Photo Bio Series #18: History of the Black United Front
In the Black Power/Afrocentric Pan-Africanist movement one of the key organizations was the Black Panther Party. Significantly the Black Panther party was used in Lowndes County, Alabama. After that Selma march Kwame stepped up his organizing in Lowndes County where there was an overwhelming black population but no political power. After successfully organizing there, he was invited to the west coast to relate the experience they had and Lowndes County. It was there that the seeds of a Black Panther Party were planted. At Sekiywa, the daughter of Afeni Shakur’s wedding in 1996 there was a Black Panther reunion with some of the members who had attended the wedding. in the photo it was a grand and glorious occasion.
One for the wedding and two for the reunion. It was like old times. The wedding was held at the home of Afeni which Tupac had purchased for his mother. A beautiful spacious home with lush green grass and shrubbery and trees all added to the joy of the moment. I don’t think anyone at the wedding didn’t have Tupac on his/her mind. He would have loved to be present and maybe he was in spirit. We hope to see members of the party when we Remember Kwame Ture and the movement and organizations and persons who had such a significant impact on America and ab road. I hope you, dear reader, will be present on July 29-30, 2023. Please register now at hdgministries.org/events and help us to spread the word. It’s going to be at our church, the House of the Lord Church, where Afeni, Tupac, and Sekyiwa were members.
In the photo left to right: Jomal Joseph, Watoni Tyhemba, myself, Geronimo Jisaqq, Abi Bey Hassan
**Black Power Revisited (con’t)**
The following is the continuation from part VI of the Black Power series published Wednesday, July 26, 2006. This excerpt is taken from literature written over 40 years ago. I hope the reader finds the articles as interesting as I have found them.
They (whites) even tried to use the Bible to prove that we were cursed people forever, condemned to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for others-for whites. “Did no Noah curse Ham to be servant or a slave unto his brethren?” they said. But the Bible does not teach God cursed Ham. It says that it was Canaan.
The false belief that Ham was cursed comes in part from the ambiguity of the verses immediately preceding the curse and in part from mistranslation. “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside... and Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.” The first verse does suggest that the sin was committed by Ham. But the Bible points out that Ham was the father of Canaan.
The fact that it was Canaan and not Ham who was guilty is clear from the study in the next two verses. “Then he said, cursed be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” Genesis 9:25. Moreover, the line preceding the curse is invariably translated incorrectly. It should read “And Noah knew what his grandson had done unto him.” The Hebrew word, “benohakatan”, may be translated “his youngest son,” or “his grandson.” But grandson is correct, indeed, the only possible translation in this instance. For Ham was not Noah’s youngest son. Japheth was the youngest son. Ham was the middle son, and “Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.” Genesis 10:6
The sons of Ham (Ham in Hebrew does have the meaning of darkness. It also means Egy pt) were Cush, which is the biblical name for Ethiopia. Cush begot Nimrod who was the first man of power. “He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Genesis 10:9 Nimrod was also the founder of Babylonia. The Israelites clearly believed that the Babylonians and Assyrians were of African origin. We might remember that Abraham came from this direction, which raises fascinating speculation.
The other sons of Ham were Mizraim, which is another name for Egypt, Phut (or Lybia) and Canaan. Canaan, comes from a word meaning to be low, referring originally to the low-lying coast of Phoenicia and the Philistines, later all western Palestine. Indeed, it was the Egyptians and Babylonians who enslaved the Israelites. Canaan became a slave because this was the land the Israelites conquered when they left the hardship of Egypt. It was a natural thing to make slaves out of the vanquished enemy.
Now, with respect to Egypt not being a Black civilization, we have already seen that the Israelites believed the Egyptians were Black. In Egyptian paintings, they depict themselves as Black, reddishbrown or yellow. White skinned figures usually represented foreigners or slaves. Investigation of skeletons and other remains indicate that a large proportion of the Egyptian population, pe rhaps a third or more, we clearly Negroid. The Greek historian Herodotus, described 5th century BC Egyptian as “Black and curly haired.” Other historians wrote that the Ethiopians considered themselves to be “of greater antiquity than any other nation and it is probably that they were under the sun’s path. Its warmth may have ripened them earlier than other men. They supposed themselves to be the investors of worship, of festivals, of sacrifices of every religious practice.” The Iliad, a Greek epic poem, speaks of the gods feasting among the “blameless Ethiopians.”
There is no doubt the accomplishments of Black people. But what of Black Africa, or Africa is below the Sahara Desert? A number of archeologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists now believe that life first appeared in Africa. Prominent among those is the eminent anthropologists Lousi Leakey. He said, “Africa’s first contribution to human progress was the evolution of man himself.” Professor Leakey’s theory is based on fossils and skeletons he had discovered in Africa. The earliest tool maker so far known, called Zinjanthropus, was discovered in Northern Tanganyika in East Africa.
The following is the continuation from part VII of the Black Power series published Wednesday, July 28, 2006. This excerpt is taken from literature written over 40 years ago. I hope the reader finds the articles as interesting as I have found them.
Roland Oliver and I.D. Page have said, “There is little doubt that throughout all but the last small fraction of this long development of human form, Africa remained at the center of the inhabited world.”
The first abacus-a system of counting- was found in Congo-estimated to be 8,000 years old. Time would fail me to discuss the civilization of Ghana; of Guinea; of Mali; on the west coast of Mozambique; of Tanganyika; of Kenya; of Kilwa-which Ibn Battuta, the Marco Polo of Africa, called “one of the most beautiful towns in the world,” in the east coast of Uganda; of Monomotapa; Zimbabwe, in the interior.
But now the question we must raise is why did whites steal and twist our history? First: they had to justify their rape of Africa and the bartering of human flesh. To do this, it became necessary to prove Africa was endless jungle, wild animals and sub-human beings.
Dubois said, “The world which raped it, had to pretend that it had not harmed a man, but a thing.”
Since we were savages with the curse of God upon us, whites felt that they could do no wrong in their dealings with us. The unparalleled evils of the plantation were more to be desired than the jungle. Discrimination in America was a blessing compared to demon life in Africa. “Black men,” said Chief Justice Taney during the Dred Scott case, “have no rights white men are bound to respect.”
The second reason is that once the machinery of slavery commenced operating-profitability I might add- it became necessary to keep the parts well oiled. That is to say, to perpetuate the slave system every vestige of self-respect, whatever would stimulate pride, had to be destroyed, or distorted. You cannot enslave a man who believes he is the descendent of nobility. You can shackle his feet, but his mind is still free. And he will watch his opportunity to strike a blow for freedom.
Oscar Wilde wrote, “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage; minds innocent and quiet take that for a hermitage. If I have freedom in my love, and in my soul I am free; angels alone that soar above, enjoy such liberty.”
Paul wrote from a Roman prison, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free.”
Black Power says “Look what is happening. There is still an attempt on the part of whites to propagate black inferiority.” It says, “The harm done to our personality must be recognized. We must recognize it so that we can deal with it.”
Many accepted the lie about Africa. So when they hated Africa, they hated themselves.
Many accepted the lie about the Bible-Noah cursed Ham- and when they accepted that, they unconsciously hated God. After all, how can anyone love a god who had cosigned him to eternal bondage?
In our personality, in our dealing with one another, and with whites, many still exhibit awful marks of the slave masters and segregationist psychology.
Our ambivalent feelings toward whites, fear and love; our lack of respect and trust for one another; self-hatred, revealed in our contempt for everything Black and Africa; our family instability, our love of high-sounding titles; our dependence upon whites for everything, are unmistakably signs of an un manumitted mentality.
Black Power says, “Know yourself (your history), and accept yourself, not white people’s image of you. Then see what will happen.”
On the knowledge of past history and present understanding of ourselves and whites, a racial unity can be forged whose numerical strength alone would present a formidable challenge to white opposition.
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