Nation Time for North American Africans!

For thousands of years, Black People in Africa had enjoyed Freedom, Independence, Self-Government and Self-Determination. When Black People came to the Americas as adventurers and explorers and established settlements here, they maintained their love for freedom, independence, self-government and self-determination. And, when Black People were brought to this land as slaves, Our most powerful motive was to regain Our freedom, independence, self-government and self-determination. From day one, Black People rebelled and sought a way-of-life that was more rewarding and beneficial to Us. We did so in 1526 by rebelling against the Spaniards in South Carolina and running to the Indians, who helped Us drive the Spanish away and experience the self-governing process again. Thus began Our quest to establish a Black nation, a REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRIKA, in North America.
To the Black People who were forced to come to this land, Black Nationalism was a top priority. Self-government was what Blacks wanted more than anything else. Between 1850 and 1860, Blacks became more daring in their determination to rule themselves. For 250 years they had expressed their nationalistic desires by rebelling against whites, terrorizing whites and establishing camps that were governed by Black People.

Throughout the Civil War Black People demonstrated a preference for self-government by taking every opportunity available to govern themselves. Black People flocked in large numbers to areas where northern armies had won battles, and confronted the military officers with situations that could only be controlled if immediate governments were established. Black People would have to to run those governments, and had a right to. In 1864, Special Field Order #15 set aside for Black People a stretch of land from Charleston, S.C. to the country bordering the St. John's River in Florida. In this area, the official order read, "no white person whatsoever, unless military officers and soldiers detained for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs [of government] will be left to the free people [Black People] themselves." Similar centers were established in Mississippi, where more than 70,000 Blacks established governments where all property was under Black government and control, and where all Black residents had the inalienable right to liberty. With such settlements as these, on land from South Carolina to Florida and Mississippi that had been declared Ours, We, Black People, settled down to manage Our affairs [and did a good job]." We wanted to continue managing Our affairs, too. For this reason We resisted efforts made later on by the federal government to take away Our land and oftentimes only gave it up after We had been defeated in battle by army troops.

In the late 1960s, a convention of Black delegates met in Detroit, Michigan and proclaimed that Black People in the United States were in fact a Nation of People separate from the American people. This convention of delegates, including Imari Obadele (who was later elected president of the Black Nation) gave that Nation of People a name, the Republic of New Afrika. The Republic of New Afrika took the concept of Black Nationalism to its ultimate stage when, in 1968, it declared Black People to be free and independent of the United States government.

The Republic of New Afrika declared Black People's independence because it "believes that Black People in Amerikkka make up a nation of people, a people separate and apart from the Amerikkkan people. The RNA also believes that as a nation of people, We are entitled to all of the rights of a nation, including the right to land and self-determination. The RNA further believes that all the land in Amerikkka, upon which Black People have lived for a long time, worked and made rich as slaves, and fought to survive on is land that belongs to Us as a People, and it is land We must gain control of because, as Malcolm X said, land is the basis of independence, freedom, justice and equality. We cannot talk about self-determination without discussing it within the context of land. Therefore, the RNA [identified the five states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as Black People's land and] believes that gaining control of Our land is the fundamental struggle facing Black People. Without land, Black Power, rights and freedom have no substance.

We know after 400 years of free and nearly free labor, North American Africans have the human and divine right to self determination and sovereignty. We have the same rights as others in American to declare or total freedom from the USA. If American states and citizens can declare themselves independent of the US government, then certainly we have the right to do so. As Ron Paul is saying below, "This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those traitors became our greatest patriots." 

In our case, we were not allowed the right of self-determination. The 14th amendment forced US citizenship upon us, we had no say in the matter, thus we went from chattel slaves to wage slaves which is our condition at this hour. We are very much like the Palestinians, under occupation by a foreign power that has no right whatsoever to maintain occupation of our cities, subjecting us to apartheid stop and frisk laws and incarceration rates that are the highest in the world, yet because we have a white man in black face as President, we are supposed to drink the poison Kool Aid without question, in fact, be glad about it. 

While reparations are fine, national independence is the ultimate goal, and this means a land of our own, perhaps similar to how Pakistan was carved out of India when it was clear Muslims needed their own nation at the fall of the British empire. We are now at the fall of the American empire, so get ready for the break up, just as the USSR cracked apart. We agree with Ron Paul:

“At what point should the people dissolve the political bands which have connected them with an increasingly tyrannical and oppressive federal government?”.

He added: “And if people or states are not free to leave the United States as a last resort, can they really think of themselves as free? If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government, they cannot truly be considered free.”

--Marvin X

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(Politico) – Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Monday that secession was a “deeply American principle,” amid a growing number of people petitioning the White House to let their states secede from the U.S.

“Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those ‘traitors’ became our country’s greatest patriots,” the former presidential candidate wrote in a post on his House website. “There is nothing treasonous or unpatriotic about wanting a federal government that is more responsive to the people it represents.”

He continued: “If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it.”

Since President Barack Obama was reelected earlier this month, a flurry of secession petitions from states were created — most notably from Texas, which with more than 115,000 signatures far exceeds the 25,000 signatures needed for an official White House response. Critics have said it’s disgruntled voters upset that former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost.

Paul wrote that secession must still be an option to be used as leverage to make sure the government doesn’t “encroach” on Americans’ liberties.

“In fact, the recent election only further entrenched the status quo. If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it.”

Paul wrote that secession is a form of American freedom.

“At what point should the people dissolve the political bands which have connected them with an increasingly tyrannical and oppressive federal government?” Paul wrote.

He added: “And if people or states are not free to leave the United States as a last resort, can they really think of themselves as free? If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government, they cannot truly be considered free.”

Free the land! No justice, no peace! America is the Black man's battleground!

ChickenBones: A Journal for  Literary & Artistic African-American  Themes

Books on the Negro and Georgia Chronology of African-American History by Alton Hornsby, Jr. and the Encyclopedia of Georgia by Somerset Publishers, Inc. *   *   *   *   * Special Field Orders, No. 15 Reparations  for Freed Slaves " Forty-Acres & a Mule" By William T. Sherman General William T. Sherman issued the following Special Field Orders, No. 15 in 1865 after meeting with the black clergy Savannah to discuss the future of former slaves after emancipation: 1. The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John's River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States. 2. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations; but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority, and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected to conscription, or forced military service, save by the written orders of the United States military authority, and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected to conscription, or forced military service, save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the department, under such regulations as the President or Congress may prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence, but the young and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States, to contribute their share toward maintaining their own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of the United States. Negroes so enlisted will be organized into companies, battalions, and regiments, under the orders of the United States military authorities, and regiments under the orders of the United States military authorities, and will be paid, fed, clothed, according to the law. The bounties paid on enlistment may, with the consent of the recruit, go to assist his family and settlement in procuring agricultural implements, seed, tools, boots, clothing, and other articles necessary for their livelihood. 3. Whenever three respectable negroes, heads of families, shall desire to settle on land, and shall have selected for that purpose an island or a locality clearly defined within the limits above designated, the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations will himself, or by such subordinate officer as he may appoint, give them a license to settle such island or district, and afford them such assistance as he can to enable them to establish a peaceable agricultural settlement. The three parties named will subdivide the land, under the supervision of the inspector, among themselves, and such others as may choose to settle near them, so that each family shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground, and, when it borders on some water channel, with not more than eight hundred feet water-front, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection until such time as they can protect themselves or until Congress shall regulate their title. The quartermaster may, on the requisition of the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, place at the disposal of the inspector one or more of the captured steamers to ply between the settlements and one or more of the commercial points heretofore named, in order to afford the settlers the opportunity to supply their necessary wants, and to sell the products of their land and labor. 4. Whenever a negro has enlisted in the military service of the United States, he may locate his family in any one of the settlements at pleasure, and acquire a homestead, and all other rights and privileges of a settler, as though present in person. In like manner, negroes may settle their families and engage on board the gunboats, or in fishing, or in the navigation of the inland waters, without losing any claim to land or other advantages derived from this system. But no one, unless an actual settler as above defined, or unless absent on Government service, will be entitled to claim any right to land or property in any settlement by virtue of these orders. 5. In order to carry out this system of settlement, a general officer will be detailed as Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, whose duty it shall be to visit the settlements, to regulate their police and general arrangement, and who will furnish personally to each head of a family, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, a possessory title in writing, giving as near as possible the description of boundaries; and who shall adjust all claims or conflicts that may arise under the same, subject to the like approval, treating such titles altogether as possessory. The same general officer will also be charged with the enlistment and organization of the negro recruits, and protecting their interests while absent from their settlements; and will be governed by the rules and regulations prescribed by the War Department for such purposes. 6. Brigadier-General R. Saxton is hereby appointed Inspector of Settlements and plantations, and will at once enter on the performance of his duties. No change is intended or desired in the settlement now on Beaufort Island, nor will any rights to property heretofore acquired be affected thereby. By order of Major-General W.T. Sherman Savannah, Georgia January 16, 1865 *   *   *   *   * TimeLine 1733: Arrival The first Georgia colonists arrive in Savannah to lay out a debtors colony; among them are African servants and slaves. 1749: Official enslavement Although the trustees who organized the settlement restricted slavery to prevent greed and laziness among the settlers, many smuggled in slaves and pushed for greater land ownership. By 1749 the ban was repealed and the number of African slaves would soon near, and at times outnumber, the number of settlers. 1865: Slavery abolished Following the Union Army's defeat of the Confederacy, the state reluctantly agreed to emancipate slaves as part of an agreement to restore them to the union. 1867: Reconstructing lives Bitter Georgians refused to ratify the 14th Amendment giving blacks full citizenship in 1867, and the state was placed under military rule. As a result, the state had its officials forced upon it by outside military appointment. In the election of 1868 a new constitution was adopted and 32 blacks were elected to the state legislature. Land ownership programs had been established to ease the transition from slavery to freedom and many blacks looked forward to a progressive future. 1868: Deconstruction of reconstruction Racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan were organized to combat black political and economic progress. In September 1868 the white legislative majority expelled the blacks from office. Eventually, the brief period of black advancement was erased and violence and legislation was used to segregate the races, subjugate blacks and maintain economic and political power among white affluent classes. 1932-1940: Great migration Southern blacks began moving to Northern cities in search of social and economic opportunities and relief from racial oppression and agricultural life in the South. 1985-present: Homecoming The rise in cultural awareness prompted many African Americans to return to their Low country southern roots to explore their Gullah and Geechee culture. Source: Chronology of African-American History by Alton Hornsby, Jr. and the Encyclopedia of Georgia by Somerset Publishers, Inc. Few, Jenel. "Black History Month Feature: Living with or without 40 acres and a mule." Savannah Morning News. Web Posted, February 21, 2000 . Higher education reporter Jenel Few can be reached at 652-0325 posted 2 November 2007

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