“Our method entails campaigns for consent, followed by plebiscites, followed by defense of our lands. . . .”
- Imari Obadele
PLEASE TAKE THE AFRODESCENDANT STEERING COMMITTEE SELF DETERMINATION SURVEY
The dictionary definition of a plebiscite is “the direct vote of all the members of an electorate on an important public question”
In 1970, Imari Obadele discussed the concept of the plebiscite in his work:
Revolution and Nation Building: Strategy for Building the Black Nation in America
by Imari Obadele
“The mechanical steps to independence . . . . We begin with a petition drive. . . . For the key to our legitimacy is consent: the will of the people. The petition simply asserts that the undersigned citizens agree to hold an election, with U.N. participation, to determine whether or not the District (the Afro Descendant colony in the United States) shall be independent of the jurisdiction of the United States. The petition also urges the New York legislature and the U.S. Congress to change the law so that communities which wish to separate peacefully (Siphiwe note: through emigration, repatriation, or independence) may do so.
Indeed, along with the petition drive a specific campaign must be conducted among New York legislators and U.S. Congressmen (particularly black ones) to make them - and, concurrently, the world - see that our cause is just under moral law and correct under international law and that the law of the United States is deficient in failing to provide a peaceful formula for the separation of communities seeking their independence.
No one need have any illusions about the prospect of changing the law. But the campaign among the lawmakers is a testament to our peaceful intentions and an important element in the battle for world opinion and support which New Afrika must wage . . . in capitals of the world and in the approaches to the United Nations. . . .
Let us return a moment to the first question: how sovereignty is to be achieved in the first place. From what has already been indicated, it is clear that the overall strategy is to present the United States, the United Nations, and the world with an implacable accomplished fact: the free vote of a community for independence. It is, then, to seek a favorable deployment of world-wide diplomatic pressures and internal (U.S.) political pressures. It is, finally, to follow up the independence vote with creation of a local government and a pattern of action by the local government and the Republic that constitutes the exercise of Sovereignty. In other words, the Government, after the vote, must act like a government.” pp. 42-45
“Oppressed as a group, we must rise up as a group. This is not only the common sense of physics applied to human dynamics, whereby the power of thirty million people acting in unison is greater than the power of thirty million people acting individually, it is also a common and noble instinct of man, having to do with survival of the species. . . . We are an oppressed people - oppressed not only by the white ruling class but in a quite real and deeply rooted sense by the WHOLE white majority. We are not a part of them. We are robbed by them, and ALL of them partake of the riches that flow to them spiritually and materially, from our exploitation. Let them if they would call to us and say, ‘Join us in the American political revolution first - and when we are in power, we will wipe out racial oppression.” No. We ARE no longer slaves. The fight for power WITHIN the American society is theirs. OUR energies now must be spent in marshaling our resources for our own well-being and strength, that we may, through our own power, free ourselves of oppression, that we may, through our own power, reconstruct the black personality, which is the first step toward freedom from oppression. We have a need, as a people, to march to a different drummer - and a right. We have a right to create a quality of life that is uniquely ours, meeting OUR needs, reflecting OUR ambitions. . . . Our method entails campaigns for consent, followed by plebiscites, followed by defense of our lands. . . . By this element we leave to the white majority any war for control of the American machinery of government. We seek no control over their people or their goods. Neither do we seek all of their states or half of them or even one-quarter of them. We seek but one-tenth of the states over which they claim sovereignty. Our claim finds its justice not simply in the fact that we are one-tenth of the people in America but that these states - Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina - have been our traditional home for three centuries, we have worked the land and developed it, and have fought to stay there against terror and murder and assault and intimidation and deprivations of all sorts. We can say: this land is ours. Here we shall build a new nation: in peace, if peace is permitted us; in war, if it is forced upon us. Our method of achieving this sovereignty over our land is the method of men of peace, of African men who love justice and honor law. . . . Next we shall demonstrate to the world, by means of a plebiscite, a vote, that it is New Afrika, not the United States, which has the consent of the people who dominate those areas.” pp 72-75
“But it is not enough to visualize the New Society. This has never been enough. It is not enough to make declarations and conceive structures through which to achieve those visions. Men have always had their lofty visions and their good intentions. What counts is men themselves: how men apply themselves to the tasks which MUST be performed if the visions are to materialize. And so, permit me a final thought, a final word - about US.
. . . . I know that victory is not assured. We can have victory, of course: IF the circumstances are right and IF we pay the price. Those of us who profess to be in the leadership work to make the circumstances right. But we wonder - I wonder, seventeen months after the founding of the Republic - if we are willing to pay the price. I wonder because in seventeen months I have seen ‘strong’ brothers and ‘beautiful’ sisters cop out. I have seen them fail one another. I have seen men who profess to be soldiers fail to be on time, fail to obey orders, fail to show up for duty. I have seen the makers of burning speeches fail to carry out the charges of their offices. I have seen citizens give money lavishly at emotional mass rallies and fail to pay their small regular taxes. I have seen us pledge our lives and our fortunes but fail to show up for an hour’s worth of typing, an hour’s drive to the printer’s or the airport. . . . The thing that is wrong with us is that we have been imbued with a slave mentality. We have been robbed of self-confidence, instilled with self-hate, and turned into a race of selfish, paranoic, super-sensitive individuals. It is almost needless to say that none of this was by accident. But the first step in the cure is to recognize and acknowledge the illness. We are the richest slaves in the world, but nowhere do we pay the freight in our fight for freedom. It was more than coincidence that soon after white money was withdrawn from SNCC and CORE they went into decline; it is more than accident that SCLC looks to whites for its largest donations. . . . In like manner we admire the resolute and victorious Vietnamese, but we seem not so sure that freedom and an uncertain future are better than well fed, indolent, two-car slavery. We want freedom but will risk noting important to get it. In this moment of crisis brothers and sisters cop out - leaving the Movement the poorer for their going - because they have to ‘get my own thing together,’ meaning their job or business or profession or the house with which they are trying to keep up with the Roosevelts Joneses. They cop out because they have been ‘left to do all the work,’ or because somebody’s attitude ‘bugged’ them, or because ‘everybody around here is jeffing,’ or because ‘i’ll be back when the real ‘get-down’ starts.’ A people like that deserves no freedom. What is more, they will get no freedom. But the children deserve it. Must we leave it for the children to get it, leaving them to the risk of becoming warped in this unchanged society? . . . It is, next, to understand the method, the technique for winning sovereignty, which has been laid out for us: the campaigns for consent, the development of foreign and domestic support, the limited objective and the strong military. Finally, it is to bring yourself to the Republic. It is to put down hesitation, stop waiting for the organization to be perfect - give up your special cop-out - and become a part of NEW AFRIKA NOW. It is to bring your talents and your devotion and pledge with us to work unceasingly and selflessly with great discipline - discipline - knowing that each of us, particularly because of the damage oppression has done to us, has many shortcomings and styles that may constitute severe sources of irritation, but vowing with your utmost determination that none of these will separate you from the Movement or from your brothers and sisters in the Movement.” pp 76-80
In February 1972, The Black Scholar published Imari Obadele’s, “The Struggle is for Land” in which he wrote,
“The problem with international law is that there is nobody there to enforce it - except the powerful. Powerful nations enforce international law only when it suits them - or when they are forced to. . . . The development of foreign support, inside and outside the United Nations, is another of the vital supporting strategies. . . . “
In 1972, Imari Obadele also wrote
FOUNDATIONS OF THE BLACK NATION
“In two small books issued by me in 1968 and 1970 War In America and Revolution And Nation-BuildingI detailed the theory to be applied by Africans in the United States in liberating a land mass for our national home. Today We are applying those theories in the Kush District of Mississippi. The present book covers the period immediately following theory. It brings together letters and articles that have emerged during the first two years of the campaign in Kush as the Provisional Government seeks (1) to inform and organize the people on the land for a plebiscite and for revolutionary resistance, (2) to generate support among blacks throughout America for the struggle in Kush, (3) to engineer acceptance of black independence by the US. Govemmen", and (4) to use attacks upon the RNA Provisional Government~such as the armed assaul and prosectiuon of the RNA - 11 to accomplish the other three aims.
What is more, the struggle can be successful. A great deal, however, depends upon how fast and how completely Africans in America can un-track their minds from the inability to think about land, independent land, as not only an integral part of our struggle for freedom but as an essential primary goal. For success of the struggle depends a great deal upon the support those of us who now opt for and are working to build an independent African nation on this soil, get from those of us who do not now choose for themselves the route of an independent nation. We calculate that those who do not now opt for independence may number as many as two~fifths of Our people. And the support of these people must be founded upon Understanding of what the New Africans are about. . . . The problem with international law is that there is nobody to enforce it except the powerful. Powerful nations enforce international law only when it suits them or when they are forced to.
Perhaps the best way for people to un-track their minds from the slaving inability to think of land as a real and legitimate goal of our struggle is to understandh how a people acquire claims to land. There is, of course, what we call the bandit rule of international law: that says, essentially, that if a people steals land and occupies it for a long time, the world will recognize that land as belonging to them. This, of course, is the manner in which the United States acquired claim to most of America: white folks simply stole it and held it. As a peopleWe Africans in America have been cowed by this rule; We have cringed before it (and before the power of the beast) as if it were the only rule of land possession. There is, fortunately, a civilized rule of land possession. It says that if a people has lived on a land traditionally, if they have worked and developed it, and if they have fought to stay there, that land is theirs. It isupon this rule of international law that Africans in America rest their claim for land in America. The essential strategy of our struggle for land is to array enough power ( as in jui-jitsu, with a concentration of karate strength at key moments) to force the greatest power, the United States, to abide by international law, to recognize and accept our claims to independence and land. The purpose of this strategy can be further simplified: it is to create a situation for the United States where it becomes cheaper to relinquish control of the Five States than to continue a war against us to take back or hold the area.
How do We accomplish such a thing? The implementing tactics are various, but they revolve around a set of supporting strategies first laid out by me in the short book War in America and further illuminated in another small book called Revolution and Nation-Building.”
In 1973, republic of New Afrika President Imari Abubakari Obadele and Attorney Gaidi Obadele laid out the case for a plebiscite for African Americans in
THE ARTICLE THREE BRIEFS ESTABLISHING THE LEGAL CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE BLACK NATION THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRICA IN NORTH AMERICA
In May 1985, Imari Obadele submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
NEW AFRICAN STATE-BUILDING IN NORTH AMERICA: A Study of Reaction Under the Stress of Conquest
reparations: a proposed ACT TO STIMULATE ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES AND COMPENSATE, IN PART, FOR THE GRIEVOUS WRONGS OF SLAVERY AND THE UNJUST ENRICHMENT WHICH ACCRUED TO THE UNITED STATES THEREFROM
Today, several groups are now talking again about a plebiscite for New Afrikan Self Determination. Unfortunately, many of them do not have a proper understanding of the process nor the historical lessons of plebiscites in history. Of critical importance is understanding the very nature of a plebiscite - “the direct vote of all the members of an electorate on an important public question”.
To achieve an effective legal basis, a plebiscite traditionally must have a substantially significant majority participation [i.e. 90% of the adult New Afrikan people, or approximately 30 million people is ideal; a ⅔ majority vote in favor….], though there are exceptions. My personal opinion is that we are a decade, if not an entire generation, away from being able to reach this standard. However, should a source of substantial funding materialize - say through a multi-million dollar grant from a proposed Association of New Afrikan Professional Athletes for Self Determination or the Association of New Afrikan Celebrity Entertainers for Self Determination - it is possible, through a professional marketing campaign, to have a reasonable opportunity in perhaps three to five years. Participation of 1 to 5 million people is more reasonable, but this would require a different set of post plebiscite actions.
I believe that New Afrikans have both the personnel and technical knowledge capable of conducting the plebiscite, but lack a proper organizational apparatus within which to function. Were we to secure the funding, a bid soliciting a New Afrikan marketing firm to handle the marketing/education campaign should be advertised. Similarly, high officials from all the National Councils of the various black church denominations should be called into a National Council of Black Churches for Self Determination to handle the logistics of conducting the plebiscite as the churches themselves are the most likely locations for plebiscite voting. It is questionable whether or not registered New Afrikan polling officials of the Democratic and Republican parties can be brought in as plebiscite polling officials. However, if we are going to seriously attempt to reach the 90% participation standard, their participation would be required so as to give legitimacy to “unconscious” New Afrikans as well as to the international community. A so-called plebiscite of a 130,000 “conscious” Afro Descendants/New Afrikans will not be accepted as a legitimate direct vote of all the members of an electorate . . . .
A New Afrikan Plebiscite Civil Service Exam is being created and will be used to train staff who will be supervised and responsible for all the range of necessary activities before and after the plebiscite. In particular, a disciplined New Afrikan Plebiscite Diplomatic Corp will be needed (at least 1,000 people). I see this Corp as consisting of a Steering Committee composed of a Council of Elders and staffed by people who pass the New Afrikan Plebiscite Civil Service Exam. Both the Steering Committee and Diplomatic Corps will need full-time professional salaries in addition to travel expenses.
The small groups claiming to represent the “Afro Descendant” people talking about conducting a plebiscite to represent 50 million of us do not yet have the capacity in human and financial resoursces to conduct a proper campaign as outlined above to build consent which is a pre-requisite of a subsequent and successful plebiscite for Independence. A ton of educating still needs to be done. Towards that end, the following are some of the educational material included in the comprehensive training course for PREPARING FOR THE NEW AFRIKAN/AFRO DESCENDANT PLEBISCITE FOR SELF DETERMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES: FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING COLONIZATION AND THE EVOLUTION, RISKS, BENEFITS, PROCEDURES AND STRATEGIES FOR ESTABLISHING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
Different Elements and Parts of PG-RNA
The People’s Center Council (PCC)– Congress, National Legislature or Parliament is made up of District Representatives from PGRNA electoral districts across the U.S.A.
The People’s Revolutionary Leadership Council (PRLC) — A Cabinet headed by the National President, three National Vice Presidents, Ministries, Court System, and Other Govt. entities, including the Land Fund Committee, etc.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1968:
1st President: Robert F. Williams (1925-1996) : He was in China 1966 to May 1968; Tanzania, May 1968 to Sept. 1969. 1st Vice President: Gaidi Obadele (Atty. Milton R. Henry) 2nd Vice President: Betty Shabazz (1934-1997) Minister of Information: Imari A. Obadele (Richard Bullock Henry) Minister of Health and Welfare: Queen Mother Moore (1899-1997) Minister of Education: Herman Ferguson Minister of State and Foreign Affairs: William Grant Minister of Defense: H. Rap Brown (now, Jalil Al Amin): He was also Minister of Justice for BPP in May 4, 1968 issue of The Black Panther. Co-Ministers of Culture: Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Maulana Karenga and Nana Oserjiman Adefumi Minister of Justice: Joan Franklin Minister of Finance: Raymond Willis Treasurer: Obaboa Owolo (Ed Bradley) Minister without Portfolio or Special Ambassador: Muhammad Ahmed (Maxwell Stanford)
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1969:
President: Robert F. Williams (1925-1997): He returned to U.S. (Detroit), Sept. 1969. (The Black Panther, Dec. 6, 1969; Jan. 3, 1970). 1st Vice President: Gaidi Obadele (Atty. Milton R. Henry) 2nd Vice President: Betty Shabazz (d. 1997) Minister of Education: Maulana Karenga: denounced and removed by PCC in Detroit, Apr. 5th. Herman B. Ferguson was afterwards appointed Minister of Education, East Coast Vice President, and acting director of Freedom Corps. Minister of State and Foreign Affairs: Wilbur Grattan Sr. Minister of Defense: Mwuesi Chui, commander of Black Legion
The “New Bethel Incident” took place in Detroit, Michigan, in March 31, 1969 during the First New Afrikan Nation Day Celebration at the New Bethel Baptist Church, on the West Side. One policeman killed and another wounded. Four Blacks wounded. Between 135 and 240 persons were arrested. Police later freed 125 persons [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Crockett,_Jr. Criminal Court Judge George Crockett], frees 8 other Blacks. Chaka Fuller, Rafael Viera, and Alfred 2X Hibbets were charged with killing. All 3 were subsequent tried and acquitted. Chaka Fuller was mysterious assassinated a few months afterwards.
Southern Regional Minister of Defense: Jomo Kenyatta (Henry Hatches) Consul for Jackson, MS: Carolyn Williams April 2, 1969 – The New York BPP “21” arrested on conspiracy charges.
In 1969, a Newsweek magazine poll of Afrikans in the Northern U.S. showed that 27 percent of Afrikans under age thirty (and 18 percent of those over the age of thirty), wanted an independent Afrikan state.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1970:
President: Imari A. Obadele Minister of Defense: Alajo Adegbalola (Leroy Boston) Dara Abubakaru (Virginia Collins)
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1971:
President: Imari Obadele , Minister of Defense: Alajo Adegbalola Minister of Information: Aisha Salim of Philadelphia Consul from Detroit: Chokwe Lumumba
Workers of the PG-RNA also announced that they would not permit those who opposed the peaceful plebiscite to shoot at them with impunity. The RNA cadres in Mississippi and elsewhere, in 1970 and 1971 were armed for self-defense.
March 5th, BPP sponsors a Day of Solidarity dedicated to “Freedom of Political Prisoners.”
On March 28th-Land Celebration Day-the RNA Capitol consecrated, Hinds County, Mississippi. Between 150 and 200 persons attended the dedication.
They used, and use, political means rather than military means. The United States Justice Department, instead of helping to organize the plebiscite; on 18 August 1971 a force of 60 FBI agents and 40 local Jackson police staged an armed attack on the official Government Residence (the main residence-office of the PG) in Jackson, Mississippi, supposedly to serve fugitive warrants on three RNA members (one being a FBI informant/agent provocateur). The seven people in the house were not wounded by the 20-minute barrage of bullets–a skirmish, but one police lieutenant died and another policeman and an FBI agent were wounded. Five young men and two young women at this house were captured, along with PG-RNA President, Imari Obadele, the Minister of Information and two others in a nearby office, and sent to jail.
The Suppressed History of New Africans Fighting For Independence- Haki Kweli Shakur
In the face of this unprovoked attack, three PG-RNA workers: Antar Ra, Maceo Sundiata (fsn Michael Finney) and Fela Sekou Olatunji (fsn Charles Hill) from the Bay Area, left in response to the call for Mississippi to provide support and defense for our assaulted movement. Clearly the U.S. had declared war on us! While driving east, the three were intercepted by a policeman whose aggressiveness caused his death. They then commandeered an airline and arrived in Cuba. They were granted asylum.
(On August 19th, FBI and police tried to assassinate President Imari Obadele.)
They are convicted two years later. Most served long years in jail. Their sovereign immunity demand was flatly rejected by the United States’ courts and executive branch, and no one was accorded treatment as a prisoner-of-war.
The Republic of New Afrika-Eleven (RNA-11): Citizens of the RNA: Imari Obadele; Hekima Ana and his wife, Tamu Ana, and Chumaimari Askadi (fsn Charles Stallings), all of Milwaukee; Karim Njabafudi (fsn Larry Jackson) of New Orleans; Tarik/Tawwab Nkrumah (fsn George Matthews) of Birmingham; Addis Ababa (fsn Dennis Shillingford) of Detroit; Offogga Qudduss (fsn Wayne Maurice James) and Njeri Qudduss, both of Camden, New Jersey; Spade de Mau Mau (fsn S. L. Alexander) of New Orleans; and Minister of Information Aisha Salim (fsn Brenda Blount) of Philadelphia.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1972:
President: Gaidi Obadele Vice Presidents: Alajo Adegbalola, Chokwe Lumumba, Herman B. Ferguson New Afrikan Security Forces: Black Legion commander: Gen. Mwuesi Chui
In 1972, Ahmed Obafemi of New York had been sentenced on a gun charge clearly engineered by the F.B.I.’s Cointelpro. The F.B.I. succeeded in framing this key leader and officer of the RNA-PG. He was doing political work at the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida. Sentenced with him was Tarik Sonnebeyatta, of Camden, New Jersey. Brother Ahmed was jailed.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1973:
Jan. 7, 1973 – Mark Essex, 23; is killed atop New Orleans hotel after killing 6 and wounding 15. Jan. 19th – One policeman killed and 2 wounded as Black freedom fighters seize a Brooklyn sporting goods store. May 2nd – Assata Shakur (fsn JoAnne Chesimard) wounded and Sundiata Acoli (fsn Clark Squire) arrested. Nov. 14th – Twyman Fred Myers, 23, BLA member, ambushed by FBI and New York police; was 6th BLA member killed in this fashion.
1975
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1980:
President: Imari Obadele A study conducted among Afrikan college students by Professor Luke Tripp which showed that 34 percent of the students favored an independent Afrikan state in North Amerika.
By the middle of 1980, because of public support and intense legal work, almost all of the RNA-11 (except for one) were set free and out of jail.
In the fall, some members of BLA, and some accused of being BLA personnel, had come under intense concentration by FBI and, principally, New York, New Jersey, and California police.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1981:
President: Imari Obadele PCC Chairperson: Fulani Sunni-Ali
July 1983 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, RNA National Territory.
Oct./Nov. 1984 – Third National New Afrikan Elections
Nov. 1985 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1986:
President: Imari Obadele Minister of Justice: Nkechi Taifa Minister of Defense: Gen. Chui
July 1986 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, RNA National Territory.
July 1986 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in Detroit, Michigan.
Sept. 1986 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in Brooklyn, New York.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1987:
President: Imari Obadele Minister of Justice: Nkechi Taifa
July 1987 – People’s Center Council (PCC) Meeting in Washington, DC (Banneker City).
Oct./Nov. 1987 – Fourth National New Afrikan Elections
Oct./Nov. 1990 – Fifth National New Afrikan Elections: Kwame Afoh elected president.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1991:
President: Kwame Afoh PCC Chairperson: Imari Obadele
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1992:
President: Kwame Afoh PCC Chairperson: Imari Obadele
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1993:
President: Kwame Afoh PCC Chairperson: Imari Obadele
Nov. 1993 – National New Afrikan Elections: President Kwame Afoh re-elected.
In April 1994, several mainstream newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and the Wall Street Journal) ran articles dealing with University of Chicago Professor Michael Dawson and Professor Ronald Brown of Wayne State University. The report concerned the findings of a random national survey of 1,206 Afrikans in the U.S., which in Dawson’s words showed ” a more radical Black America than existed even five years ago.” (Wall Street Journal). It found that fifty percent of Afrikans in the U.S. believe that our people are “a nation within a nation.”
Oct. 1996 – National New Afrikan Elections: President Kwame Afoh re-elected.
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1997:
President: Kwame Afoh PCC Chairperson: Marilyn Preston Killingham
PG-RNA Cabinet in 1998:
President: Kwame Afoh PCC Chairperson: Marilyn Preston Killingham
Oct./Nov. 1999 – National New Afrikan Elections
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