John Africa

John Africa (July 26 1931 – May 13 1985), born Vincent Leaphart, was a charismatic leader and a founder of MOVE, a communal and political organization prominent in the United States in the early 1970s. Africa died along with six other adults and four children when the Philadelphia Police Department dropped an explosive device on the MOVE headquarters during a law enforcement action. The explosion started an uncontrolled fire. As a result, 53 houses burned and 240 people were left homeless. [cite news
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956982,00.html
title="It Looks Just Like a War Zone"
author=Frank Trippett
date=May 27 1985
publisher=TIME magazine
accessdate=2007-05-20]

Early life

Africa was born Vincent Leaphart on July 26, 1931 in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Leaphart's mother died when he was young, and he blamed the hospital where she was being treated for her death. Leaphart served in the Korean War, from which he derived an early hatred of the American class system and what he perceived as its ties to race. He adopted the name "John Africa" because of his ethnic origin as an African-American, and because he regarded the continent of Africa as the origin of life itself. Africa later met Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania, with whom Africa began to collaborate. Africa was functionally illiterate, so Glassey wrote down Africa's ideas. Glassey's notes would eventually become a document called "The Guideline".cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qyZW1xv3DwgC&pg=PA14&ots=DOJgHnKmNM&dq=john.africa+vincent.leaphart&sig=BuTkhJxno1t_diuu9XpH5KlUGNw
title=Move: Sites of Trauma (Pamphlet Architecture 23)
author=Johanna Saleh Dickson
year=2002
publisher=Princeton Architectural Press]

MOVE

MOVE was a black liberation organisation that mixed black liberation with radical green politics in the form of anarcho-primitivism. They advocated a return to hunter gatherer society and opposed science and technology.

Influence on others

* Mumia Abu-Jamal follows the teachings of John Africa, [ [http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/newab008/mumia.html Letter from Mumia: Long Live John Africa!] NoDeathPenalty.org, July 4, 1998] and is a supporter of the MOVE organization.cite news | title=The Suspect - One Who Raised His Voice | publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer | date=December 10, 1981 | url=http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/botswana/509/inqarticles/12-10a.htm | accessdate=2007-10-18] During Abu-Jamal's 1982 murder trial, Abu-Jamal made repeated requests to be represented by Africa, which were denied by the presiding judge since Africa was not an attorney. [Trial transcript, §1.49-1.52, available at http://www.justice4danielfaulkner.com/Days/6-17-82.html]

References

See also

*MOVE