John Punch "the first African documented to be enslaved" Va

‪#‎BlackAugust‬ 1640 Portrait of John Punch Born Cameroon, Africa John Punch was an African indentured servant who lived in seventeenth-century colonial York County, Virginia. In 1640, he was bound as a servant for life as punishment for having tried to escape from his indenture. Some genealogists and historians describe Punch as "the first African documented to be enslaved for life in what would eventually become the United States. In this disarming three-quarter portrait, the hulking figure of John Punch seemingly sways to the left against a black background. He is clad in a bulky tunic with an upright white collar that offsets the intense blackness of his face. His arms are pulled behind his back, indicating that he is not a free man, yet he confronts the viewer with a stare emanating from narrowed eyes. An errant lock of hair pulls to the far left of the frame. A red band runs across the top of the painting—the sole injection of bright color in this dark picture.

Punch is regarded as the first African to spend his life in servitude in the United States. The date included in the title of the painting, 1646, represents the year that he was sentenced to a lifetime of slavery by a State court.Punch's male descendants became known by the surname Bunch, which is very rare among colonial families.[1] Before 1640, there were fewer than 100 African men in Virginia, and John Punch was the only one with a surname similar to it.[11] The Bunch descendants were free people of color who became successful landowners in Virginia and eventually assimilated as white, according to generations of marrying white.


A man referred to by researchers as John Bunch III, in September 1705 petitioned the General Court of Virginia for permission to publish banns for his marriage to Sarah Slayden, a white woman. Their minister had refused to do so. (There had been a ban on marriages between Negroes and whites, but Bunch posed a challenge, as he was apparently the son of a white woman, with only a degree of African ancestry. At the time, mulatto meant a person of half Negro and half white ancestry.)[11] John Bunch III appealed the denial to the General Court of Virginia. The decision of the Court is unknown. However, in October 1705 the General Court of Virginia issued a statute defining as "mulatto" someone who was a "child, grandchild, or great-grandchild of a black or Native American."[11] Persons of less than one-eighth African or Native American ancestry were considered legally white, a looser definition than the later, twentieth-century "one-drop rule" incorporated into Virginia law in 1924. Punch is one of several historical black figures that the contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall has memorialized as part of a larger effort to break up the supremacy of white figures on the walls of art museums. For Marshall, the fact that museums are dominated by portraits, history paintings and genre scenes picturing white people is evidence that painting is hardly a finished, outmoded media.


In addition to his critique of the over-representation of white subjects, Marshall uses paintings like this to highlight other ways that the revered styles and schools of the Western art canon have privileged whiteness For instance, Marshall takes on Malevich’s white on white Suprematist Painting, proving that black paint has just as much potential for finely hewn gradations. In the Punch portrait, black skin is distinct from black hair which is distinct from a black background. Marshall’s body of work not only infuses the canon of Western art with a much needed constituency of blackness, it also challenges the assumption that whiteness is the norm rather than another racial category.

Origin of Black August (commemoration)

The commemoration of Black August is inseparable from the lives and struggles of revolutionary freedom fighters: “George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, William Christmas, Khatari Gaulden, and sole survivor of the August 7, 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee.” The Revision and Origin of Black August by Kiilu Nyasha “As a slave, the social phenomenon that engages my consciousness is, of course, revolution.” – George L. Jackson “George was unequivocally an internationalist and a socialist. 2012 marks the 33rd anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor our fallen freedom fighters, George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, William Christmas, Khatari Gaulden, and sole survivor of the August 7, 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee. During these three decades, we’ve witnessed a steady revision of the meaning of Black August and its inherent ideology, the undisputed leader of which was our martyred Comrade, George Lester Jackson. Sadly, lots of individuals – many of whom are straight-up Black capitalists and Black nationalists – have seized upon Black August as a means of profiteering and lime-lighting, self-aggrandizement, and promotion of their own agendas. For those reasons, I want to make very clear the ideology espoused by George and Jonathan Jackson and their comrades.

First of all, George was unequivocally an internationalist and a socialist. He despised racism and, along with his brother, Jonathan, eschewed cultural nationalism. For example, in George Jackson’s second book (published posthumously in 1972), Blood in My Eye, Jonathan Jackson (17) was quoted as follows: “They say Gloves Davis – a black pig – killed Fred Hampton, while he was asleep. I certainly don’t have to mention all the so-called defectors who are now [1970] appearing before government committees testifying for the state. They were infiltrators to begin with. The house-niggers who ran to the high sheriff as soon as someone whispered revolt. I think I hate them worse than I hate the sheriff, or the ‘owner.’ “I’m just a young slave….but every time I think of [Gloves] Davis, Jess B. Simple, Karenga and the rest of these murderous turncoat idiots, my trigger finger fairly itches! Non-persons like Karenga, LeRoi Jones [Amiri Baraka] and the other right-wing blacks are intelligent enough to know what they are doing. We cannot excuse them with the ease that we can excuse the average brother who has had no opportunity or inclination to search. The mantle of ignorance doesn’t cover their behavior. [my emphasis] They have to know that when they attack socialism, the communist ideal, and revolution that they are not logically…attacking all that is white, etc. They know that Ho Chi Minh isn’t white or Chairman Mao, or Nkrumah, Lumumba and Toure. They know that there isn’t but one fight going on across this planet, the one between the imperialist forces of capitalism and its victims. They know that it was for work that we were kidnapped – what else do you feed a slave for? These Black, Black, Black, Black men (if you can swallow their shallow shit) have had time to study, some have traveled, they ‘know’ that it was capitalist agricultural economics that first caused our pain, and that the only change since then is the decline of the agricultural elite and the rise of the modern bourgeoisie.


A sweat-shop displaced the plantation. [In 2012, it’s the prison industrial complex and outsourcing.] Could it have escaped their notice that all the African states that really liberated themselves booted out the foreign businessmen and are now socialist states? [Unfortunately, the ‘foreign businessmen’ returned and there are no African states that remained socialist] “There isn’t but one fight going on across this planet, the one between the imperialist forces of capitalism and its victims.” “No, I think the strongest suggestion is that they are working for the government, the new house-niggers. And what better way is there for them to sell themselves to us than to scream Black, Black, Black, Black….” George Jackson wrote, “We find ourselves forced into a reexamination of the whole nature of black revolutionary consciousness and its relative standing within a class society steeped in a form of racism so sensitized that it extends itself even to the slightest variation in skin tone. “The great majority of blacks reject racism. They have never found it expedient, wise or honorable to take on the characteristics of the enemy.” (Blood In My Eye) I wish that statement remained true. But I think Comrade is turning over in his grave at the anti-white hostility and white exclusion so common today. We are now witnessing Blacks embracing reactionary politicians, like Barack Obama, because of their skin tones. As former Panther and political prisoner Larry Pinkney wrote: “Barack Obama’s secret negotiations with economic bloodsucking multinational corporations, his trillion dollar criminal ‘bailout’ of the corporate elite of Wall Street,… his ongoing wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, his bombing of Libya, North Africa, his feverish clamp down on corporate and government ‘whistleblowers,’ and his infamous ‘Kill List’ are but a few of the horrible actions that Obama, has and is engaging in under the cover of insidious stealth and beguilement. Obama’s flagrant violations of U.S. constitutional and international law have, in less than four years, far surpassed even the outrages committed by his predecessors.”


Larry has also noted that the Obama Administration has not hesitated to “Murder women, men and children with incessant predator drone missile strikes upon other sovereign nations. Utilize a self-legitimized ‘kill list’ to commit extrajudicial murders of Americans and non-Americans alike, without the bother of legitimate due process. Sign into law the draconian NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act]— which calls for the indefinite detention in this nation of U.S. citizens—without charge, trial, judge, jury, or legal defense. Continue operating the torture chamber at the U.S. gulag known as Guantanamo.” (Intrepid Report) In his first best seller of 1970, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson, Comrade wrote, “The government buys and trains these running dogs very carefully, and sends them scrambling, tails and all, outward to represent the establishment. Whole kennels are sent to the African nations…on the supposition that the people of these nations will be able to relate better to a black face.” George goes on to say that they throw up “one more barrier to the communion that we must establish with the other oppressed peoples of the world.” In a letter written to a comrade, published in Blood In My Eye, George wrote: “We are now witnessing Blacks embracing reactionary politicians, like Barack Obama, because of their skin tones.” “We have finally arrived at scientific revolutionary socialism….I was hoping that you wouldn’t get trapped in the riot stage like a great many other very sincere brothers….They think they don’t need ideology, strategy or tactics.


They think being a warrior is enough.” “You must teach that socialism-communalism is as old as man; that its principles formed the basis of mostly all the East African cultures (there was no word to denote possession in the original East African tongues)….Any black who would defend an African military dictatorship is as much a fascist as Hoover. Are you aware of how the people are living under these so-called Africanized fascist cultures? The Congo and the entire West Coast of Africa….are still slave states, dominated by Westernized black right-wing puppets. I’m thoroughly sick of the old Jess B. Simples (young ones too). They’ll be your main source of opposition in communizing the black colonies here. The ‘good white people’ who own things will always give them a few inches in their papers or other media. That’s how ‘fascism’ works influencing the masses and institutions through elites.” [my emphasis] George was adamantly opposed to participation in electoral politics: “The corporative state allows for no genuinely free political opposition. They only allow meaningless gatherings where they can plant more spies than participants. They feel secure in their ability to mold the opinion of a people interested only in wages. However, real revolutionary activity will draw panic-stricken gunfire. Or heart attacks.”


The Origin of Black August A time to embrace the principles of unity and resistance, Black August had its origins in the "Black Movement" behind California prison walls in the 1960s, led by George Jackson, W. L. Nolen, James Carr, Hugo Pinell, Kumasi, Howard Tole, Warren Wells, and many other conscious, standup brothers who ultimately made it safe for Blacks to walk the yards of California’s racist gulags. As the decades passed, the tradition of honoring our fallen freedom fighters – sparked by the August events described below -- was expanded to include commemorating revolutionary wars of resistance and self-determination, such as Harriett Tubman’s Underground Railroad and the Haitian Revolution of August of 1791 culminating in the first Black Republic of the world. August 7, 1970, the spectacular courthouse slave rebellion hit the front pages of newspapers around the world. Pictures of four, young Black freedom fighters emerging from Marin County court with guns and hostages, provoked panic among white supremacists. But most Black folks took great pride and inspiration from the sight of such courageous resistance to the ongoing brutality and murder of Blacks inside and outside of prison. “Freeze!” shouted 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, “We’re taking over” – as he tossed guns to McClain, Christmas, and Magee. With courage and calm they ushered their hostages to a waiting van, planning to go to a radio station to broadcast the atrocities being committed behind the walls against Blacks, and demand the immediate release of the Soledad Brothers – George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette. “The corporative state allows for no genuinely free political opposition.” What Jonathan failed to anticipate was the State’s willingness to sacrifice one of its judges and the lives of everyone else to stop that escape.


As Jonathan tried to leave the parking lot, the San Quentin guards arrived and opened fire, leaving Jackson, Christmas, McClain, and Judge Harold Haley dead, State prosecutor Gary Thomas and Ruchell Magee seriously wounded and one juror with a minor injury. One year later, on August 21, 1971, in what has been well established as a setup, George Jackson was murdered on the yard of San Quentin by prison guards. During this orchestrated attempted escape, however, three guards were also killed, along with two inmate “trustees.” This set the prison officials on fire and they’ve been exacting revenge ever since upon Hugo Pinell whom they can’t seem to torture enough – even though he was not convicted of murder in the case, as was Johnny Spain who was released in 1988. Yogi, now 67 years old is suffering his 48th year of incarceration, most in solitary confinement, the last 22 in Pelican Bay’s SHU (Security Housing Unit) locked down at least 23 hours a day in a torture chamber -- no-contact limited visits, no phone calls, no windows, restricted property. Fortunately, Magee’s legal expertise got himself out of the SHU in 1994. Yogi’s current attorney, Keith Wattley of Uncommon Law, is trying to preclude a 15-year hit at his next board hearing, and needs all the help he can get to proceed in his behalf. For more information, go to www.hugopinell.org Ruchell Magee is enduring his 49th year in Corcoran’s maximum security prison – a classic case of this country’s racist repression of Black men.


At 16, Magee was arrested, tried as an adult, and incarcerated in the infamous Angola State Prison in his home state of Louisiana (basically for associating with a white girl). Released after 8 years, but banished from the State, Magee lasted only 6 months in Los Angeles before suffering an egregious and brutal encounter with L.A. police (over a $10 bag of weed) that put him back in prison. An astute jailhouse lawyer, Magee continued to fight his case through the courts for 7 years to no avail, or until he seized the hour and joined the guerrillas on August 7, 1970. Seriously wounded but still alive, Magee was subsequently tortured and charged with everything they could throw at him. He continues to fight his case to this day. He said to me decades ago, “As long as you remain in the fight, you never know who’s going to win.” “They must be made to realize that the interests of the state and the ruling class are one and the same.” “So what is to be done after a revolution has failed?” asks George. “After our enemies have created a conservative mass society based on meaningless electoral politics, spectator sports, and a 3 percent annual rise in purchasing power strictly regulated to negate itself with a corresponding rise in the cost of living. …What can we do with a people who have gone through the authoritarian process and come out sick to the core!!! “Our overall task is to separate the people from the hated state.

They must be made to realize that the interests of the state and the ruling class are one and the same. They must be taught to realize that the present political regime exists only to balance the productive forces within the society in favor of the ruling class. It is at the ruling class and the governing elites, including those of labor, that we must aim our bolts.” (Blood in My Eye) “We must accept the spirit of the true internationalism called for by Comrade Che Guevara….We need allies, we have a powerful enemy who cannot be defeated without an allied effort! The enemy at present is the capitalist system and its supporters. Our prime interest is to destroy them. Anyone else with this same interest must be embraced, we must work with, beside, through, over, under anyone, regardless of his or her external physical features, whose aim is the same as ours in this.” (Soledad Brother) “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”


THE OBSERVATION AND COMMEMORATION OF BLACK AUGUST: To observe and commemorate Black August each individual is encouraged to: *Fast for a suggested prolonged period or if really disciplined drink only water from sunrise until after sunset from the 1st until the 31st (Suggested hours are 8am to 6pm); *Eat only one meal a day after6pm or after sunset; *On days called flea days, (1st, 7th, 13th and 21st), fast 24 hours until next sunset. (Knowing that refraining from liquids is unhealthy, Mama Ayanna suggests to make this a liquid fast) *Work out an exercise routine for each day either individually or in groups. *Do not use any drugs, smoke or ingest mind altering herbs or alcoholic beverages during the entire month. *Do not go to any corporate store for anything other than essentials or medical or health related items. *Do not watch TV or listen to radio from sunrise to sunset *Do not watch corporate television or movies at all *Do not patronize fast food or commercial eating establishments or vendors. *Eat healthy, natural and nutritious foods, beverages and meals. *Observe Black August through educational study groups, educational events, edutainment and commemorations. *Contribute funds and monies made from Black August events to men, women and youth in prison or prisoner legal funds *Educate your family, community and loved ones about what is happening to our people in prisons. *Visit and/or write someone in prison or jail. It is suggested to also write and support our political prisoners and prisoners of consciousness (this practice should be continued all year) (Blood in My Eye) Please send our brothers some love and encouragement: Hugo L.A. Pinell A88401 D3-221 P.O. Box 7500 Crescent City, Ca. 95531-7500 Ruchell Cinque Magee #A92051 C-8-117 P.O. Box 5246 CSATF/State Prison at Corcoran Corcoran, CA 93212

BLACK BOULE i.e. Internal Oppressors

Revolutionary greetings this blog is dealing with the internal contradictions and enemies who turned they backs on the Afrikan people and communities in the empire of amerika called The BLACK BOULE AKA TALENTED TENTH i.e. Internal Oppressors. These black men and woman are what we called euro-centric westernized thinking upper-class captalist , or i could use the term that our ancestor malcolm x uses the house nigga, these Boule negroes are on every level and field of life,business,work,entertainment,government positions they are not just occupying the entertainment field they are everywhere you can find the european capitalist slave master,actually its nothing new to the internal hinderance of the advancement of New Afrikan people in amerika, these collaberators have been around since the days of the attack on the motherland yelp right there sidelining with historical enemies helping capture our ancestors for a few goods, chump change and other materialist come ups to sooth there greedy compromising behaviors,we must realize on this rode to liberation that these boule collaberators will have to be dealt with and removed in order to gain liberation and independence from the empire of Amerika and internationally, but im a deal strictly within the empire of amerika.

For example the comrad Wide Awake states The Black Boule: Privilage and its terms you must learn overstand to get a clear view of the boule collaberators he states " To bring a clear understanding of who the Black Boule are, you first have to understand the terms, "field negroe","house negroe", and "Uncle Tom". The first two terms were coined because, although BOTH were slaves to the white man during slavery-times. One held himself above the other. The house negroe still had shitty living conditions and treatment however -- since they were typically half white or even the offspring of the plantation owner they had better digs and food than the darkies Yes, us "field negroes" kept it as real and endured torturous days in the field and ate pig scraps for dinner if we were lucky. "House negroes" spent their days and nights kissing ass and licking-up the dirt from the plantation owner's feet. Now, not all "house negroes" had a superiority complex over the "field negroes" but most did. It was the plan from the beginning to pit black slave against black slave to maintain white supremacy. Where there is bickering; there is no unity.

When there are class levels; there can be no unity. The white man knew this and controlled us with it. Is this beginning to look or sound familiar? If you have time check out the Willie Lynch letter. This will give more insight to the psychological warefare waged against blacks since the beginning of slavery " This view is basically recognizing that in the black colony there were two classes forming and being created by the colonialist with a oppressive tactic of seperation divide and conquer maneuvers, wether these boule negroes knew it or not they were being created by there slave masters to be used in there strategic warfare plans to keep the new afrikans controlled by there own kind, The black proletariats vs the black Boule was in full gear through the tyranny of slavery, before i move on lets get a defintion of the term " Uncle tom" the comrad mention in identifying these collaberators:

"I will go straight to URBAN DICTIONARY to define "Uncle Tom". There is no need to go into the whole regurg of who wrote the book Uncle Tom's Cabin...it's critiscisms or anything because I really don't care. This is what the term means at this day and age. 1. Uncle Tom A black man who will do anything to stay in good standing with "the white man" including betray his own people Now, the "Uncle Tom" isn't neccesarily light-skinned. The "Uncle Tom" is the black man who is willing to do ANYTHING not to be considered as lowly as us darkies (field negroes). Keep in mind we are all in the same boat, but these are the people that are trying to 'jumpship' for a better quality of life. Sell-outs. In a modern sense, this is still very prevailant. You have to consider all venues in which a black person excells in the United States. The brainwashed black person is quick to say everything they have is due to hard-work and a good education, but it's not. It's due to a sucessful network of sell outs. That brings us to black fraternities...

Before i move forward to these fraternies i wanna state that it was w.e. dubois who came forth to the table with information with this talented tenth ideology at the time i dont know if he was trying set a standard or principles for the talented tenth or he was speaking on it and didn't realize he was feeding the euro-supremacy strategic plan to use these boule collaborators as a part of controllism or it could have been that these neo-talented tenth didnt take heed to his words, heres a statement from a corperate european-amerikan C.e.o. he states;


"SELFISHNESS- INGRAINED IN THEIR MINDS THROUGH SLAVERY IS ONE OF THE MAJOR WAYS WE CONTINUE TO CONTAIN THEM ONE OF THERE OWN DUBOIS SAID THERE WAZ INNATE DIVISION IN THERE CULTURE A (TALENTED TENTH) HE CALLED IT HE WAS CORRECT IN HIS DEDUCTION THAT THERE ARE SEGMENTS OF THEIR CULTURE THAT HAS ACHIEVED SOME FORM OF SUCCESS HOWEVER THAT SEGMENT MISSED THE FULLNESS OF HIS WORK THEY DIDNT READ THAT THE (TALENTED TENTH) WAS RESPONSIBLE TO AID THE NON-TALENTED NINETY-PERCENT IN ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE WHICH THESE ENTERTAINERS DNT DO INSTEAD THE SEGMENT CREATED A ANOTHER CLASS THE "BUPPIE" CLASS THAT LOOKS DOWN ON THERE PEOPLE OR AIDS THEM IN A CONDESCENDING MANNER, THEY WILL ACHIEVE WHAT WE HAVE THEIR SELFISHNESS DOES NOT ALLOW THEM TO BE ABLE TO WORK TOGETHER ON ANY PROJECT OR ENDEAVOR OF SUBSTANCE WHEN THEY GET TOGETHER THEIR SELFISHNESS LET THEIR EGOS GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR GOALS THEIR SO CALLED ORGANIZATIONS SEEMS TO ONLY WANT TO PROMOTE THEIR NAME WITHOUT MAKING ANY REAL CHANGE IN THEIR COMMUNITY THEY ARE CONTENT TO SIT IN OUR CONFERENCES AN CONVENTIONS IN OUR HOTELS AN TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY WILL DO WHILE THEY AWARD PLAQUES TO THE BEST SPEAKERS NOT THE ST DOERS IS THEIR NO END TO THERE SELFISHNESS.. THE STEADY FASTILY REFUSE TO SEE THAT TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE(TEAM) THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN EACH OTHER OF WHAT THEY OWN AS A MATTER OF FACT MOST OF THE "BUPPIES" ARE BUT ONE OR TWO PAY CHECKS AWAY FROM POVERTY ALL OF WHICH IS UNDER OUR CONTROL OF OUR PENS IN OUR OFFICES AN OUR ROOMS WE WILL CONTINUE TO CONTAIN THEM AS LONG AS THEY REFUSE TO READ CONTINUE TO BUY ANYTHING THEY WANT KEEP THINKING THEY ARE HELPING THEIR COMMUNITIES BY PAYING DUES TO ORGANIZATIONS WICH DO LITTLE OTHER THEN HOLD LAVISH CONVENTIONS IN OUR HOTELS " BY THE WAY DONT WORRY ABOUT THEM READING THIS LETTER REMEMBER THEY DONT READ"


This is a propagandist statement with sir truths in it wether it came from one OF these capitalist corperations slave master c.e.o. your guesse is good has mines even though it was said to be printed in a wall st article in new york times but overall you can see the strategic tactics that they have employed in there ongoing war to keep us controlled by our own cowardice kind who are in positions in the western society upper classs rich classes to finance liberation and help us gain victory but they rather be cowards and help keep us oppressed now to these black orgs(Fraternities) i wont stay here long e.g. There are nine historically Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs) that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Collectively, these organizations are referred to as "The Divine Nine." Each of these fraternities and sororities is rich in history - ties to one or more of these organizations may be found in many college-educated Black families in the United States. info from: Black Greek.com Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Founded 1906, Cornell University Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Founded 1908, Howard University Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Founded 1911, Indiana University Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Founded 1911, Howard University Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Founded 1913, Howard University Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Founded 1914, Howard University Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Founded 1920, Howard University Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Founded 1922, Butler University Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Founded 1963, Morgan State University Now you can see there is a web of black people that are essentially "Uncle Tom's"....obviously willing to go through the 'white' way to grab some spoils. They believe they are special and chosen. When in reality they are sell-outs.

What do they sell? GARBAGE on all fronts...propoganda. This is where you get your successful black politicians that don't care about black communities, black bussinessmen that don't support black bussiness, black actors that portray stereotypes and cross-dressers, black actresses that portray whores, black doctors that prescribe big buck PHARMACEUTICAL$, and black lawyers that lie to make a living etc... These people are AMBITIOUS. Not a good quality in the eyes of The Most High. It is utterly detestable! The bottom of the barrel. These are the lowly scum that mascarade as the black community. They are just SPIN. If you know a black person on a one-on-one basis you will notice our personal behavior is not in line with the perpetuated stereotype. let me say many wanna know "How did they get into such an elite clique?" -and- "Well then... why do a lot of black people still collectively act stereotypical manner?" comrad Wide Awake states " First off, they don't have to be from a frat or sorority...that is just one branch of the network. These people do some despicable and homosexual acts in secret to seal the deal. That's how they prove they are in it for the long haul. The knowledge of their nasty deeds is the black-mail to keep their asses in check. That's why you see so many black actors/actresses/singers looking a bit on the fruity or butch side. They swing both ways. They are shrewd and ruthless. In the entertainment industry, these Boule members only produce material that degrades black people (their own).

They undermine the black community from within like a cancer. This causes the young and impressionable to act in a predictable way (herd mentality) making them easy to control..Most black people are none the wiser of their real agenda" and many wanna know who are the opportunist of today's Neo-black boule comrad again states " SO WHO ARE THE SUPPOSED BOULE?? Well...It's not hard to recognize a status-seeker. Boule are always SEEN : ...criticizing the black community they've turned their back on ("pick yourself up by the bootstraps" BS) ...on tv, movies, and radio (of course) ...making millions/ billions. ..."donating" to "charities" ...attending upperclass galas ...cross-dressing in movies ...perpetuating stereotypes ...flapping their gums on Oprah ...they tend to "come from a long line of WHATEVER." ...often seen on the Forbes list"



Let me add on to this thats just mainly your entertainment Black boule but i would like to say that its not far fetch from the actions of your everday corperate business work place, your political local and state offices, There the main collaberators of the control system they are more identifiable with the traitors who help the siege and attack on our afrikan ancestors cause there the ones who are right there beneath notice i said beneath the global elites of Amerika whos helping them keep us un-liberated and not free they are also part of your Army,navy, airforce, military units of the united states of amerika in high position doing as the " House nigga" did in slavery overseeing us with there whipps but they traded they whips in for mind control thrashing the mentals of the non-conscious New afrikans with patriotic mindwash/mentacide Amerikanism, especially the ones who still suffer from post-traumatic slave syndrome Neo-slavery is more mental then physical in our day and time and more dangerous cause once you got them mentally the physical aspect is like a robot all they doing is pushing the buttons and the boule negore will take orders verbally and they will do what master say.

Thats why i stated not to long ago before its all said and done we(conscious New Afrikans) gonna have to clash with our un-conscious brothers and sisters victims of Amerikan patriotic negro syndrome is what i call it now being used in the Black boule the uncle tom collaberators of european supremacy in order for us to get free clashing is very visual at this point i like to say Rip to Steve cokley Minister of information on a global level for battling the beast and keeping us informed up till his last breath, Us New Afrikans must keep these uncle toms in the scope the black boule cause there the main cause for our internal problems and our standstill in advancing closer to freedom and independence from the empire there the road block to cutting our historical enemies heads off and raising that Red black and Green flag in victory once again Free THE LAND REBUILD POWER TO THOSE WHO DONT FEAR FREEDOM AND REFUSE TO REMAIN FREEDUMB " THE BLACK BOULE MUST BE DESTROYED" written by Haki Kweli Shakur(T Martin) contact facebook.com/HakiShakur twitter.com/Haki_Shakur IG G_starmov3r

Man,God,Civilization (Pineal Body) John G Jackson

Pg 25 The factors and evidences of evolution, Pineal Body: At the base of the brain is a little organ known as the pineal body which exercises control over the functioning of the glands of internatl secretion. in the words of a distinguished neuro-surgeon: " The main function of the pineal organ is to retard the action of the hormones, or endocrines of the other organs, e.g. pituitrin, thyroxin, insulin,oestrin, and the testicular hormone, of the pituitary,thyroid, pancreas,ovary and testis, respectively. The pineal organ is thus a super-endocrine organ that checks over activity on the part of any member of the endocrine system" (10, p, 107n).. The pineal body is described in starling'ss Physiology as "a vestigial remnant of a primitive dorsal eye." McCabe in discussing the pinel organ states, " It is clear the relic of a third eye that once functioned on top of the head in a primitive animal. One can often see this third eye, through now covered with skin, standing out like a large marble on top of the head of a crocodile. In a very primitive New Zealeand lizard, the tuatara, it plainly shows structure of an eye, with retins and optic nerve in a state of decay. From the reptile level we trace it through the higher animals, sinking deeper and deeper in the head until it becomes the pineal body" (154,p 244) Admiral Beadnell made a study of the tuatara,and in explaining the evolutionary signifigance of the pineal body, gave his objections to calling it a third eye in the following words' "Remains of this third eye (as it is wrongly called) are present in lampreys, frogs and lizards, and can sometimes be seen in the frog on the top of the head between the normal lateral eyes as the so-called Stieda's organ. In the extinct amphibian reptiles of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods, this median eye, or rathe a pair of eyes, was much better developed. Recent embrylogical research has demonstrated that the remaining pineal eye in Sphenodon(tuatara) is the left eye of the ancestrial pair, while that in the lamprey is the right one. Birds and mammals also possess vestiges of this extra median pair of eyes" (10 pp. 106-70) From John G Jacksons Book Man,God,Civilizations on the third eye pineal gland/body

The Criminalization of Poverty in Capitalist Amerika - Jalil Muntaqim

The Poor, Welfare and Prisons An anonymous poet in the 1700’s wrote about crime: “The law will punish a man or woman who steals the goose from the hillside, but lets the greater robber loose who steals the hillside from the goose.”[l] When talking about “the greater robber” it seemed particularly appropriate in the midst of the biggest financial rip-off in history of this country to think about the billions of dollars the Savings & Loan criminals stole, and about how most of them have gotten away with it. I thought about the complete insanity of how this country defines crimes in society. If you steal $5 you’re a thief, but if you steal $5 million --you’re a financier. Thirty percent of the wealth of this country is controlled by one-half of one percent of the people. Eighty percent of the wealth is controlled by ten percent of the people. I think that is a crime. In the dictionary, the word “crime” means “an act which is against the law.” Crime applies particularly to an act that breaks a law that has been made for public good. Crime in one country, the dictionary continued, “may be entirely overlooked by the law in another country or may not apply at all in a different historical period.” That was interesting.

What that really said was that concepts of “crime” are not eternal. The very nature of crime is socio-psychological and defined by time and place and those who have the power to make definitions; by those who write dictionaries, so to speak. The more I thought about that and about those who write the laws, or at least define what law is, the more profound it became. I believe we all will agree that the United States is a nation of criminals. From its inception as a settler nation, exiled British criminals stole the land and lives from Native Americans and Africans. They justified their actions with making and defining the law of the land, for example defining Africans as 3/5 of a man during slavery. Hence the power to define is an awesome power. It is the power of propaganda. It is the ability to manipulate our ideas, to limit our agenda, to mold how we see, and to shape what we look at. It is the power to interpret the picture we see when we look at the world for the American people in general, and New Afrikans, in particular. It is the power to place the picture we see when we look at the world. It is the power to place a frame around the picture, to define where it begins and ends. It is, in fact, the power to define where our vision begins and ends, the power to create our collective consciousness.


That kind of social propaganda is not only tremendously powerful, but it is also mostly invisible. We can’t fight what we don’t see. Most people accept the images and definitions that we have been taught as true, neutral, self-evident, and for always; so that the power to paint the future, to define what is right and wrong, what is lawful and what is criminal, is really the power to win the battle for our minds. And to win it without ever having to fight it. Simply said, it is hard to fight an enemy who has an outpost in our minds. This indicates the need for revolutionary nationalists to develop a national agitation/propaganda mechanism. Specifically, nationalists need a single national publication and organ that represents the unified development of NAIM (The New African Independence Movement) to which each formation and organization contributes and supports its distribution. The Social Dynamics of Crime Though some may question, as did Marx, the system’s fairness in applying its rules, today most people don’t question the basis of the system itself. That is, people don’t question the relationship between those who own and those who don’t. Though many people vote every four years on who governs, they never vote on and rarely question what governs. People don’t challenge the legitimacy of the system, they accept it. The exception of course is when the oppressed rebel in insurrections. But usually we don’t step outside of the frame around the picture. We don’t disconnect the dots. Emile Durkheim argued that crime is “normal” and necessary social behavior. According to Durkheim, “the inevitability of crime is linked to the differences (heterogeneity) within a society. Since people are so different from one another and employ such a variety of methods and forms of behavior to meet their needs, it is not surprising that some will resort to criminality. Thus as long as human differences exist, crime is inevitable and one of the fundamental conditions of social life.” [2]


In this regard, the conservative view echoes this sentiment inasmuch as they seek to establish a genetic trait that explains criminal behavior. They argue, “If liberals have trouble with the idea that people’s genes influence their chances of committing crimes, conservatives have trouble with the idea that poverty causes crime. Conservatives do not deny that the poor commit more crimes than the rich. But instead of assuming that poverty causes crime, conservatives usually assume that poverty and crime have a common cause, namely the deficient character or misguided values of the poor.” (Jencks, p. 11) Concomitantly, the neo-liberals are essentially giving credence to the conservative position as it pertains to the “underclass.” For instance sociologist William J. Wilson purports, “The liberal perspective on the ghetto underclass has become less persuasive and convincing in public discourse principally because many of those who represent traditional liberal views on social issues have been reluctant to discuss openly or, in some instances, even to acknowledge the sharp increase in social pathologies in ghetto communities.” (Wilson, p. 6) Needless to say, such ideas as genetic traits are the cause of crime set a dangerous precedent. Trying to discern the social pathologies of the underclass harbors views that purport the wholesale contamination of entire communities. However, if one were to advocate that criminal behavior, especially of the poor, is either caused by genetic traits and/or born of social pathologies, then indisputably, it must be espoused that much of America suffers from these same causes.


In the March 12, 1993, issue of the Wall Street Journal an article entitled “Common Criminals --Just About Everyone Violates Some Laws, Even Model Citizens,” byline by Stephen J. Adler and Wade Lambert stated: We are a nation of lawbreakers. We exaggerate tax-deductible expenses, lie to customs officials, bet on card games and sports events, disregard jury notices, drive while intoxicated --and hire illegal childcare workers. The last of these was recently the crime of the moment, and Janet Reno wouldn’t have been in the position to be confirmed unanimously as attorney general yesterday if Zoe Baird had obeyed the much-flouted immigration and tax laws. But the crime of the moment could have been something else, and next time probably will be. This is because nearly all people violate some laws, and many people run afoul of dozens without ever being considered, or considering themselves, criminals. When we look at downtown urban centers, when we look at the lines of humanity waiting for food or a bed at the missions; if we look at the faces of people living in cardboard boxes on the streets of the cities, we must know that a crime has been committed. When we look at the faces of the dispossessed people, we see faces that look like people who lived in California when it was part of Mexico. In Miami we see faces of people whose great-great-grandparents were abducted and brought here from Africa.


In America, in the l990s, as was the case in England in the 1800s, it is a crime to be poor. The poorer you are, the more criminal you are. If you are so poor that you have no place to live, and you live on the pavement or sleep in a car or in a park, you have committed a crime. It’s against the law to sleep on the streets or in a park. If we have no home, it’s against the law to sleep anywhere. Walter I. Trattner in From Poor Law to Welfare State: A History of Social Welfare in America makes the following observation in opposition to government policies that sought “to dismantle all benefit programs for working-age people except perhaps for unemployment insurance.” (p. 335) Indeed, others argued that structural changes in the economy and the erosion in anti-poverty programs were the causes of the problem, and that a strengthening, not dismantling, of the welfare state was essential in order to solve it. Such was the theme of Michael Harrington’s The New American Poverty (1984), a depressing sequel pronouncement, “The poor are still there.” They are poor, however, said Harrington, not because of any personal shortcomings or decisions on their part, but because of changes in the international economy, especially the “de-industrialization” of America, and the way in which they have been treated, or mistreated, here at home. They are the uprooted and the homeless, products of de-institutionalization, cuts in welfare programs, shortages in low-rent housing, and other social and economic forces over which they have no control; undocumented aliens who have become the new sweatshop laborers; unemployed blue-collar workers victimized by the disappearance of steady and relatively well-paying manufacturing jobs in the “smokestack industries” as a result of technological advances and global competition; white-collar workers who lost their jobs due to reorganization schemes in the name of efficiency, plant closings, or moves to new locations in the so-called Sunbelt; hopeless, uneducated, and untrained young blacks unable to get and hold jobs; families headed by poor, unmarried women; uprooted farmers and farm laborers hurt by the elimination of the subsistence farm and the agricultural depression; and millions of others in unskilled unsteady (and often parttime), low-wage, dead-end benefitless jobs in the service sector of the economy -- cooks in fast food restaurants, dishwashers and chambermaids in hotels and motels, janitors and cleaning women in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and the like. Harrington and others demand that the government spend billions of dollars on social programs to meet the needs of these “rejects” of society. (p. 336)


When the government fails to be responsible to its citizens and ignores the social dynamics of poverty, people are generally forced to seek illegitimate means to eke out an existence. In this case, it is a question of national oppression, whereby the imperialist government maintains exploitative relationships with New Afrikans, Native Americans, Chicanos, and Asians. Too many of these “rejects” of society are caught in the vicious web of the criminal justice system. But the real criminals are those who create the socioeconomic conditions that perpetuate impoverishment. The real criminal is the colonial government itself. It then becomes necessary to assess the pathology of the capitalist and social policy makers that make crime big business, and deflect culpability of their criminal behavior. Crime is big Business The political decisions of the bankers are decisions about who will be poor. Corporate decisions made in the late ’50s to remove industry from communities of color were about who would be unemployed. Decisions by developers and bankers about redevelopment (redlining and gentrification) are decisions about who will be homeless. Such decisions affect everyone, but people have no say in the matter. Generally people, especially the poor, have no say in most social and economic decisions that affect their lives. Somehow that is not part of the democratic method of government, and because people have no say in the process, creating homelessness is not criminal, but being homeless is. Runaway plants and plant closures are legal, but vagrancy is a crime. Trattner says: Meanwhile the plight of the nation’s hungry and homeless worsened.


In November, 1984, in a pastoral letter on “Catholic Social Thinking and the U.S. Economy,” American Roman Catholic bishops had called poverty in America a “social and moral scandal that must not be ignored,” and stated that “works of charity cannot and should not have to substitute for humane public policy. … A little more than a year later, the Physicians Task Force on Hunger in America reported on a two-year nationwide study it had conducted and concluded that, despite fifty-eight continuous months of economic expansion, hunger was more widespread and serious than at any time in the fifteen years (affecting some twenty million Americans), largely, in its words, because of “governmental failure” … (Trattner, p. 337-8) Hunger and homelessness are deliberately imposed socioeconomic conditions of the disenfranchised large numbers of the American population. This is especially significant when consideration is given to the method and means by which the malfeasance of the powers that be operate to ensure that such conditions stay the same. Thus such pathology ensures the rich get richer, while the poor get prison and early death. Max Weber has argued that society is structured to function in a specific way to ensure its existence, that the social structure is subject to the mechanics of government, and that governing is all important above and beyond the immediate needs of the people. Weber held that social stratification depends on the distribution of three resources: wealth (economic resources), power (political resources), and prestige (social resources). Thus, in our society, wealthy business owners often gain power by contributing to political campaigns and earn prestige by making large donations to charity or to the arts. In other cases, however, the three are not linked. For example, in our society an individual acquires less prestige (in most circles) than someone who acquires comparable wealth by legitimate means. Artists, the clergy, and others may enjoy prestige but not wealth. On occasion people with few economic resources and little social prestige -- bureaucrats, for instance -- exercise considerable power. … Weber held that because stratification is multidimensional, the formation of groups depends on which interests or identities people choose to emphasize. In capitalist societies, for example, ethnic and national identifications have proved more important than economic or class identification.[3]


We are able to determine the social and racial implications of certain classes, then, having a vested interest in crime. It can be argued that because an elite class of criminals is in charge, they commit capital crimes, crimes against society and humanity. The jails are overflowing, but that doesn’t seem to help -- because the real criminals aren’t in jail. They’re in the board rooms and in the White House. They are the social policy makers that run this country. And today, they are increasing social repression by building more prisons, creating harsher legal sanctions (i.e. 52 death penalty laws, three strikes you’re out), and becoming ever more heedless to the social implications of poverty as an impetus to committing crime. Under their misleadership, over five million people are homeless, 37 million have no health insurance, 30 million are illiterate, 30 million more are functionally illiterate, one million are incarcerated, and 60 million live in poverty and are struggling day to day. By contrast, a tiny fraction of the population controls enormous wealth. The median net worth of the top 1% of households is 22 times greater than the median net worth of the remaining 99% of outstanding stocks and shares. The wealth of the richest 5% of the population increased by 37% from 1977 to 1988. The wealth of the richest 1% increased by 74.2%. At the same time, the number of people in poverty increased by one-third. In this case crime does pay. The U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics announced on July 15, 1990 that federal, state and local governments spent $61 billion for civil and criminal justice in 1988, a 34 percent increase since 1985. Other findings in the report were that federal, state, local governments spent $248 per capita: $114 for police, $78 for corrections, $54 for judicial and legal services, and $2 for other items.


Almost half of the nation’s justice spending was for police protection. Corrections accounted for almost one third of justice costs. Spending for corrections grew the most during that period, by 65 percent. Since 1979, state spending for prison construction increased 593 percent in actual (constant) dollars. That’s some 2.6 times the rate of spending to operate prison facilities. In October of 1988 the nation’s civil and criminal justice system employed 1.6 million persons, and the total October payroll for them was almost $3.7 billion. [4] Crime is big business in America. Annually the laws are changed to ensure profitability in the industry of crime. Social conditions that serve to maintain levels of poverty, feed the industry of crime, also put stress on the social stratifications of society. Given the fact that America is a nation of criminals as elucidated in the Wall Street Journal article, social conflict is inevitable. It then becomes a matter of identifying the real culprits of crime, and seeking the means to have them become accountable for their criminal behavior. This may very well include the redistribution of their wealth, and the reorganization of the social contract between the government and the governed. In response to the stratification outlined above, it requires revolutionary nationalist and socialist efforts to formulate a national political agenda and policy that will challenge the prevailing social contract between the oppressed and the oppressor nation. This means revolutionary nationalists and socialists must have a clear and concise mass-line and political program that identifies and explains the nature of poor peoples’ oppression, and how they are to be organized to confront their oppression. Notes

Without A New Afrikan Personality First There Will Be No RNA (Cinque Kofi Kinaya)

In the name of the Creator, to Whom all Praise is due! And in the memory of all our Freedom Fighting Ancestors, both known and unknown; who dared all; who sacrificed all; and died for our struggle for self - determination; Land and Independence. Now it is our time to do no less!Greetings of Peace and to Us belong a sovereign Black Nation. We are gathered here this weekend in Detroit, Michigan, to commemorate the 34th Anniversary of the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG - RNA). The theme of New Afrikan Nation Day 2002 is, “Revisiting the Vision - Accomplishing the Mission.” Look back to 1968, a year in which 500 various Black Nationalists converged in this city and founded the PG - RNA. Indeed 1968 was a year of proclaiming a Black Nation and political murders. It was a year that 16 year-old Black Panther member ‘Little’ Bobby Hutton was viciously killed by racist Oakland police. Moreover in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, resulting in over 150 U.S. cities being engulfed in flames, rocked by Black rebellions; 1968 was a year that John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised clinched - fist salutes at the Olympics. It was a high tide year of Black struggle against the amerikan empire. From the first PG - RNA president, Robert Williams, who became an Ancestor, to our current PG - RNA president, Demetri Marshall, much has changed from 1968 to 2002.


The world has changed; the competition and crisis of imperialism has made the amerikan empire change, which has externally impacted upon our captive Black Nation, causing tremendous adverse changes. Inside the Black Nation, much has changed; our human rights struggle; our decolonization struggle for self - determination; Land and Independence, is at a very low - tide. Youthful Black power salutes have changed to throwing - up gang signs; youth saying Black Power has changed to saying ‘it’s all about getting paid’. Urban political power has changed from white mayors to Black mayors neglecting Black neighborhoods. Black labor has changed to becoming economically obsolete. Black men’s status has changed from working to being massively warehoused in prisons. In many instances police murders have changed from white pigs to Black soldier cops killing Black people. The school systems have changed in our communities from white teachers miseducating our children to, in many instances Black teachers doing the same mentacide.

Our neighborhoods have changed from Black businesses and Black Panther survival programs to dope houses, mega churches, and foreign economic monopoly. Alien businesses controlling almost every grocery stores, party stores, gas stations, coney - island restaraunts, used car lots, pawn shops / gold exchange, laundry mats, clothing stores, video stores, cleaners, and phone - pager shops. Most importantly, from my perspective, the New Afrikan personality has changed, from believing We could ‘Free the Land’, now to acting like We want some ‘Free Land’, or maybe ‘Buy the Land’ when We get reparations. For the most part, We are now abstract New Afrikans; superficial New Afrikans; We have basically African - American personalities, with New Afrikan lip - service. We lead ‘double - lives’; We say We want to ‘Free the Land’; but We don’t engage in nation - building; We say the community is more important than the individual (NA Creed #3); but We act like the individual is more important than the community. We primarily engage in surviving under the amerikan empire; instead of progressing toward Nationhood. This internal contradiction (loyalty vs. betrayal), reflects the dual - identity disorder in the New Afrikan personality; as W.E. B. DuBois stated:”One ever feels his two - ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body; whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” These warring ideals DuBois mentioned causes hypocrisy in our lives; it keeps us in a state of confusion; it causes split priorities and a ‘love - hate’ dilemma towards the amerikan empire; it results in a half - baked attitude towards nation - building.

For the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) to progress, an individual internal synthesis must occur, where the New Arikan personality becomes paramount - primary: *The New Afrikan personality affirmation is based on point #14 of the New Afrikan Creed:”i will keep myself clean in body, dress, and speech, knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building.” *The standard affirmation of the New Afrikan personality is based on point #10 of the New Afrikan Creed:”i will give my life if that is necessary. i will give my time, my mind, my strength, and my wealth because this IS necessary” *The mission affirmation of the New Afrikan personality is based on point #9 of the New Afrikan Creed:”Therefore i pledge to struggle without cease until We have won sovereignty. i pledge to struggle without fail until We have built a better condition than the world has yet known.” *The faith affirmation of the New Afrikan personality is based on point #1 of the New Afrikan Creed:”i believe in the spirituality, humanity, and genius of Black people and in our new pursuit of these values.” *The organizing affirmation of the New Afrikan personality is based on point #15 of the New Afrikan Creed:”i will be patient and uplifting with the deaf, dumb, and blind; and i will seek by word and deed to heal the Black family; to bring into the Movement and into the Community, mothers and fathers, brothers and sister left by the wayside.”


From my perspective, developing and solidifying the New Afrikan personality is a prerequisite for advancement and Independence. Our Independence movement without strong New Afrikan personalities won’t be able to endure the necessary sacrifices to ‘Free the land’. Without this New Afrikan personality We can’t ‘Accomplish the Mission’. We will only continue to ‘Dream the Land’. Rebuild to Win to Free the Land! *Cinque Kofi Kinaya

Mama Moses The Underground Railroad and Freedom Riders on the Same Road to Liberation

She was born a slave and severely abused by Massa, yet; she never gave up the fight. In fact, she not only refused to give up, she won the fight for freedom, and brought more than 70 slaves to freedom with her.She was born a slave and severely abused by Massa, yet; she never gave up the fight. In fact, she not only refused to give up, she won the fight for freedom, and brought more than 70 slaves to freedom with her. Tubman suffered severe head trauma as an adolescent that left her with life long debilitating temporal lobe damage (Larson, 2004). It is said that she refused to help restrain another slave so that he could be beaten because he had left the fields without permission. The other slave ran away and as he did so, his Massa threw a heavy weight at him which missed him and hit Tubman instead, cracking open her skull. She was left without medical treatment for two days and sent back to work in the fields. For the rest of her life, she suffered from disabling seizures, narcoleptic attacks, and headaches. She also experienced powerful dreams and visions, which she considered to be divine revelations from God. Harriet Tubman, also known as Mama Moses, is known mostly for her humanitarian and anti slavery efforts.


She escaped slavery in 1849 and went straight to Philadelphia, where she rescued her family. Using the safe houses and antislavery activists that comprised the Underground Railroad, she brought family members and dozens of others, one group at a time in the dark of night, out of the state and into freedom. It is said that Mama Moses never lost a passenger (Lowry, 2008). Large rewards were offered for the return of many of the fugitive slaves, but no one then knew that Mama Moses was the one helping them. When the Southern-dominated Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, requiring law officials in free states to aid efforts to recapture slaves, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada, where slavery was prohibited.


Volume 2 of Hoodoo and Conjure Quarterly features an article about Harriet Tubman by new contributor Witchdoctor Utu. Utu is the founder of the Dragon Ritual Drummers, the Niagara Voodoo Shrine, and is a member and drummer for the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Utu has a unique perspective on the conjure tradition as it was brought to and developed in Canada. As one who lives and works at the “end of the Railroad” so to speak here in St. Catharines Ontario Canada, I have a rather unique perspective on the traditions of Hoodoo, Voodoo and the conjuring ways of the North American tradition. It is here that many of the freedom seeking slaves brought with them, across the U.S. border and into my region in Niagara, via the Underground Railroad, an entirely distinctive brand of conjure. Harriet Tubman, the legendary conductor of the clandestine movement that brought several hundred people to freedom in St. Catharines alone, resided here for many years… While Quakers and Christians of a few sects were supporters and enablers of the cause, the religious and spiritual nature of those that made the journey over the years was as diverse and colorful as the quilts that came to symbolize the movement. Indeed, many of the freedom seekers were renowned root doctors and conjurers, and like Harriet Tubman herself, diviners. Spells of invisibility, protection, and animal totemic magick were common and paramount to each and every journey. At the height of the movement, there was a bounty on her head for $40,000 dead or alive. Harriet began to be known as “The Moses of her people” later becoming known as “Black Moses” and now more commonly as “Mama Moses”.


As one who lives and works at the “end of the Railroad” so to speak here in St. Catharines Ontario Canada, I have a rather unique perspective on the traditions of Hoodoo, Voodoo and the conjuring ways of the North American tradition. It is here that many of the freedom seeking slaves brought with them, across the U.S. border and into my region in Niagara, via the Underground Railroad, an entirely distinctive brand of conjure. Harriet Tubman, the legendary conductor of the clandestine movement that brought several hundred people to freedom in St. Catharines alone, resided here for many years… While Quakers and Christians of a few sects were supporters and enablers of the cause, the religious and spiritual nature of those that made the journey over the years was as diverse and colorful as the quilts that came to symbolize the movement. Indeed, many of the freedom seekers were renowned root doctors and conjurers, and like Harriet Tubman herself, diviners. Spells of invisibility, protection, and animal totemic magick were common and paramount to each and every journey. At the height of the movement, there was a bounty on her head for $40,000 dead or alive. Harriet began to be known as “The Moses of her people” later becoming known as “Black Moses” and now more commonly as “Mama Moses”.


I am deeply touched by the story of Mama Moses and grateful for this unique conjure tradition that is shared with us by Utu. Details about Mama Moses, building a shrine to her and suggestions for honoring her and her followers are provided in Volume 2 of Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly, which will be out next month. Ninety-eight years after the death of Mama Moses, the fight for freedom and equality was still going strong. A court ruling had passed desegregating interstate transportation and hundreds of people fighting for freedom rode through the south on buses to test the new law. Those who rode the buses were called Freedom Riders. Fifty years ago, the Freedom Riders arrived on buses to New Orleans and were greeted at their destinations by angry, violent mobs. Yesterday, five of the original Freedom Riders stepped off the bus onto the paved streets of the Crescent City. This time, “they were greeted with music and thunderous applause” (Urbaszewski, 2011). My, the times they are a changin’.