Black Power Talks

Episode #116: No Thanks to Colonialism! Celebrating African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anticolonial Resistance

In this episode, we say NO THANKS TO COLONIALISM. We expose the colonial mythology of Thanksgiving as the ideological support for Manifest Destiny and European/White North American colonial-capitalist domination; namely but not only the project of settler-colonialism.  We speak with two activists and educators about the long history of anticolonial resistance and African and Indigenous solidarity. 
We discuss a variety of topics such as the colonial origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, created amidst the genocide of indigenous people, namely the mass lynching of Lakota people by the US military, the struggle for an America without borders, and the continued resistance of indigenous people. 
Our guest are Dr. Jimmy Patino and Ron Gochez.
Dr. Patino holds a PhD in Chicano History from the University of California San Diego and is a Professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Patino is the author of the book Raza Si, Migra No! Chicano Movement Struggles for Immigrant Rights in San Diego which chronicles the activism of Chicano movement activist Herman Baca and the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR). 
Ron Gochez is the Undersecretary of Union Del Barrio in Los Angeles, California.  Ron is also a history teacher in South Central Los Angeles.  In 2013, he ran for Los Angeles City Council.  He currently leads work with the Association of Raza Educators and the Committees of Resistance.
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Episode #115: DOJ indicts China: African, Indigenous activists respond

On Monday, October 24, 2022, the United States’ “Justice Department” held a press conference to accuse China of breaking U.S. laws in its efforts to challenge U.S. power on the world stage. 
They charged several Chinese nationals with spying on behalf of Beijing and seeking to disrupt a U.S. government investigation into the Chinese technology company, Huawei. 
In New Jersey, the FBI charged two Chinese nationals with conspiring to act as illegal agents on behalf of China by using a “purported academic center in that country to seek sensitive information from U.S. academic institutions,” end quote, thus criminalizing working relationships between universities in the U.S. and China.
These indictments come on the heels of FBI raids targeting African and Puerto Rican organizers in the U.S., who are accused of acting as illegal foreign agents on behalf of Russia and of Cuba.
This episode presents excerpts from a Sunday, October 31st panel discussion with African and Indigenous activists, representing liberation Movements in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Haiti and the continent of Africa, responding to this current wave of aggression by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation targeting anti-colonial struggles. Hear from:
Benjamin Prado, UnderSecretary General of Union del Barrio
Dahoud Andre, organizer with Komokoda, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti
Ana Lopez with the Frente Independentista Boricua
Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary General of the African Socialist International 
Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party

Episode #114: Long Live Thomas Sankara, hero of Burkina Faso, ”Land of the upright people”!

In this episode of Black Power Talks we uplift the legacy of the martyred revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso. Sankara was killed 35 years ago on October 15, 1987, at the age of 37. His assassins were tried and convicted in 2022.  
Sankara gave Burkina Faso its name, which means "land of the upright or incorruptible people." 
Sankara’s program challenged French colonialism and neocolonial policies in Africa with policies focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health. Sankara built schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and railways. He combatted desertification, redistributed land, eliminated poll taxes and rent. He created policies that overturned the oppression of women and elevated the role of women in the Burkinabe government and military. 
Sankara is loved by the African working class, affectionately known as the African Che Guevarra although his reach is even further than that.  Sankara’s legacy has fueled a generation of anticolonial activity on the continent and throughout the African world.
We talk with Cinque Brath, the co-founder and president of the Elombe Brath Foundation, about the work of his father to build African anti colonial resistance. As a young man, Elombe was a member of the African National Pioneers Movement led by Carlos Cooks, and understudy of Marcus Garvey.  Elombe co-founded the African Jazz Art Society and Studios, a significant front that re-claimed Jazz as an African art, and co-founded the Patrice Lumumba Coalition which organized a cultural boycott against apartheid in the 1980s and 1990s.
This episode of Black Power Talks is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom. The show is produced by Black Power 96.3 FM radio in St. Petersburg, Florida. www.blackpower96.org.

Episode #113: The Woman King film review round table

This episode features a roundtable discussion about the 2022 film “The Woman King”, starring Viola Davis. The feature length movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9th, 2022 and opened in theaters on September 16th. Panelists explore key issues raised in the movie's plot, including:
The impact of slavery and the colonial mode of production on African people and on the rise of the European colonial nation
Class conflict within the African Nation
The role of African women as leaders, warriors, makers and shapers of history
Unification of the African Nation through destruction of tribal or country boundaries
Hear from:
Dr. Matsemela, historian and newly appointed President of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
Secretary General Luwezi Kinshasa of the African Socialist International. SG Luwezi was born in the Congo and joins this program directly from London where he lives and works in exile
Kalambayi Andenet, former president of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, who currently serves as the Midwest regional organizer for the African People’s Socialist Party, from her birthplace of St. Louis, Missouri
Tafarie Mugeri, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party in Occupied Azania, named South Africa by the colonizers
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU, Black Power 96.3 FM radio in St. Petersburg, Florida. This episode is hosted by Solyana Bekele.

Episode #112: Defending the African Community! We are our own liberators!

From Friday September 2nd through Sunday September 4th, 2022, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement held its 30th annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri.  
The theme of the convention was Defending the Black Community! We Are Our Own Liberators!  The theme for the 2022 InPDUM Convention had historical and immediate importance to the liberation of African people.
In recent months, colonial-capitalism, and its collaborators, have increased their assaults against Africans and other colonized people.  This includes the May 14, 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, the May 24, 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the July 2, 2022 flamethrower attack on the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The apex of this assault against African independence has been July 29, 2022 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) military assault against the Uhuru Movement.
At the convention, our very own Dexter Mlimwengu was renamed Kondji.  Kondji moderated the capstone panel Defending the African Community (African Community Defense and Survival).  In this episode, we present excerpts from that panel.
The panel included:
Amanda Wallace, former CPS (Child Protective Services) worker and founder of Operation Stop CPS, provides advice for African families dealing with CPS investigations that disrupt the lives of more than half of all black children in the U.S. today.
Chimurenga Selembao, African Peoples Socialist Party Director of Organization, details security protocols for dealing with encounters with police and FBI at home and while driving or bicycling, and cautions activists on dangerous uses of social media.
Dr. Aisha Fields, Director of the All-African Peoples Development and Empowerment Project, explains the need and role for independent African rescue and relief mobilization.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela, leader of the Uhuru Movement, explains the role of theory and knowledge of identity in successful self-defense.
Alderman Jesse Todd of St. Louis's 18th Ward, discusses how our security is in our work serving our community. 
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom, Kondji Mlimwengu and Solyana Bekele bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Episode #111: Now that you’ve seen ”The Woman King”, view the African Internationalist classic film, ”Bush Mama”

Now that you have seen The Woman King, revisit the anti-colonial and African Internationalist film, Bush Mama. 
On this episode of Black Power Talks we will be presenting to you a roundtable discussion on the 1979 film Bush Mama by Haile Gerima.  
Bush Mama is described elsewhere as the story of Dorothy and her partner T.C. TC is a Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead TC is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Dorothy’s life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing poverty and unemployment. As a result of the film's events, both the main characters develop revolutionary consciousness.  Bush Mama ends with Dorothy committing an act of revolutionary violence.  
In this roundtable discussion you will hear from some previous Black Power Talks guests, and some new voices.  Alongside Dr. Matsemela and Dexter, you will hear from Michelle Mwezi Odom, Denzel Draughn, and Parrish Davis of San Diego, California.  You will also hear from Themba Tshibanda of St. Louis.  
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Episode #110: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana Studies

In this episode, we speak with Professor Layla Brown about her scholarship, the covid-19 pandemic and the way forward.  Professor Brown’s work is emblematic of that anticolonial turn, or might we say anticolonial return, that has taken place in Africana Studies.  This anticolonial return has been directly impacted by the spread of African Internationalism, evinced in the Chairman Omali Yeshitela's 2019 Oxford Union "Africa Debate".
Professor Brown is trained as a Cultural Anthropologist, researcher, and educator.  She earned her PhD from Duke University and specializes in the contemporary and historical study of social movements in the African Diaspora.  She places specific focus on African communities in the Americas as well as African women liberation.  She is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Africana Studies at Northeastern University but is currently a visiting professor in Germany.  Professor Brown’s recent research looks at the covid-19 colonial virus pandemic, African resistance, and colonial domination.  Her recent article “The Pandemic of Racial Capitalism: Another World is Possible” was published in From the European South.
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Kondji Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Episode #109:The Role of Black Students and Intellectuals in the African Revolution

On this episode of Black Power Talks, we discussed the role of the African Intellectual in the world.  African students and teachers everywhere are entering into their fall semesters.  Some students are beginning the end of their educational journeys and some are just getting started.
On campuses, African students are organizing summits where they tackle some of the pressing issues in the world such as the mass imprisonment of African people, reparations, and the university investments into the colonial settler state of Israel. 
On the flip side, many African students will increasingly feel the pressure to decide their postgraduate career plans.  
In his fundamental essay, "The Role of African Intellectuals in the World," Secretary General Luwezi Kinshasa identifies the colonial contradictions of higher education and lays out a blueprint for African students and intellectuals to join the revolution.  Students cannot be apolitical because the colleges they attend are not apolitical.  The role of intellectuals is to solve the solution of a given society. Colonialism uses African genius to solve colonial problems.  Luwezi calls on African students to become African Working Class intellectuals and solve the problems of the African Nation.
In this episode, we hear from a presentation that SG Luwezi gave on the role of African Intellectuals.  Luwezi the Secretary General of the African Socialist International.  Under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Luwezi oversees the work of  the African People’s Socialist Party around the world, including but not limited to Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.  SG Luwezi was born in the Congo and is currently based in London. He is affectionately known as Mwalimu, which means “teacher” for his extensive knowledge and engaged story-telling about the history of the world’s peoples.
Then we talk with Solyana Bekele.  Solyana is the Managing Editor and a writer for The Burning Spear Newspaper.  Solyana is also a junior at Hampton University, one of the oldest Black colleges in the US.  Solyana studies Political Science and Journalism.  Solyana was born in Ethiopia and raised in the Washington DC area.
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Episode #108: The Revolutionary Power of Black Poetry

In this episode, we showcase several African poets and talk about the role of poetry and culture in the African anti-colonial struggle.
We know that the spoken word is powerful.  If not, colonizers would not have stripped Africans of their names, their language, their traditions and their songs. 
The anticolonial writer from Martinique Aime Cesaire wrote extensively on the power of poetry, the spoken word and culture.  In the important essay, “Poetry and Knowledge”, Cesaire argued that poetry was an anticolonial tool because it challenged the conventions of colonial society and allowed the oppressed to imagine new worlds.
In the essay, "Poetry is not a luxury," Audre Lorde wrote, “poetry is not a luxury.  It is a vital necessity of our existence.  It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hope and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into tangible action.  Poetry is the way we can help give name  to the nameless so it can be thought.”
There is not a time in the struggle for African liberation that we have not seen the power of spoken word, poetry and music as anticolonial cultural influencers.
Today we will speak with revolutionary culture workers including FoFeet Alkebulan. FoFeet is the Economic Development Coordinator and organizer with the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement in St. Louis.  As part of her organizing efforts, FoFeet organizes the Musa Abantu Poetry Nights for the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.
FoFeet is joined by Valerie VKween Young from St. Louis Missouri, Jheanelle Owens from Jamaica, and Dzidzor from Boston.
We also showcase the poetry of Claude McKay and Gil Scot Heron. 
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom, Dexter Mlimwengu and Solyana Bekele, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Black August and slavery inside U.S. prisons

Black August is a month of remembrance and resistance dedicated to our African warriors imprisoned for their heroic stance fighting for African liberation.
It's also a month-long salute to the African liberation struggle, recognizing such historic milestones as the Haitian Revolution, the birth of Marcus Garvey, and the deaths of Jonathan Jackson and George Jackson.  
The roots of Black August are in the uprisings and rebellions of African freedom fighters who were imprisoned as a result of their political activity during the height of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
The tradition of recognizing Black August was initiated in the 1970s by incarcerated Africans in California in observance of the death of George Jackson. 
Some of our African freedom fighters such as Jalil Muntaqim, Janine Africa, Janet Africa, Mike Africa Sr., Charles Africa and Sundiata Acoli have been released from captivity.  Sundiata and Muntaqim both spent almost 50 years behind bars. Some of our political prisoners were released only when they were critically ill and then died shortly after. Many more remain in prison.
Today, we have a guest from behind enemy lines. Comrade Makandal Cinque is a regular contributor to The Burning Spear newspaper, a monthly Black Power journal in its 54th year of publication.
We discuss his recent article, "U.S. colonial prisons: the present day sale and trade of Africans.” We talk about the history of African slavery and the practice of forced labor inside U.S. prisons today. Support The Burning Spear newspaper's Mafundi Lake Sponsor-a-Prisoner program at theburningspear.com/donate
Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. This episode was hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Solyana Bekele, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.