Wherever you look it appears that Afrikan young people are under attack. From Edson Da Costa and Rashan Charles to Terrell Decosta Jones-Burton they are killed or brutalised at the hands of so-called law enforcement (1)

 

Currently, there is copious hand-wringing about the numbers of young people dying in the streets, implicitly at the hands of each other, in a spree that has seen the London murder rate reportedly exceed that of New York. Yet the likes of Amos Wilson have long since informed us that what is termed “black on black violence” is nothing but “the psychodynamics of Black self-annihilation in service of white domination.” (2)

 

However, away from the mean inner-city streets and into the exalted halls of higher learning like the University of Exeter, racist incidents have more than doubled in the last five years (3) amid students being confronted with swastikas and ‘rights for whites’ signs. (4) Indeed, abuse suffered by students at De Montfort University (5) or by the likes of Rufaro Chisango at Nottingham Trent University (6) is only likely to increase as it remains, in the words of Birmingham City University academic, Dr Kehinde Andrews, “unchallenged.” The associate professor, who is also the founder of the first Black Studies undergraduate course in the UK went on to assert that universities are “no less institutionally racist than the police.” (7)

 

While on the subject of education the statutory sector doesn’t serve us any better. In recent years there has been increasing accounts of schools using the subject of slavery to stigmatise, humiliate and abuse Afrikan children. (8) The cumulative effect of such ‘teaching’ was evidenced in people like Lucy Buchanan, a former contestant on the Channel 4 Shipwrecked programme. Buchanan felt emboldened enough to declare on camera: “I’m for the British Empire and things. I’m for slavery, but that’s never going to come back,” and added that she didn’t know many black people but “from what I have seen they are really bad.” (9)

 

Such sentiments have developed into more than just words with the reported events at Bath’s Beechen Cliff School in January (although reports didn’t surface until March) where the shocking headline read: “Black boy ‘tied to lamppost and whipped’ at school’s “mock slave auction” run by white teenagers.” (10) Thus it could be argued that white institutions are ensuring that they continually reproduce a white-nationalist world-view which dictates their attitude and interaction with Afrikans.

 

The foregoing presents a precarious landscape for young people that must be factored in amongst the anguished bawls for solutions in response to our young dying in the streets. Also to be factored in before calls for marches, increased stop and search and petitions to the government is an understanding of what is actually occurring in the streets. If we study our history we may also introduce the concept of “low intensity warfare” into the discussion. Low intensity warfare is a strategy developed by former British army intelligence officers Frank Kitson and Robin Evelegh. Governments, utilising various levers of state (police, penal system, judiciary, etc.) implement this approach to suppress what it considers to be insurgent activity. The Counter Intelligence Programme (COINTELPRO) against the Black liberation movement is a classic example. As Mutulu Shakur and others have noted:

“Frank Kitson was the commander of the British counterinsurgency force In Northern Ireland for many years, and before that he was an officer in many of Britain’s lost colonial wars, e.g. Kenya, Aden, and Cyprus. Most of his examples of low intensity operations are drawn from Britain’s war in Ireland and the United States war in Indochina. One of his strategic techniques was the use of gangs. The rise of gangs in the oppressed communities in America partially reflects the successful use of his strategy by past administrations. The corollary to the use of gangs is the emergence of an increasing clamour for law and order. Kltson’s book, which is titled “Low Intensity Operations” [1971), Is the basic manual of counterinsurgency methods used in Western Europe and North America. (emphasis added)” (11)

 

In short, European states are actively working to maintain an oppressive grip on Afrikan lives while ensuring it’s institutions reproduce its ideology for successive generations. There is no evidence of any deviation from this programme. Our Ancestral wisdom provides a lucid diagnosis:

“Everyone is silent about it. The land is in great trouble. And none is wise enough to know it; none are angry enough to speak out and every day one wakes to suffering. Thus, my suffering is long and heavy. The weak and wretched lack the strength to save themselves from that which overwhelms them. It is painful to keep silent about what one hears and yet it is of no use to the ignorant. People only love their own words. Everyone builds on crookedness and right-speaking is abandoned.” (12)

 

Logic would deduce that in a state of war, warriors, who know their mission, are required. Deliberate programmes that bring Afrikan boys to manhood and Afrikan girls to womanhood. Renowned warrior scholar, Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti provides a useful definition of what a warrior is:

“By warriors we mean those Afrikans that have opened their eyes to the insane horror of european culture and society, of yurugu’s very nature, and closed their minds to any fear of it. We are speaking of those of us who have consciously chosen to move as a functional dynamic vanguard of workers against the armies waging eternal war against Afrikan people.” (13)

 

Such a mentality cannot be effected agitating for reform or comfortable sojourns within European institutions – separate institutions are required. As Grand Master Warrior Scholar Baba John Henrik Clarke reminds us:

“People rise and fall within the context of the nation institution. When they lose the ability to master and control the nation institution they lose their freedom.” (14)

 

In the absence of these institutions, the focus, while building them, will address how not to fall prey to the designs of others. A certain disposition is required for this work. Baba Baruti defines it as Iwa, a Warrior’s Character:

“Iwa is conceptualised in terms of a divine ethicality, a universal, Spirit-based definition of what is right and wrong thought and behaviour. It is not individually, idiosyncratically decided on the earthly plane. It follows the order of ‘as above, so below’.” (15)

 

From this perspective, the solution is rooted in a resolute Afrikan-centered, spiritually oriented world-view with a state of complimentarity between Afrikan women and men as a foundation. This foundation acknowledges the primary roles of men and women and how these relate to creating families and rearing warriors. (16) In relation to the latter point or rearing warriors, Baba Baruti provides an insightful overview of the necessity for rites of passage programmes that exist to connect us with our Ancestral traditions and prepare the next generation of warriors. (17)

 

In conclusion, Baba Baruti highlight the consequence of not doing the required work.

“If we cannot build an army of warriors of character who understand both the concepts of the enemy and community and progressively act on them, the the future’s historical record will clearly show that the best of us spent our time and energy engaging in meaningless and distractive debate about and/or recording the cause and events of our genocidal demise.” (18)

(1) Barney Davis, Daniel O’Mahony & Justin davenport (23/11/17) CCTV of moment Terrell Decosta Jones-Burton, 15, is ‘tackled into doorway of chicken shop’, leaving him seriously injured. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/probe-after-terrell-jonesburton-suffers-serious-injuries-being-slammed-off-his-bike-during-police-a3699516.html

(2) Robin De Peyer (03/04/18) London murder rate spike ‘fuelled by McMafia-style drug barons shifting tonnes of cocaine’, MP David Lammy says. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/london-murder-spike-fuelled-by-mcmafia-drug-barons-shifting-tonnes-of-cocaine-mp-david-lammy-says-a3804681.html. Also see Amos Wilson (1994) Black on Black Violence: The psychodynamics of Black self-annihilation in service of white domination. Afrikan World Infosystems. p. 8-10.

(3) Carrie Gandemer (28/03/17) EXCLUSIVE: Racist incidents at the University of Exeter have more than doubled in the last five years. https://thetab.com/uk/exeter/2017/03/28/racial-abuse-exeter-university-doubled-last-five-years-35637

(4) Sally Weale (13/03/17) Swastika and ‘Rights for Whites’ sign found in Exeter halls of residence. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/13/swastika-and-rights-for-whites-sign-found-in-exeter-halls-of-residencel

(5) Katrina Chilver (16/03/18) De Montfort University student ‘suspended after claiming she was racially abused’. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/de-montfort-university-student-suspended-1350968

(6) Robin De Peyer (09/03/18) Nottingham Trent University racism: Police release two men held after black student Rufaro Chisango subjected to tirade of racist abuse. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/nottingham-trent-university-racism-police-release-two-men-held-after-black-student-rufaro-chisango-a3785746.html

(7) Alice Ross (23/10/16) Universities do not challenge racism, says UK’s first black studies professor. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/23/universities-do-not-challenge-racism-says-uks-first-black-studies-professor

(8) Tom Horton (16/10/17) Anger after primary school in Manor Park asks pupils to dress as slaves for Black History Month. http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/education/forest-gate-primary-school-apologises-after-asking-pupils-to-dress-as-slaves-for-black-history-month-1-5239044. See also: Jade Edwards (12/07/17) Rochester Grammar School, criticised for Year 8 slavery worksheet. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/school-asks-pupils-to-bid-128743/; Toyin Agbetu (25/02/13) School backs “all brown children will grow up slaves” lesson. http://www.ligali.org/article.php?id=2343; Toyin Agbetu (31/10/12) SPupil distressed after ‘best thing about slavery’ lesson. http://www.ligali.org/article.php?id=2323

(9) Alex Donohue (23/01/07) Shipwrecked drags Channel 4 into second race row. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/shipwrecked-drags-channel-4-second-race-row/627329#QzSX0T7h7RGRlkMT.99 http://www.blaqfair.com/blaqfair/zimbabwe/rpt_Zbw.htm. Also see: Olatunji Heru (2008) Land Or Democracy? The Whirlwind, Edition 6. p. 20-21

(10) Amanda Cameron and Tom Davidson (13/03/18) Black boy ‘tied to lamppost and whipped’ at school’s “mock slave auction” run by white teenagers. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/black-boy-tied-lamppost-whipped-12180662

(11) Dr.Mutulu Shakur, Anthony X Bradshaw, Malik Dinguswa, Terry D. Long, Mark Cook, Mateos Adolfho And James Haskins (1988) Genocide waged against the Black Nation, through behavior modification/orchestrated by counterinsurgency and low-intensity warfare in the U.S. penal system. The research committee on international law and Black Freedom Fighters in the United States. p. 17. http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Mutulu_Shakur/513.genocide.waged.against.black.nation.12.1988.pdf

(12) Maulana Karenga (1989) The Book of Khakheper-Ra-Soneb in Selections From The Husia. The University of Sankore Press. p. 78

(13) Mwalimu K Baruti (2010) Iwa: A Warrior’s Character. Akoben House. p. 2

(14) John Henrik Clarke (1991) Africans at the Crossroads: Notes for an African World Revolution. Africa World Press, p 11.

(15) Baruti (2010). p. 10

(16) Baruti. (2010). p. 199-201

(17) Mwalimu K Baruti (2004) Asafo: A Warrior’s Guide to Manhood. Akoben House. p. 126-132

(18) Baruti (2010). p. 324-325

 

we ask the question:

 

What is the best strategy to protect our young people?

1) Are marches, petitions or increased police presence effective responses to the current situation?

2) Are schools and universities “no less institutionally racist than the police.”?

3) Is “low intensity warfare” really a factor in our community?

4) What is Iwa?

5) What is required to inculcate a warrior mentality in our young people?

6) To what extent are we going about building “nation institutions”?

 

Our very special guest:

 

Mwalimu K. Bomani: is the co-founder and co-director of Akoben Institute, an independent Afrikan centered full-time and after-school home schooling and tutorial program for middle and high schoolers. He served as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Morehouse College from 1991 to 2001. Over the last half decade, Bro. Baruti has also taught various Afrikan centered evening classes for adults at the Institute and online. Bro. Baruti is the author of eighteen self-published books including: Excuses, Excuses: The Politics of Interracial Coupling in European Culture, negroes and other essays, Chess Primer: An Introduction to the Game of Chess, The Sex Imperative, Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males, Asafo: A Warriors Guide to Manhood, Complementarity: Thoughts for Afrikan Warrior Couples, Mentacide and other essays, Kebuka!: Remembering the Middle Passage Through the Eyes of Our Ancestors, Eureason: An Afrikan Centered Critique of Eurocentric Social Science, Battle Plan, Notes Toward Higher Ideals in Afrikan Intellectual Liberation, Sesh: An Afrikan Centered Guide to Writing and Self-Publishing for Warrior Scholars, Nyansasem: A Calendar of Revolutionary Daily Thoughts, Yurugu’s Eunuchs, Centered: Building Afrikan Realities, IAW: A Warrior’s Character and Message to The Warriors. He is currently working on a book entitled Asylum which examines the insanity of european culture and Identity which will reconceptualize a number of sociological concepts in Afrikan centered terms. Bro. Baruti lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife of 28 years, Yaa Mawusi Baruti, also co-founder and co-director of their homeschooling program.