Republic of New Afrika

The Republic of New Afrika flag

The proposed territory is where the highest percent of blacks are in the US (2000).

The Republic of New Afrika (RNA), was a social movement that proposed three objectives. First, the creation of an independent African-American-majority country situated in the southeastern United States. A similar claim is made for all the black-majority counties and cities throughout the United States. Second, the payment of several billion dollars in reparations from the US government for the damages inflicted on Africans and their descendants by chattel enslavement, Jim Crow segregation, and persistent modern-day forms of racism. Third, a referendum of all African Americans in order to decide what should be done with regard to their citizenship. Regarding the latter, it was claimed that African-Americans were not given a choice in this matter after emancipation. The vision for this country was first promulgated on March 31, 1968, at a Black Government Conference held in Detroit, Michigan. Its proponents lay claim to five Southern states: (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina); and the black-majority counties adjacent to this area in Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.

History

The Black Government Conference was convened by the Malcolm X Society and the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL), two influential Detroit-based organizations with broad followings. This weekend meeting produced a Declaration of Independence (signed by 100 conferees out of approximately 500), a constitution, and the framework for a provisional government. Robert F. Williams, a controversial human rights advocate then living in exile in China, was chosen as the first President of the provisional government; attorney Milton Henry (a student of Malcolm X's teachings) was named First Vice President; and Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, served as Second Vice President.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) advocated/advocates a form of cooperative economics through the building of New Communities—named after the Ujamaa concept promoted by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere; militant self-defense through the building of local People's Militias and an aboveground standing army called the Black Legion; and respect for international law through the building of organizations that champion the right of self-determination for people of African descent.

During its existence, the organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For example, it attempted to assist Oceanhill-Brownsville in seceding from the United States during the conflict that took place there. Additionally, it was involved with shootouts at New Bethel Baptist Church in 1969 (during the one-year anniversary of the founding) and another in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1971 (where it had begun to start its occupation of the South on a single farm). Within both events, law-enforcement officials were killed as well as injured and harsh legal action was imposed against organization members.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believed the Republic of New Afrika to be a seditious group and conducted raids on its meetings, which led to violent confrontations, and the arrest and repeated imprisonment of RNA leaders noted above. The group was a target of the COINTELPRO operation by the federal authorities but was also subject to diverse Red Squad activities of Michigan State Police and the Detroit Police Department, among other cities.

Publications

• The Article Three Brief. 1973. (New Afrikans fought U.S. Marshals in an effort to retain control of the independent New Afrikan communities shortly after the U.S. Civil War.)
• Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Foundations of the Black Nation. 154p. Detroit. House of Songay, 1975.
• Brother Imari [Obadele, Imari]. War In America: The Malcolm X Doctrine. 45p. Chicago. Ujamaa Distributors, 1977.
• Kehinde, Muata. RNA President Imari Obadele is Free After Years of Illegal U.S. Imprisonment. In Burning Spear February 1980. Louisville. African Peoples Socialist Party. 4 p to 28 p.
• Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Malcolm Generation & Other Stories. 56p. Philiadelphia. House of Songhay, 1982.
• Taifa, Nkechi, and Lumumba, Chokwe. Reparations Yes! 3rd ed. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, 1983, 1987, 1993.
• Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Free The Land!: The True Story of the Trials of the RNA-11 Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, 1984.
• New Afrikan State-Building in North America. Ann Arbor. Univ. of Michigan Microfilm, 1985, pp. 345–357.
• "The First New Afrikan States". In The Black Collegian, Jan./Feb. 1986.
• A Beginner's Outline of the History of Afrikan People, 1st ed. Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1987.
• America The Nation-State. Washington, D.C. and Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1989, 1988.
• Walker, Kwaku, and Walker, Abena. Black Genius. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
• Afoh, Kwame, Lumumba, Chokwe, and Obafemi, Ahmed. A Brief History of the Black Struggle in America, With Obadele's Macro-Level Theory of Human Organization. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
• RNA. A People's Struggle. RNA, Box 90604, Washington, D.C. 20090-0604.
• The Republic of New Africa New Afrikan Ujamaa: The Economics of the Republic of New Africa. 21p. San Francisco. 1970.
• Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Struggle for Independence and Reparations from the United States 142p. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, 2004.
• Obadele, Imari A., editor De-Colonization U.S.A.: The Independence Struggle of the Black Nation in the United States Centering on the 1996 United Nations Petition 228p. Baton Rouge. The Malcolm Generation, 1997.

See also

• Malcolm X
• Robert F. Williams
• Harry Haywood
• Black Power
• Black Belt (U.S. region), social and demographic crescent of southern counties that contain higher than average percentages of African American residents
• Queen Mother Moore
• Sanyika Shakur

External links

RNA links

• People's District Council of Los Angeles
• The Republic of New Afrika
• New Afrika (Online Blog)
• Black Law--Code of Umoja
• The New Afrikan Creed
• The New Afrikan Declaration of Independence

Archives

• RNA documents in the Freedom Now! archival project at Brown University - Tougaloo College archives.
• The Republic of New Africa vs. the United States, 1967-1974 documents on police surveillance and repression of the RNA as well as protest by the organization at the The Radical Information Project.

Articles and reports

• Firing Line: The Republic of New Africa William F. Buckley interviews Milton Henry. President of the Republic of New Africa. Program number 126. Taped on Nov 18, 1968 (New York City, NY). 50 minutes. Available from the Hoover Institution. The first 5 minutes are accessible in streaming Real Audio.
• Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the US Government Against the Republic of New Africa by Christian Davenport, Professor of Peace Studies and Political Science at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame.
• The Real Republic of New Africa By Dennis Smith, News Director. February 3, 2005. Accessed April 1, 2005