The New Afrikan Independence Movement/ Republic of New Afrika
The Republic of
New Afrika
Land, Independence, and Self-Government have been objectives sought by Black people ever since we were kidnapped from Afrika and brought to this country as slaves. Many ran away and established communities in the woods, mountains and swamps. We armed ourselves and created bases in which we could operate, liberated zones to which other enslaved brothers and sisters might flee. Others organized rebellions, aimed at destroying slavery and liberating territory from which to build an independent state. To the Black people who were forced to come to this land, Black nationalism was not taken lightly. Although brutally crushed, Our ancestors continued to revolt. Although sold down the river, they continued to escape. Independence and self-determination were what they wanted. These Blacks were, in effect, laying bricks on a foundation that was later to become known as the Republic of New Afrika. (1)
The process that gave rise to what became defined as the New Afrikan Nation started on the Afrikan continent and carried over to North Amerika. Primarily the New Afrikan Nation was born as a result of its own internal motion and internal contradictions. Afrikan tribes were combining into, were fused into, nations, prior to being transported to amerika.
You may have had one nation comprised out of many tribes and although each tribe had their own distinct tribal identities and culture, they recognized their collective identity based on their particular collective and historical development. For example, the naming of themselves as Angolans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, etc.. These are National distinctions and National Identities. Despite the fact that within their borders they have different tribal origins and relations, their National Identity and National Consciousness is that of a Collective definition.
Primarily a New Afrikan is an Afrikan born in North Amerika. New Afrikans hold many different theories, some are socialist, some are capitalist, some are nationalist, some are Pan-Afrikanist and so on. The Republic of New Afrika (RNA) is the name given to the Black nation in Amerika by 500 nationalist leaders at the Black Government Conference held in Detroit, Michigan and convened by the M.X. Society on March 29-31, 1968. The RNA consists of a population of millions of ideas. (2)
Marcus Garvey once exclaimed, "Where is the black man's government? Where is his president, his army, his navy, his men of big affairs?"
On March 31, 1968, the seed of Garvey's prophetic vision came to fruition as a force of over 500 black nationalists met at the convention in Detroit and issued a Declaration of Independence for a black nation on the North Amerikan continent, named that nation the Republic of New Afrikan and identified five states in the deep south as the subjugated National Territory, creating basic law and a provisional government with elected officials under a mandate to FREE THE LAND!! (3)
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT TEACHES THAT ALL BLACKS DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES IN NORTH AMERIKKKA, ARE CITZENS OF THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRIKA BY BIRTH, FOR WE HAD BEEN SNATCHED FROM EVERY REGION IN AFRIKA AND MOLDED BY THIS COMMON HISTORY OF OPPRESSION AND STRUGGLE INTO A NEW AFRKAN NATION IN THE WORLD. .We were geographically seperated from the continent of Afrika, but just as Afrikan as any nation there. Blacks may chose to give up their New Afrikan citizenship, or they may opt for exclusive RNA citizenship. New Afrikan citizenship is a right of birth, and the right to choose in this matter lies at the heart of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Thus, when the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) was established, it set about the task of informing Black people of their rights under international law to self determination, land and reparations. Since its existence , the Provisional Government has sharpened the theoretical basis for New Afrikan Political Science, organized national elections for officials in the Provisional Government, demanded reparations from the u.s. government, defended itself against enemy attacks, sought to establish diplomatic relations with other governments and struggled for the right of New Afrikan Prisoners of War. Freedom, Self Government and Self Determination - the objectives sought by blacks since our arrival in these shores had now reached a higher stage. (4)
It is important to note that the PGRNA was established by New Afrikans who held a number of different political, economic and social theories. What those who founded the PGRNA collectively recognized was that an Afrikan (Black) Nation in amerika does exist. They named it New Afrika, created the Provisional Government for it and gave the PG the dual mission of educating the New Afrikan masses with regard to our true National Identity and struggle for independence in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana. These states are a part of the historical Blackbelt birthplace, and North Amerikan farmland of the New Afrikan Nation. This area is called the New Afrikan National Territory.
The struggle to free this land is called the New Afrikan Independence Movement. All those in it recognize the existence of the nation and partake in the struggle to free it. (5)
While there is this clarion call to 'Free The Land' and a movement to target these particular states that we identify as the National Territory, we realize that some things are subject to change and evolve. We also know that while it may be a dialectical materialist and theoretical basis to support the establishment of a Sovereign/Independent National Territory, some realities will be decided by boots on the ground, through the motion of the people, masses. We know that any serious struggle or war for National Liberation of New Afrikan People and for Socialism will no longer leave the continental north amerikan continent as we know it. Any form of people's war in the u.s. by the masses for the establishment of a socialist or communist entity will totally cause a reconfiguration of the u.s. empire as we know it.
Any correct theoretical analysis has to be applied to concrete conditions and out of that application, new theory, new strategies and tactics and new realities will evolve. While leadership and direction may be given by a revolutionary party or vanguard formation or a federation of various revolutionary collectives, ultimately, it is the people who have the power and those boots on the ground is what will be decisive.
Various elements, groups and people who profess to be allies try to deny the legitimacy of our right to wage a National Liberation Struggle or Struggle for Self Determination; as such these allies often reek of settler arrogance , paternalism, hidden agendas and thinly camouflaged white nationalism. These superficial allies have never done any real research or investigation into the historical development of the New Afrikan Nation or the history and origin of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. We do not need nor seek your validation.
The rhythm of a people never stop whether they are transported across oceans or in the bowels of slave ships or remain stationary. That beat and culture continues along its path of development and evolution. It is shaped and conditioned by its current conditions and objective material reality. With that being said, the residue of the old remains as it contributes and give rise to and helps to form and shape the new.
Our Struggle for Land, Independence and Socialism is no less valid or any less legitimate than the anti-colonial wars waged on the continent of Afrika to oust the Portuguese, the Arabs, the Belgium and other settlers.
In fact since the arrival of our ancestors on these shores, we have continously waged a war for Land and Independence from the settler colonizer and imperialist u.s.government. Whether it was in the form of maroons fighting the colonial British forces to a stand still, whetherit was forcing the u.s. colonial forces to sign peace or cease fire treaties as we retreated into the hills and or swamps with Indigenous allies or whether it is screaming in the streets that Black Lives Matter as we rebel and revolt in the Urban Ghetto Kolonies across Amerika!! Whether it was as we launched raiding parties from the swamps and hills to attack and set afire slave plantations.
This was war and despite the fact that second klass citizenship was imposed upon us with the 13th and 14th amendment, changing chattel slavery from privitae ownership to that of state ownership, this war against neo-kolonial domination and genocide has never stopped or ceased. It has merely taking on various forms asit goes through its stages of development and dialectical process. You do not amend a people into a constitution. You do not impose second klass citizenship upon a conquered or kolonized people. In fact it is a violation of international law as defined by the United Nations regarding formally conquered or kolonized people.
ARTICLE 15 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS STATES:
1) Everyone has a right to a nationality.
2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
When people talk about it being 'two amerikas', when people talk about the rate of imprisonment of New Afrikan people, the rate that New Afrikan people are murdered by kolonial occupational personnel (Kops), when we talk about the rate of Black womyn dying from various forms of cancer, the school to prison pipeline of our children, the environmental racism of pumping poisonous water into our schools and communities, etc. etc. this represents National Oppression and Genocide. It ain't never been no one Amerika except white racist settler amerika, so to say two amerikas is a misnomer and an attempt to divert a proper political assessment and analysis of the truth and to keep us going down a path that doesn't lead to national liberation or freedom. Its strategic and a military diversionary tactic designed to keep us away from more militant forms or struggle and resistance.......
The New Afrikan Liberation Collective represents just one of the many organizatons within the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM). We invite you to unite with us as we struggle to not only Free The Land but build up and strengthen the Provisional Govt of the Republic of New Afrika and advance our Vita Wa Watu!! FREE THE LAND!!!
Shaka Shakur 1996207
jpay.com
shakashakur@protonmail.com
Suggested Reading:
1) Free The Land: The Republic of New Afrikan and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State by Edward Onaci
2) The History of The New Afrikan Independence Movement by Chokwe Lumumba
3) Meditation and Notes on Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth by James Yaki Sayles (Required Reading)
4) New Afrikan P.O.W. Theoretical Journals and Vita Wa Watu Journals 1 thru 12 by Spear and Shield Publications/The Rebuild Collective (Required Reading)
5) We Are Our Own Liberators by Jalil A. Muntaqim
6) Night visions: Class and War on the Neo Colonial Terrain by Butch Lee
7) Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J..Sakai (Required Reading)
Relevant Information/Attachments:
International Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, States in Article II:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as;
a. killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III further states; The following shall be punishable:
a) Genocide;
b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
d) Attempt to commit genocide;
e) Complicity in genocide. pg 47
The U.N. Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples affirms: ...the inherent right of colonial people to struggle by all means at their disposal against colonial powers which suppress their aspirations for freedom and independence....
While the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights States:
....All people have the right of self determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Pg. 48 The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 3103 (XXVIII) on December 12, 1973, emphatically reaffirmed that: ....the continuation of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations, as noted in General Assembly resolution 2621 (XXV) of October 1970, is a crime and that colonial peoples have the inherent to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial powers and alien domination in exercise of their rights of self determination recognized in this Charter of the United Nations.....Pg. 50
All of the above quotes were taken from the book "We Are Our Own Liberators" written by Jalil A. Muntaqim
The full text can be found in the United Nations Charter The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Shaka Shakur
