Neo-Black Movement Worldwide

Neo-Black Movement Worldwide is a socio-cultural organization dating back to 1977 which saw a group of undergraduates in Universities across Nigeria, roused by the state of things in certain African nations and inspired by the actions of the African-American people who rose up in rebellion against oppression in 1967 in the United States.^[1] The pioneers of the movement sought meanings to the words Neo, Black and Movement and the Oxford Dictionary gave them these answers New, Member of black-skinned race especially of African descent and Group of people with a common object respectively, hence the name Neo-Black Movement Worldwide.

The movement argues that they had drawn a very huge inference from the 1967 rebellion and thus resorted to promoting Black peoples culture as well as promoting the image of Black people all over the world no matter whose ox is gored. In one of the editions of its self-published journal, The Black Axe Magazine, the Neo-Black Movement emphatically stated that it does not tolerate any form of racial discrimination from or on its members because one cannot fight hatred with hatred.^[2] It is led by Mr. Iriogbe Isimeme.^[3] Other members of this group work to ensure that incidents such as the Sharpeville Massacre does not reoccur.

Objectives

The common objective of the Neo-Black Movement Worldwide is the defence of the Blacks as a people and the promotion-cum-up-liftment of its culture worldwide. The most adhered-to doctrine in the circle of the movement is that whenever there is a cry of oppression, Neo-Blackism begins. At the time this central objective was enunciated at the FJ HT (a name the members call their place of birth) in 1977, the major issues confronting the Black people worldwide was how to achieve a total or near-total emancipation for the continent of Africa. At this time Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Angola were in the final throes of colonialist exploitation. South Africa was neck deep in Apartheid and the whole of the South African region was engulfed in a state of ferment as Black Africans sought to throw off the chains of colonialist oppression still hanging round their necks and hands. Though Nigeria was not the clay-footed Giant she is today, she did robustly declare at the time that Africa was the centrepiece of her foreign policy and demonstrated this by repeatedly sending aid to South Africa amongst other forms of help and actions.

The Revolutionary music sweeping across Africa at the time was beckoning on Africans to stand up and fight for their Freedom: such classics like Papas Land, African Soldier and Fire in Soweto by Sonny Okosun and his Oziddi band, Kawulemza Mama, Kilimanjaro and Malaika by Mariam Makeeba (Mama Africa) and the irrepressible African mind Fela Anikulakpo Kuti (Abami Eda) were driving the message home to the entire continent that the time is come for Africans to reach out for their well-deserved freedom in their own homeland. However, this was not to say that there were no other problems facing Africa and Black people at the time. There were serious issues of racism against the Black man, his wife and children in the Americas and the clamour for Equal Rights was on big time in the United States of America. But it is clearly evident that the focus of the Neo-Black Movement at the time was the ignoble and trigger-happy apartheid regime that held Black people captive and bondage in their homeland of South Africa. As defenders of the Black people Neo-Black Movement Worldwide were charged to be Good Soldiers in their fight against this evil regime as good soldiers do not go about attacking innocent individuals, be they black or white. This they did in South Africa albeit discreetly. And so how they did what they did in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa will never be discussed by any member or leader of the movement.

Ideologys and philosophy

The ideology of the movement as originally articulated was Neo-Blackism which was a complex mix of Intellectual Radicalism, Traditional African religious practice', Fraternal relations, secret rite of passage and militant action where necessary. The group argues that Neo-Blackism was an extremely rewarding and intensely satisfying pursuit for Black men possessing bravery, courage, intelligence, fearlessness and a mindset of a revolutionary hue. Afrocentricity was the watch-word for all members and there was an intense passion for all things African: members wore African clothes, ate African food, listened to African music and promoted African culture as their constitution strictly demanded. As a practice, Neo-Blackism involved regular mourning of the Black reality which they deemed painful. painful in the sense that in a contemporary African setting, mourning is always a bitter ceremony to bid a loved one farewell. The movement have iterated that they opted to carry out these ritualistic mourning as a channel to reach out to their forefathers whose plight in the hands of imperialist plunderers were as horrific as it was barbaric. In many ways, these events helped to cement bonds of brotherhood and enhance espirit-de-corps amongst members as they carry out orientation lectures during their mournings.

Like all fraternal organisations symbolism and allegory played a huge part in the rituals and ceremonies of the movement. For instance, in the Neo-Black Movement Worldwide, black was the preferred colour. Coffins, axes, the flag and burning torch were all significant and symbolic to the early Axe-Men. Then white and yellow also had a place in their heart as expressed in its logo and flag.

Problems

The movement like all organisations has gone through series of problems, mostly anchored on misconception of its aims and objectives by its successive members and especially with branches opening up here and there and a veritable explosion in the membership figures. The leadership is also quick to blame the problems on the lack of sustained ideological and philosophical exemplary stewardship from the Founding Fathers who erroneously believed that the movement's constitution was enough to serve both as a guide and a deterrent to successive members. These, they posited, left the stage for opportunists and other ill-minded folks scrambling for power, thereby desecrating the noble ideas of the Founding Fathers.

Previously organised with student branches in universities and other citadels of higher learning up and down the length and breadth of the nation of Nigeria, as well as flourishing graduates branches in most major cities all over the world, the overall leadership has taken the painful but necessary decision to close down all student branches as they were creating credibility problems for the Movement. The group claims their image have equally taken a battering owing to the activities of impersonators, sundry antagonists, enemies of the Black race and those who think Black Freedom (Uhuru) can never be achieved.

The leadership has positively stated that, all said, the Neo-Black Movement Worldwide remains committed to its ideological and philosophical objectives as they make their way back to the original layout as contained in the blue-print of their Founding Fathers.

However, some schools of thought^[who?] tend to hint that the group may have a hand in some internal disturbances in some Universities, openly implying that its name is Black Axe; an accusation the Neo-Black Movement Worldwide is always quick to refute, claiming that the name Black Axe was what it called its self-published magazine.

In a bid to help people at the grassroots and to aid the governments of the day reach out to the poorer masses the movement makes substantial provision of welfare materials like the donation of five thousand books and writing materials to six schools in three local government councils in Edo State, donating benches and toiletries to a hospital in Ughelli and footing the bills for treatments for over 200 individuals in a hospital in Kwale.^[4][5].^[6]. Nevertheless, some hold the group accountable for a significant number of incidents in the Universities across the land.^[7]

References

1. ^ Pan-African News Wire,July 21, 2007, Abayomi Azikiwe, "Rebellion, Crisis and Transformation: A View on the Political Economy of Domestic Neo-Colonialism", Detroit, Retrieved: December 24, 2007
2. ^ "A Brief History of the Neo-Black Movement Worldwide", www.nbmarena.org. Retrieved: November 08, 2009.
3. ^ Trudy Simpson, "Parents Must Set Up Blacks-only Schools", www.voice-online.co.uk, July 28, 2008 Issue no: 1331. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
4. ^ This Day Newspaper, August 24, 2008, "Group Donates Books To Schools In Edo". Retrieved August 29, 2008.
5. ^ Vanguard, August 30, 2009, Festus Ahon, "Group Donates Items To Hospitals" Retrieved September 03, 2009.
6. ^ Vanguard, December 20, 2009, "Neo-Black Movement Organises Free Health care" Retrieved December 22, 2009.
7. ^ IRIN, "Nigeria: Focus on the menace of student cults", www.irinnews.org, August 01, 2002. Retrieved December 16, 2007.