Imagine A Black Nation In Memory of Imari ObadeleBy Marvin X
What happened to Nation Time, the dreams, visions, revision, disillusion, a time of hope unfulfilled, Driftin and Driftin like that Charles Brown tune, no more imagination beyond a return to ancient Kemet, the land we fled four thousand years ago, thus an impossible return, for who can go home after four thousand years, except a mad Jew, and we see what terror he caused upon return.
But it is a mental drift, the most terrible kind, most wretched because it tears at the heart as well as the mind, thus we are drenched in sweat upon awakening from the nightmare of imagination and must face the bright sun of reality.
Shall we drift from here to eternity, for how can we avoid synchronizing our dreams with reality, finally and forever, standing on solid ground as we move into the future of a thousand tomorrows.
Imagine a nation, a land of soul people who are healing their wounds from centuries of terror, who blame no one except themselves for the terror, for the ship and whip, the cross and lynching tree, yes, the strange fruit of the last supper in paradise, before entering the door of no return.
Imagine a nation, somewhere in the South where our people died, where we can honor their bones and blood shed in the sun and night, where their spirits still dance in the swamp and river bottoms, the plantations and huts still standing, where spirits go wild in the wind and in the stillness of summer.
Imagine a nation, perhaps Up South in the wicked cities that defied the hope and dreams of generations, maybe there we shall declare ourselves free and claim sovereignty, a place called the Republic of Pan Africa, like Brooklyn. where we have gathered for the first time in four thousand years, de facto capital of the Diaspora, coming from Mississippi, North and South Carolina Africans, Jamaica and Haitian Africans, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Senegalese, bound together again, this time forever on Fulton Street and streets too many to name.
And yes, there is pain and rivalry, jealousy and envy, love and hate in the night, but we are there in the sun, in the snow, a nation not yet standing, not fully sensing our power, strength, the full strength of a mighty nation forced together again, not since fleeing the pyramids and pharaohs, the murders for succession, the flight of queens with sons and daughters who did not assume the throne. And there was drought and famine forcing them up the Nile, the mighty Congo and Niger.
Imagine, the Republic of Pan Africa, not the nationalism of fools, but the product of engineers, planners and builders who began with a thought centuries ago in the cane, cotton and rice fields, the woods of Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, the railroad of Harriet Tubman, the womanhood of Sojourner Truth, but caught, yes, as [James] Cone said, between the cross and the lynching tree.
But it was the thought that refused to die, yet resurrected every season like the Nile, the dream of the homeland where we must be taken in once again. Have we not paid for this land with sweat, blood and tears? It is ours so claim the portion we desire, stand upon the ground and cry liberty or death, but have we not died a million times, even now at this hour we crucify ourselves for failing to stand tall as full men and women, our children annihilate themselves like Buddhist monks on fire in Vietnam, only because we have not passed on ancestor tales of liberty and freedom, discipline and work.
Imagine a nation, days of absence from our animal selves, and the donning of our divinity, wherein we hate each other no more, never again, the jealousy, the Willie Lynch syndrome, Yacoub’s children playing with steel, some genetic defect in our divine nature.
Imagine a nation, removed from those we cannot live with in peace, thus we part from them and their wickedness, taking with us only the genius of our minds, for look at the fruit of our labor under the sun, surely we can do the same for ourselves as we did for the master, transcending the pyramids with our original creations for now and tomorrow.
But the question is not if or when America falls, but what is the post-American plan for North American Africans? Will they finally acquire the sovereignty as a nation of self-determined people, will they secure a land base with access to the sea and mineral rich for their centuries of free and nearly free labor under the sun? Or will they sit with dicks in their hands and hearts racing while other ethnic groups secure the division of this stolen property.
Surely the Native Americans will want their fair share, the Latinos, the Asians, and poor whites—will the so called Negro sit around waiting for the Master to return, or will he go about, finally and without hesitation, doing for self, reconstructing his fallen cities, getting control of the infrastructure, water, electricity, roads, schools, work places, airports.
Long ago he called for Black Power, with the coming fall of America, he will have the opportunity to fulfill his dreams. Oh, it cannot happen? America is too strong. Firstly, you have no real idea how strong America is just as you have no idea how strong you are—you are so full of fear you cannot and never have been able to think straight. Every thought you ever thought has been wrong simply because it was not thinking outside the box of Americana because you have been confined to the box and never had a chance to consider the configuration of your society except for your 19th century thinkers and dreamers, and your 20th century thinkers and planners. Garvey and Elijah Muhammad. Imari dreamed of the Republic of New Africa.
But where is Egypt, Rome, Greece, Great Britain and the Soviet Union? Does the Chinaman have a chance today--you haven't heard that racist remark recently, for the Chinese have a very good chance to rule the world. so why do you think America shall remain forever and forever in its present condition?
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It will absolutely change because its ethnic minorities will soon become the majority, so why are not your leaders planning for the future and our well-deserved fair share? If and when America, as did the Soviet Union, falls apart, what do you want? A job? A job, a job!
You mean after 400 years of free and nearly free labor, you only desire a job? Are you crazy, are you totally insane or just lazy, like a whore awaiting marching orders from her pimp—not knowing the pimp is dead, he was killed in a shootout with rivals. Your leaders, why are they running around licking the behinds of the the Democratic and Republican parties rather than establishing an independent political entity that will take us into the future? They shall be charged for their shortsightedness, their myopia of the mind.
As sister Zetha Nobles said recently, our goal should not be to achieve parity with white Americans (which is mediocrity, at best), but with India and China. We should forget about equality with Americans and see the global picture and imagine our role in it. But we are so blinded by white supremacy that all we see is white, white, white. Look around, the world is no longer white. Power will not be white in the not so distant future—can you look ahead a few days and plan accordingly or shall you sit on your behinds awaiting the crumbs from the fall of America? Imagine a nation!
Dr. M/Marvin X is currently on the east coast promoting his latest book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA, $19.95. His Revolution on the Rocks Book Tour goes to Newark, New Jersey on Friday, 7pm, at the Blue Mirror on Clinton Ave. He will share the stage with Amina and Amiri Baraka. On November 2-4 he will participate in the Black Power to Hip Hop Conference at Howard University, along with his daughter Muhammida El Muhajir. On November 16, she will produce "Black Power Babies" an intergenerational dialogue with the children and parents from the Black Power Movement. The event takes place at Restoration Plaza Gallery in Brooklyn. Call 718-496-2305 for information.
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