Nehanda Abiodun

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Nehanda Abiodun is an aged veteran of the New African independence struggle and a citizen of the Republic of New Africa. She began her activist work as a child, at the age of ten, as a tenant organizer. She later worked with the National Black Human Rights Coalition, and later to help heal addicts at the Black Acupuncture Association of North America with Dr. Mutulu Shakur. ^[1]. After she was sued for malpractice, a warrant was put out for her arrest, and consequently, she fled to Cuba. In her new home in Havana, she provides informal sessions about African-American history, poetry, and world politics ^[2] to up and coming Cuban hip-hop artists such as Yosmel Sarrias and Maigel Entenza Jaramillo who make up the group Anónimo consejo. Due to her pending warrant, her escape to Cuba has forced her to enter into the underground hip-hop world. Here she serves as a mentor to many artists and is well known throughout Cuba. Many even refer to her as the godmother of Cuban Hip-hop.

She claims "rap music is...the voice of protest...[with which] we can educate and organize around the world. It puts a whole different light on the word globalizatoin...Wherever you go...in the world, from New Zealand to Timbuktu, there are rappers. Wherever you go! And once you step out of the U.S., a large part of that global community of hip hoppers are progressive. Seriously, because most of it comes from the indigenous people of that particular place” ^[3].

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