Black Panthers Celebrate Transition of Geronimo Ji-Jaga to Ancestors
photo Gene Hazzard
On a beautiful, sunny day in the Bay, Oakland Black Panthers and community celebrated the transition of legendary Black Panther Minister of Defense, Geronimo Ji-Jaga who spent 27 years in prison on trumped up charges, fabricated by the FBI.
Marvin X performs with Land of My Daughters (Aries Jordan on right and Toya Jordan, left)
photo Gene Hazzard
Speaker after speaker gave honor and praise to G, the soldier who said he was only following the order of his elders when he joined the US Army and learned the skills to return home to defend his community nationwide.
Because of the split in the Black Panther Party, Oakland Panthers would not testify that he was in Oakland at the time he allegedly murdered a woman on a Los Angeles tennis court. FBI intelligence records could have proven he was in Oakland as well.
No matter, on Sunday, Oakland Black Panthers paid tribute to the man equal in stature to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, especially as per time spent in prison for revolutionary activity. He shall forever be remembered for his contribution to the liberation of North American Africans.
Throughout the afternoon, speakers such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Rev. Freeman, David Johnson and Willie Sundiata Tate of the San Quentin Six, Ayana At-Thinin, Avotcja, Stu Hanlon (G's lawyer along with the late Johnny Cochran) and a host of others, praised our dearly beloved and departed brother who joined the ancestors in the Motherland where he finally settled, Tanzania, East Africa.
The event was organized by Black Panther chief archivist Billy X Jennings, but participants included the Black Panther Commemorator Newspaper, under the guidance of Melvin Dixon, Big Man, Jabari Shaw of the BSU of at Laney College, Brother Ustadi of the Afrikan Learning Center.
There were performances by Tarika Lewis, first female member of the BPP and Phavia Kujichagulia, griot of the first order. Percussionist Tacuma King also performed along with other too numerous to mention.
Toward the end of the evening, Billy X Jennings, the chief organizer, announced he had been saving the best for last and then introduced Marvin X, poet, playwright, activist, one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, who attended Merritt College with Black Panther co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the man who introduced Eldridge Cleaver to the Black Panthers, along with Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier when they attended the Black House, the political/cultural center founded by Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver in San Francisco, 1967.
Marvin took the mike along with two young lady poet/performers, Toya and Aries Jordan, sisters from the east coast who have joined his Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre. Aries, under the mentorship of Marvin X, published her first collection of poetry. She electrified the audience at the Joyce Gordon Gallery during a Woman's History Month Celebration organized by Marvin X, who called together the most powerful African women in the Bay Area, Hunia Bradly, Rev. Mutima Imani, Ayodele Nzinga, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikel, Jerri Lange, Talibah, who presented a poetic womanhood rites of passage. Aries performed a scene from the Vagina Monologue as well as her poetry.
Marvin X made opening remarks on Geronimo, saying he recalled two essential things about the brother. Firstly, that he was a soldier who practiced discipline, and this was necessary for the present generation of youth to acquire, that it ain't about any means necessary but the right means necessary to achieve victory. Secondly, G went into the US Army because his elders commanded him to do so, in order to learn the skills to defend his community.
Marvin X demanded youth follow their elders in the tradition of Geronimo. "As Sun Ra taught me, if you don't do the right thing, you can't go forward or backward, the Creator got things fixed so you are just stuck on stupid until you do the right thing."
Toya and Aries went to their respective mikes, Marvin X in the middle. They recited What If, a pantheistic poem about Allah as the All in All, Allah as everything, the dope fiend, the alcoholic, the tree, the river, the mama you hate, the father you hate, etc. The trio then recited a Marvin X classic For the Women, and then the women lead a recitation of a lessor known poem For the Men. Shortly after, the event ended. Power to the People!
Analysis: After being a participant/observer for the last two days at events at Defermery Park, the Muslim reunion of Saturday and the BPP celebration on Sunday, there is clearly a need for a once and month Speak Out for community. Speakers and spoken word arists are nice, but what is most important is for the people to speak out, to vent their trauma and unresolved grief. Nothing else is more important.
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