Tonight, we begin our exclusive series on Nationbuilding, taking place on the ONLY de-brainwashing station, galafiwe.net and will include future sessions on: Politics, Education, Family and Spirituality

The series is a valuable contribution to the widespread discussions that have reverberated around the community since the beginning of the year.  The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement are uniquely positioned to engage in this issue having dedicated its entire existence to this mission.  The centrality of this mission was emphasised by no lesser figure than grand master teacher warrior Ancestor Baba John Henrik Clarke who forcefully asserted: “if it isn’t about nation building, then it isn’t about anything.”  (1)

As indicated above, the series begins with Economics, which many regard simply as synonymous money/finance, yet as this definition advanced by Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka suggests that economics is much more:

“How a people organize their own resources towards the production and distribution of goods and services to meet their own needs and desires.”

He added that “there is no economics without culture,” further emphasising the context in economics should work for a particular people. However, as the saying goes ‘freedom isn’t free’ and money is a necessary component of our economic structure.  Being a community where poverty is increasing more than any other group, in fact: “over the last decade the total number of black children in poor households more than doubled [resulting in] more than half of black children in the UK are now growing up in poverty… Black children are also now more than twice as likely to be growing up poor as white children.” (2)

So any economic strategy will have to contend with this state of affairs and fundraise on a monumental scale.  This is something that the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament sought to tackle head in its draft Manifesto, within its comprehensive Finance and Economics agenda where it pledged to:

• “Carry out comprehensive research into the financial and economic challenges facing Afrikans in the UK.
• Devise a comprehensive programme and infrastructure for the economic development of the iNAPP and for the Afrikan people domiciled in the UK, based on the Ujamaa (communal-cooperative) model.
• Generate assets (land, property, capital, businesses, industries) and revenue for building and sustaining Afrikan institutions; to create employment within the Afrikan community and enable the retention and intra-circulation of community income for community development.
• Establish a treasury/exchequer for the management and budgeting of the revenue of the parliament.
• Promote financial literacy and a culture and practice of strategic wealth creation among Afrikan people, with a commitment to service to the community.
• Restore the Afrikan in the UK to being a producer nation rather than a consumer people. 
• Create credit unions for cooperative financial investments, as well as promoting financial thrift, providing credit at competitive rates for its members and providing other financial services to individuals and community businesses. This with a view to establishing a national bank of the NAPP, as well as insurance companies, building societies.
• Seek and seize opportunities to invest in our Motherland, Afrika as much for her development, as for our Afrikan Nation of domiciled in the UK.
• Create a national online registry (Black Pages) of Afrikan owned businesses as well as economic and financial practitioners, experts and wealth strategists. 
• Train, support and invest in our young people pursuing careers in finance and economics, including university courses.
• Developed and preserved the foregoing as our legacy of communal wealth and economic independence to be bequeathed to our young people the generations to come.” (3)

Such an undertaking would require a huge allocation of our material resources, including monetary.  As such the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement has been working on a financial strategy that aims to compound our individual and collective income.  An overview will be given tonight but the full rollout will take place at Alkebu-Lan Shumira 5^th June 6262 (2020) from midday at the Chestnuts Community Centre, 280 St Anns Road, N15 5BN.

(1) Ujamaa Blog (21/10/20) Nation Building. https://www.ujamaanation.com/blog/nation-building

(2) Andrew Sparrow (02/01/22) More than half of UK’s black children live in poverty, analysis shows. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/more-than-half-of-uks-black-children-live-in-poverty-analysis-shows. “Poor”in this instance is defined as a “relative low income” – i.e. below 60% of the median, the standard definition for poverty.

(3) Interim National Organising Committee (INOC) (28/11/15) MANIFESTO: Working Draft For Community Consultation. interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. p. 23-4

we ask the question:

The 5 Steps to NATIONBUILDING Series. Step 1: ECONOMICS

1) Is it true “if it isn’t about nation building, then it isn’t about anything.?

2) Why is poverty in our community increasing more than any other group?

3) What viable fundraising strategies to we have?

4) What would it take to realise an economic programme like one proposed by iNAPP?

Our Special Guests:

Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant.  Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of almost 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.

Sis. Kai Ouagadou-Mbandaka: is the Chief Officer of Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement’s Education and Health & Social Welfare Departments.  She Head Teacher for the Alkebu-Lan Academy of Excellence Saturday School, and Co-ordinator for the Ma’at Academy of Excellence Home School Collective.  She is also head of ARM’s Rites of Passage Programme for Girls and a Columnist for The Whirlwind Newspaper.  Sis. Kai is one of the original co-hosts of Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan when it first launched in 2006.