Republic of New Afrika

The Republic of New Afrika flag
The proposed territory centers on areas where the highest percentage of the population classified as black lives in the US (2000).

The Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was founded in 1968 as an American social movement based in Black Nationalism; it had three goals:

The vision for this country was first promulgated by the Malcolm X Society[1] on March 31, 1968, at a Black Government Conference held in Detroit, Michigan. The conference participants drafted a constitution and declaration of independence.[1] Its proponents lay claim to five Southern states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina; and to the black-majority counties adjacent to this area in Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.[2]

History

The Black Government Conference was convened by the Malcolm X Society and the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL), two influential Detroit-based black organizations with broad followings. The attendees produced a Declaration of Independence (signed by 100 conferees out of approximately 500), a constitution, and the framework for a provisional government. Robert F. Williams, a controversial human rights advocate then living in exile in China, was chosen as the first president of the provisional government; attorney Milton Henry (a student of Malcolm X's teachings) was named first vice president; and Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, served as second vice president.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) advocated/advocates a form of cooperative economics through the building of New Communities—named after the Ujamaa concept promoted by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. It proposed militant self-defense through the building of local people's militias and a standing army to be called the Black Legion; and the building of racially based organizations to champion the right of self-determination for people of black African descent.

The organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For example, it attempted to assist Oceanhill-Brownsville area in Brooklyn to secede from the United States during the 1968 conflict over control of public schools. Additionally, it was involved with shootouts at New Bethel Baptist Church in 1969 (during the one-year anniversary of the founding) and another in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1971. (It had announced that the capital of the Republic would be in Hinds County, Mississippi, located on a member's farm.) In the confrontations, law-enforcement officials were killed and injured. Organization members were prosecuted for the crimes.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) listed the Republic of New Afrika as a seditious group due to its racism and advocacy of secession. It conducted raids on its meetings, which led to violent confrontations. It repeatedly arrested and prosecuted certain RNA leaders noted above. The group was a target of the COINTELPRO operation by the FBI, as well as Red Squad activities of Michigan State Police and the Detroit Police Department, among other cities.

Notable members

Leaders

Publications

  • The Article Three Brief. 1973. (New Afrikans fought U.S. Marshals in an effort to retain control of the independent New Afrikan communities shortly after the U.S. Civil War.)
  • Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Foundations of the Black Nation, Detroit: House of Songay, 1975.
  • Brother Imari [Obadele, Imari]. War In America: The Malcolm X Doctrine, Chicago: Ujamaa Distributors, 1977.
  • Kehinde, Muata. RNA President Imari Obadele is Free After Years of Illegal U.S. Imprisonment. In Burning Spear Louisville: African Peoples Socialist Party, 1980. pp. 4–28
  • Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Malcolm Generation & Other Stories, Philadelphia: House of Songhay, 1982.
  • Taifa, Nkechi, and Lumumba, Chokwe. Reparations Yes! 3rd ed. Baton Rouge: House of Songhay, 1983, 1987, 1993.
  • Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Free The Land!: The True Story of the Trials of the RNA-11 Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, 1984.
  • New Afrikan State-Building in North America. Ann Arbor. Univ. of Michigan Microfilm, 1985, pp. 345–357.
  • "The First New Afrikan States". In The Black Collegian, Jan./Feb. 1986.
  • A Beginner's Outline of the History of Afrikan People, 1st ed. Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1987.
  • America The Nation-State. Washington, D.C. and Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1989, 1988.
  • Walker, Kwaku, and Walker, Abena. Black Genius. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
  • Afoh, Kwame, Lumumba, Chokwe, and Obafemi, Ahmed. A Brief History of the Black Struggle in America, With Obadele's Macro-Level Theory of Human Organization. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
  • RNA. A People's Struggle. RNA, Box 90604, Washington, D.C. 20090-0604.
  • The Republic of New Africa New Afrikan Ujamaa: The Economics of the Republic of New Africa. 21p. San Francisco. 1970.
  • Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Struggle for Independence and Reparations from the United States 142p. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, 2004.
  • Obadele, Imari A., editor De-Colonization U.S.A.: The Independence Struggle of the Black Nation in the United States Centering on the 1996 United Nations Petition 228p. Baton Rouge. The Malcolm Generation, 1997.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Mjagkij, Nina (2013-05-13). Organizing Black America. Routledge. ISBN 1135581231.
  2. ↑ http://www.blackpast.org/aah/republic-new-africa-1968
  3. 1 2 3 Salvatore, N. A. (2005). Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
  4. ↑ Bisson, Terry (1988). Fire on the Mountain. New York: Arbor House. ISBN 1-55710-014-4.

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