The following are remarks that I offered on February 26, 2023, at Love Assembly Worship Center, a Christian church in Greeleyville, SC in honor of African History Month. Good morning everyone! I bring you all special greetings as we begin to bring this year’s African History Month to a close. My name is Salifu. I grew up right here in this area and attended GES as a kid, and right now I am a 7th and 8th grade English teacher at C.E. Murray, the same school I graduated from, with my classmate who invited me here today. I am also . . .
Black Alliance For Peace
Africans and Identity
We want to carefully discuss our African identity because the answers we arrive at are fundamental to our Pan-Africanist objective. By defining our identity, we are defining our fighting force and ultimately we are defining the people for whom we fight. This is also the first step in the process of defining our enemy, which Sekou Touré named the “Anti-People.” These are essential definitions and in spite of the complexities involved, we have to get them right if we are to someday be free. I am sure all will agree that it will take all of us to defeat capitalism . . .
Defining White Supremacy
This article was originally published in The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society . In recent years, the concept of white supremacy has been associated with extreme racist groups and ultranationalists, as well as high-profile acts of associated racial terrorism, particularly in Western countries. Some examples are: the massacre of nine African-American worshippers at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in South Carolina (USA), the violent white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA), the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand that killed 51 people and injured 49, the Hanau, Germany attack that killed nine people and wounded six others, and the shooting deaths of eleven . . .
“Total Peace Is the Call”: Reflections from Colombia
Ajamu Baraka representing BAP’s Haiti/Americas Team was invited to serve as part of an international delegation of human rights defenders that would accompany the activists, community leaders, government officials, and representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN) on a historic “humanitarian Caravan” between January 17 and the 21st to the Indigenous and Afro-Colombian areas of the Pacific coast of Colombia as part of the peace process initiated by the new government in Colombia. Ajamu was also an observer and international guarantor in Havana, Cuba during the last round of the Peace Process that produced the Ethnic Chapter of the peace . . .
Why I Had To Go There: Nicaragua, Power & Protaganism
“Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires: All my life I’ve been studying revolution. I’ve Been looking for it, pushing at the possibilities and waiting for that moment when there’s no more room for rhetoric, for research or for reason: when there’s only my life or my death left to act upon. Here in the United States you do get weary, after a while; you could spend your best energies forever writing letters to the New York Times. But you know, in your gut, that writing back is not the . . .
Wes Moore: Another ‘First Black’ In A Colonial System
Recently, Maryland swore in its first Black governor, Wes Moore, in a “historic” ceremony cemented with a tearful introduction by Oprah Winfrey and a hand on Frederick Douglass’ Bible. The Black elite flocked to fill the rooms of the inauguration to witness the third elected Black governor in U.S. history. Yet, this “first Black” gubernatorial win is history repeating itself. African/Black communities have witnessed “first Blacks” consistently continuing over-policing, surveillance, criminalization, and austerity policies. As Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) member organization Ujima People’s Progress Party understands, “The Black middle-class’ allegiance to capitalism, and not Black liberation, has largely led . . .
Black Universities, White Power: Howard Covers For Imperialism
The crisis of identity reductionism has led to the overwhelming placement of Africans in positions to serve empire and double down on patriotism. Most recently, Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA, hosted U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, and U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall who awarded the university with a $90 million contract to serve as the 15th University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). The cultural and social significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) dominates almost all aspects of conversations centered on Black schools. The UARC award will enable Howard to lead . . .
Reject the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) recognizes the “U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit” — scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. December 13-15th — as nothing more than collusion between neo-colonial powers and U.S. attempts to advance and maintain dominance over the continent. Liberal elements of U.S. civil society will preoccupy themselves with the issues they think should be addressed at the Summit, claiming to act in the best interest of Africa or, as with the Summit of the Americas held earlier this year, attack those who they say do not deserve to be invited. Such dispositions presume the U.S. has honest . . .