Afrika Speaks: 50 Years of Black Power in the UK – How Are We Doing | 18.01.16

January 18, 2016 Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement
Posted by Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement on

ASwA Black Power 50While the global Afrikan community gears up for the simultaneous memorials in Washington and London for Queen Mama Frances Cress Welsing on 23/01/16, this is the period of the year when we also be honouring, a rather less known, but vitally important activist nonetheless, named Obi Benue Egbuna, who passed away almost unheralded on 20/01/14.

For those who do not know Obi Egbuna was an author, a playwright and one of the architects of the Black Power Movement in the UK, a confidant and/or associate of the likes of Kwame Ture, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Maurice Bishop, Tony Martin and Fela Kuti. He was Chair of the reinvigorated Universal Coloured People’s Association that drafted the Black Power Manifesto and was later instrumental in forming the Black Panther Movement in the UK. As he mused in the introduction to his collection of essays and letters, Destroy This Temple:

“The history of Black Power in Britain is the history of the s*** class trying to organise themselves. It was not until Stokely Carmichael’s (sic) historic visit in the summer of 1967, when he came to participate in the Dialectics of Liberation seminar at the Round House that Black Power got a foothold in Britain…” (1)

In may respects the work of Egbuna and others in the mid to late 1960s set the template for many of todays activists. They swept away much of the existing integrationist oriented groups that were revealed to be:

“so steeped in infantile lefticism, thanks to the Socialist Party of Great Britain, that they found it tough to appreciate the ideological and up-to-dateness of the Black Power philosophy.” (2)

Reflecting in his father’s work, Obi Egbuna Jr summarised it’s impact:

“We also have to say my father’s work showed Black Power was a movement, not a slogan, as many like to say because the nationalist and pan Africanist overtones were too aggressive for them.” (3)

By Egbuna Sr’s own testimony, assisted by their monthly Black Power Speaks magazine, the new philosophy “spread like wild-fire.” (4)

It’s success inevitably meant that the movement was subject to infiltration not only from UK intelligence but also the CIA and the apartheid regime of South Africa. (5)

A victim of these intrigues Egbuna was charged in 1968 with advocating the murder of white police officers and jailed for six months on remand before being released when the charges were dismissed. He continued his work and writings in the Movement until his return to Nigeria in 1973.

Then as now, one of the key state tools against Afrikan attempts at self-determination is the police force. As a consequence, the recent announcement that the Metropolitan Police will add 600 more armed officers to its ranks to boost its terror response should be viewed in this context. (6)

The militarisation of the UK police follows the example of places like USA and Brazil that seen a proliferation of cold-blooded slayings with the police literally emptying their cartridges on unarmed Afrikans. (7) The experience of 1990s ‘Ring of Steel’ in London to combat Irish Republican bombings but disproportionately stopped Afrikans, (8) should raise some scepticism about the intended targets of the police proliferation of police gun – not least within the context of the increasing elasticity of definitions of terrorism.

One of the Objectives of Black Power was to build a Movement, not a series of heady campaigns that may bring short term attention often no lasting challenge.

Bit no Movement can survive without finance and this has been the vexed question that has plagued the Liberation Movements since the time of Papa Garvey who provided the most comprehensive model yet.

The interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament aims to tackle this particular issue head on at it’s next General People’s Assembly on the theme: Economic Empowerment – Key to NATION BUILDING, taking place from 4:30pm to 9:30pm on Saturday, 30th January, 2016; at the West Indian Ex-Service Men’s Association, 150 Clapham Manor St, London SW4 6BX.

The event will assemble some the leading economic strategists and practitioners in the UK (e.g. Bro. Robin Walker, MEMAMS, Afrikan Co-operative Union, Afrikan Food Hall), with the aim of applying the iNAPP economic empowerment manifesto to “join up the dots towards creating the infrastructure for nationwide economic empowerment.”

However, it has been argued, by the like of Obi Egbuna that before we can transform our economic reality a personal transformation is required:

“Black Power demands a total rejection of Whiteyism, without or within. To talk Black Power, we must first clear up the mess inside our soul. Before we can effectively reject Whiteyism in the street, we must first and foremost reject it within the very marrow of our beings. It must be rejected because it has no right to be there… To do things for ourselves, we must first make sure we are completely ourselves. Before we can WE confidently, we must first ascertain we really mean WE, not half-US, half-THEM.” (9)

(1) Egbuna, Obi, (1971) Destroy This Temple, William Morrow & Company, p 16.
(2) Egbuna, Obi, (1971) Destroy This Temple, William Morrow & Company, p 18.
(3) The People’s Minister of Information JR (10/03/14) Looking at the
life of freedom fighter Obi Egbuna Sr.
http://sfbayview.com/2014/03/looking-at-the-life-of-freedom-fighter-obi-egbuna-sr/
(4) Egbuna, Obi, (1971) Destroy This Temple, William Morrow & Company, p 22.
(5) Egbuna, Obi, (1971) Destroy This Temple, William Morrow & Company, p 25.
(6) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35308467
(7) http://sfbayview.com/2015/05/137-shots-cleveland-killer-cop-acquitted-in-murder-of-timothy-russell-and-malissa-williams/.
 http://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2015/12/02/military-police-took-more-than-100-shots-at-the-five-black-youth-killed-in-car-in-rio/
(8) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ring-of-steel-makes-a-rusty-start-1482871.html
(9) Egbuna, Obi, (1971) Destroy This Temple, William Morrow & Company, p 48-9.

So we ask the question:

50 years of Black Power in the UK: How are we doing?

1. Are you aware of the work of Obi Egbuna or read any of his books?
2. To what extent have we maintained the Black Power Movement in the
UK since the 1960s?
3. Would more armed police make you feel safer ?
4. Are we clear about who the government defines as terrorists?
5. Do we really have to “clear up the mess inside our soul” before we
can effect power?
6. Can we point to an effective Afrikan economic empowerment model
past or present?

Our special guests are:

Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the
Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and
national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament.
Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured
columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily
Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.

Obi Egbuna Jr: is the son of Obi Egbuna, Obi Egbuna, Jr. was born in
London and raised in Washington, DC. He received a degree in Political
Science from the University of the District of Columbia in 1992.

Obi has dedicated his life to organizing in communities throughout the
world. He is a founding member of the Pan-African Liberation
Organization (PALO) and technical advisor for the Pan-African Student
Youth Movement (PASYM). In addition to organizing and speaking
engagements, Egbuna has published articles in the Final Call, the
Chicago Standard, Rastafarian Today, the Hilltop at Howard University
and the Spectrum at Bowie State University. Egbuna is the first U.S.
Correspondent to The Herald, Zimbabwe’s national newspaper, and the
first US correspondent in the country’s 32 years as an independent
nation.

Egbuna has taught African History at Roots PCS since 1990 and has also
taught at Ujamaa Shule and Northwestern High School in Prince George’s
County. He is the current African History teacher for the Sankofa
Homeschool Collective. In addition, Egbuna holds a community African
History Class in NW DC. Mr. Egbuna is a founding member of Mass
Emphasis Children’s History and Theater Company (2012). He is the
Executive Director of Mass Emphasis for which he has written a number
of plays.

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