Our search for solution continues, perhaps appropriately in the season of the Omowale Malcolm X observance which takes place on February 24th at Tottenham’s Chestnut Community Centre and features a keynote address by renowned activist Sis. Cheryl Phoenix on the theme: Black Children: What’s Our Agenda? (https://www.alkebulan.org/2019/01/26/omowale-malcolm-x-observance-24th-february-2019/).
There are few better places to go when in search of solutions than Omowale Malcolm X. Although his own sojourn brutally cut short, no lesser figure than Grand Master Teacher Baba John Henrik Clarke regarded him as an “astute revolutionary theoretician.” (1). Part of this astuteness was having an idea what a solution would look like, once arrived at:
“You and I want to create an organisation that will give us so much power we can sit down and do as we please. Once we can sit down and think as we please, speak as we please, and do as we please, we will show people what pleases us. And what pleases us, won’t always please them. So you’ve got to get some power before you can be yourself. Once you get power and you can be yourself, why, you’ve gone, you’ve got it and gone. You create a new society and make some heaven right here on earth.” (2)
One factor that helped Malcolm X arrive at these conclusions was his “Brain Trust,” or cabinet of advisers that he brought together to provide theoretical framework for his fledgling movement, the Organisation of Afro American Unity (OAAU). The cabinet featured luminaries such as the aforementioned Baba Clarke as well as Baba Yusef “Dr. Ben” Ben-Jochannan. (3)
In contemporary parlance, the cabinet would probably be referred to as a “Think Tank,” and in the case of the OAAU they were largely responsible for drafting its charter. (4) The charter itself was a comprehensive Pan-Afrikan treatise that asserted the primacy of Afrikan culture as the foundation of our revolutionary ideology. (5)
Fifty-four years on, if a callers comments on Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio on 21/02/19 are any indication, its a programme that still needs to be implemented:
“Where is the Black Think Tank? There is none. We need a Think Tank to work out what the problem is. Once they’ve worked out what the problem is they take the problem to someone who can strategize and execute a solution.” (6)
For the avoidance of doubt, it might be useful to offer a definition of a think tank is:
“Think tanks or policy institutes are organizations performing policy-related research, analysis and advocacy on a range of domestic and international issues. Key in aiding informed decision-making among policy makers.” (7)
According to the Think Tank and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, there are approximately 6,500 think tanks globally with over a quarter of them being in the USA. Not surprisingly, six of the top ten thinks regarded most influential are in the USA, with the Washington DC based Brookings Institute, founded in 1916 cited as the most influential. (8) The Institute states as its mission: “to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level.” To achieve this they “bring together more than 300 leading experts in government and academia from all over the world who provide the highest quality research, policy recommendations, and analysis on a full range of public policy issues.” (9) The body regarded as the leading African-American think tank, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, is not included in the list of 175 institutions. The highest ranked Afrikan think tank is the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) at sixty-seven on the list. The are no Caribbean institutions on the list. (10)
However, it should be stated that the needs of the Afrikan community in the UK present different priorities and orientations than the kind projects undertaken by Brookings or even AERC. As far as research is concerned, some ground breaking work was done in the 1990s by Amenta Marketing Ltd who produced the Black Community Report 1996 and the Black Child Report (Black Community Report II), edited by Robin Walker and Kike O Biye. (11)
Ideally, a think tank should be about more than research. There are volumes of external studies done on Afrikans that simply emphasise our depressed status or alert others to our capacity to be turned into consumers and super consumer. (12)
More recently, the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament (iNAPP) launched in 2011 and included among its stated objectives:
“8. To investigate the causes and implement solutions to the social injustices and maladies disproportionately affecting the Afrikan community: especially our youth.
- To develop constructive engagements within British society and raise the profile of the Afrikan presence (past and present), so as to progress the aims and objectives of the NAPP.” (13)
Following some leadership setbacks iNAPP has not managed to regain the momentum of its early days. The Summit Of Solutions is a fledgling body that may yet develop into assuming this role.
But what is around now is The Solution Room. Founded by Entrepreneur Bro. Dean Okai Snr, The Solution Room is seeking to effect “Socio Economic Reform Through African Exceptionalism,” The Solution Room “is a catalyst for African/Caribbean socio economic advancement. This is done by forging relationships with professionals from the private sector and existing African/Caribbean organisations in order to culminate the skills and intellectual capital to close knowledge and proficiency gaps.” One of the most vibrant projects of the The Solution Room is The Thursday Club, founded by Bro. Dean and Sis. iOla C. Williams. The Thursday Club exists to:
“Galvanise those of us in the African Caribbean community who desire to build, the opportunity to meet face to face. This is the new social networking, taking things right back to basics and creating real human relationships, where we can’t and won’t be blocked, silenced or censored.
The Thursday Club is about progressive Black people intent on growing our socio economic standing coming together and enabling each other, through our collective intellectual capital, experience and resources to reach the same goal. This growing collective is how we will turn 2019 into a year of self determination, based on 21st century Garveyism which we’ve always been convinced not to follow.” One of the objectives of the Thursday is to “explore one issue our community need to solve and bring under our control at every meeting, with a topic introduced from an expert in the field and chaired by Dean Okai Snr. The aim of these meetings is to galvanise the willing and the qualified into actionable outcomes to create the institutions we deserve that exclusively benefit us as African Caribbeans.”
Where think tanks targeting the Afrikan community in the UK may differ from the more established bodies in how their labours are manifested. Whereas something like the Brookings Institute can identify a pre-existing institutional target for it’s work, an Afrika UK think tank will also have to focus itself the infrastructural development through which its projects and programmes can be manifested.
(1) John Henrik Clarke (1991) Africans at the Crossroads: Notes for an African World Revolution. Africa World Press, p 145.
(2) Oba T’Shaka (1983) The Political Legacy of Malcolm X. Pan Afrikan Publishers. p. 79
(3) FBI New York Office (11/12/64) John Henrik Clarke. https://archive.org/stream/JohnHenrikClarkeFBIFile/John%20Henrik%20Clarke%20003_djvu.txt
(4) Autodidact 17 (26/06/14) 50th anniversary of the founding of Malcolm X’s OAAU. http://m.amsterdamnews.com/news/2014/jun/26/50th-anniversary-founding-malcolm-xs-oaau/
(5) Program of the Organization of Afro-American Unity Malcolm X, et al. (taken from the Malcolm X Museum). http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_oaau.htm.
(6) Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio (21/01/19) Are we about effecting solutions or just talking about problems? https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/are-we-ready-to-effect-solutions-or-continue-talking-about-the-problems-210118/
(7) Niall McCarthy (12/07/17) TThe Countries With The Most Think Tanks Worldwide. [Infographic] .https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/13/the-countries-with-the-most-think-tanks-worldwide-infographic/
(8) Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj (31/01/17) Most Influential Think Tanks In The World For 2017 (US & non-US). https://ceoworld.biz/2017/01/31/100-influential-think-tanks-world-2017/
(9) Brookings Institute (2019) About Us. https://www.brookings.edu/about-us/
(10) Dhiraj. Op cit.
(11) Robin Walker and Kike O Biye (Eds)(1996) The Black Community Report 1996. Amenta Marketing Ltd.; Robin Walker and Kike O Biye (Eds)(1997) The Black Child Report, Amenta Marketing Ltd.
(12) Trudy Simpson (21/10/2012) Black Consumers Are Worth £300 Billion. https://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/black-consumers-are-worth-%C2%A3300-billion
(13) interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament (28/11/15) MANIFESTO Working Draft For Community Consultation. interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament.
So we ask the question:
Can Think Tanks help build our community?
- Have you heard of The Solution Room or The Thursday Club?
- What Thinks Tanks are you aware in the community?
- Do we have the infrastructure to benefit from their work?
- Do we already know the information Think Tanks highlight and just need to get on with it ”?
- What is “21st Century Garveyism”?
Our very special guest:
Bro. Dean Okai Snr: has been a business owner since age 18, he is also a social entrepreneur and a home-schooling father. Bro. Dean is the chairman of ‘The Solution Room’, a Think Tank formed to execute African/Caribbean infrastructure projects by raising finance to purchase property for tangible projects, including African/Caribbean Chambers of Commerce, Schools, Community Centres, Business Incubators and a News Gathering Agency. Bro. Dean practices what he preaches by operating independently of the white power structure by owning his own businesses as he believes the only way to have any autonomy is to call the shots for yourself and be the architect of your own destiny.