general and community, in particular, cannot be matched or debated. However, despite this role African women from Toronto to Harare to London to Kingston find themselves often invisible. . . .
Witnessing the Selling Out of Juneteenth Right Before Our Eyes
the militant and uncompromising spirit of the Juneteenth celebrations I grew up with has been replaced by a dominant “can we all get along” party atmosphere that uplifts symbolic progress while hammering the message that the absolute only legitimate form of struggle that is morally acceptable is that waged through the capitalist electoral process on an individual basis. . . .
Capitalism Was a Source of My Childhood Trauma
In many radical Black and Brown spaces on the Internet, I’ve seen many people pose the question “What radicalized you?” And, for some time, I could not bring myself to give anything close to a direct answer. When relating the struggle for African liberation to our personal lives, many of us have our own stories or narratives that push us forward into the realm of consciousness, especially when having to do with both race and class. However, for some of us (like myself), it may have taken a while to understand how the latter is connected to the former. Growing . . .
How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
Any effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday should be viewed with caution. Such a designation would only continue the telling of false tales. It would allow the bad actors of the present day to get away with cheap theatrics while continuing the legal and economic structures which still oppress Black people. The true story of the past would be kept hidden and the story of the present would be sugar coated. . . .