Black Power Talks
Speeches and interviews with leaders of today’s worldwide African liberation struggle. On reparations, building the African nation, combatting police violence, community control of education, health care, African women, the U.S. counterinsurgency, neocolonialism and winning freedom and independence for African people everywhere. Featuring African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Luwezi Kinshasa, Dr. Aisha Fields, Kalambayi Andenet, Akilé Anai, Yejide Orunmila and more.
Episodes
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Episode #98: Reparations Series Part 1 - Make Wall Street Pay Reparations
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
In 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party convened the first international tribunal on reparations in Brooklyn, New York. The verdict is that Africans in the US are owed no less than 14 trillion dollars in damages, or about one million dollars per family. The African People’s Socialist Party aimed to make reparations a household word by taking it out of the hands of the legislative and legal sector and giving it to the African working class. It has succeeded.
Black Power Talks salutes the 40th anniversary of the Reparations Tribunal. Throughout 2022, we will be presenting a series of episodes that explore the issue of reparations from an African Internationalist perspective.
This episode is part one in that series. It is entitle "Make Wall Street Pay Reparations" and features excerpts from a March 20, 2022 panel by the same name. The panel discussion featured Matsemela Odom, Pres. Yejide Orunmila of the African National Women's Organization, and Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee. More information on the Make Wall Street Pay Reparations campaign can be found at uhurusolidarity.org.
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.
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
On this episode of Black Power Talks, we discuss the Black Arts Movement, the role of the African artist and African revolution with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. Abiodun is one of the founders of The Last Poets and penned some of their most widely known works such as New York, New York and When the Revolution Comes. He is one of the original emcees.
Abiodun discusses the origins of the Last Poets and their political inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to the poet Keorapetse Kgositsile from South Africa, father of Earl Sweatshirt.
Abiodun also discusses his new album Gratitude, a family endeavor. You can learn more about Abiodun and the Last Poets at thelastpoets.com. You can find his album wherever you get your music.
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.
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Episode #96: Africa and the Russia/Ukraine Conflict
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
It’s been a month since the beginning of Russia’s military campaign to stop NATO expansion in Ukraine.
The March 2nd vote in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution denouncing Russia revealed a split between the white countries of the world and many of the countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, 52 of which either voted against the resolution, abstained or did not cast a vote at all.
On today’s episode of Black Power Talks, we explore the African Internationalist perspective on this war.
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.
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Episode #95: The Politics of Hip Hop with Jermaine ”Complex” Simpson
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Friday Mar 04, 2022
We discussed hip hop and politics with our guest for this episode is Jermaine"Complex" Simpson. Complex is a rapper from San Diego, California.
Born Jermaine Simpson, Complex was raised in the heart of the African community of San Diego. Complex is the author of four albums, West Coast MC’n, State of Mind, A Beautiful Mess and Wrath and Roses. Much like his favorite artists, Ice Cube, Rakim, Tupac, and among others, Complex straddles the lines of a few genres of hip hop, namely the hardcore hip hop and the much more political genres of rap music. He explores topics such as mental health, reparations, police terror, and African resistance.
In his colonial job, Jermaine is a trained counselor and holds four different degrees and many other certifications but his profession is as a hip hop artist. After a long hiatus, Jermaine released his first studio album in over 15 years in January 2021, A Beautiful Mess. In January 2022, he released his fourth album, Wrath and Roses. You can find his music at https://complexgotbars.com/
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.
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Episode #94: Colonialism as The Mode of Production
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
In this episode, we engage what is amongst the most important interventions into socialist and communist thought ever, Colonialism as the Mode of Production. Since its inception, the African People’s Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement and the ideology of African Internationalism has clearly stated that the African struggle for liberation is against colonialism.
In his recent treatise, Colonialism as The Mode of Production, Chairman Omali Yeshitela synthesizes 50 years of his relentless leadership and the Party’s relentless leadership on this question and points the way forward.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s “Colonialism as the mode of production” Chapter Two of his political report to the 3rd Plenary of the Seventh Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party. Today’s episode is composed of excerpts from the January 16, 2022 episode of Omali Taught Me, the regular Sunday study held by Chairman Omali Yeshitela. The episode can be viewed in its entirety at the The Burning Spear TV youtube page.
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.
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
Episode #93: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana Studies
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
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 Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Episode #92: Project Black Ankh continues leadership in the fight against Covid-19
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
On today’s episode of Black Power Talks, we discuss the Covid-19 Omicron Variant surge and a recent trip to Cuba with Dr. Aisha Fields.
Dr. Fields is a physicist who has dedicated her skills for the development and empowerment of African people. She is the International Director of the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP), a non-profit organization whose mission is to “collectivize the vast skills of Africans around the world in order to establish community based development projects that improve the quality of life for African people everywhere while promoting self-reliance and self-determination as key to genuine, sustainable development.”
Dr. Fields recently led a team of AAPDEP officials to Cuba where they visited the Latin American School of Medicine, ELAM, and learned about Cuba’s progressive fight against Covid-19 which dwarfs the US.
AAPDEP has organized renewable energy, water purification, farming, healthcare and ecological sanitation projects in West and Southern Africa, and community gardens in Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas and Huntsville, Alabama. AAPDEP’s “Project Black Ankh '' is a worldwide African emergency response organization. Since March 2020, Project Black Ankh has mobilized volunteers to conduct health education and community support efforts to combat COVID-19.
Project Black Ankh was initiated during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and was employed to assist Africans trapped in flood waters in Houston during Hurricane Harvey where emergency aid was denied to the black community.
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
Episode #91:The Role of Black Students and Intellectuals in the African Revolution
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
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 spring semesters. Spring semesters are often filled with academic conferences and graduations. 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.
Thursday Dec 30, 2021
Episode #90:The Colonial Origins of Santa Claus
Thursday Dec 30, 2021
Thursday Dec 30, 2021
On this episode of Black Power Talks, we learn about the colonial origins of Santa Claus, also known as Sinter Klaas or St. Nick, the patron saint of shipping.
Colonial ideology purports the Christmas holiday to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In fact, the Christmas holiday season is centered around the obsessive pursuit and aspiration to purchase gifts, central to this is the Santa Claus Myth.
The Santa Claus myth has its origins in Dutch traditions surrounding the characters Sinter Klass and Zwarte Piet, Black Pete in English. These traditions are celebrated in the Netherlands, also known as Holland, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, and throughout the colonial Dutch world with blackface festivals. Africans have organized organized a serious pushback against these festivals, yet they persist.
To help us understand the colonial-capitalist contradictions of the holiday season and the colonial origins of Santa Claus, we share clips from Chairman Omali Yeshitela. The first clip is an excerpt from a conversation between Chairman Omali Yeshitela and Peggy Burke of the Global Afrikan Congress, speaking direct from Amsterdam that took place on November 28th, 2004.
The second clip is an excerpt from a presentation given by Chairman Omali 2 weeks later, on December 19th, 2004, to the regular Sunday community meeting at the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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.
Thursday Dec 23, 2021
Thursday Dec 23, 2021
On December 22, 2021, The Burning Spear Newspaper turned 53 years old. The Burning Spear Newspaper is the oldest Black Power Newspaper in continuous print. The Burning Spear Newspaper was founded by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, then named Joseph Waller, in 1968, in St. Petersburg, Florida. First established as a newsletter produced on a mimeograph machine, the Burning Spear, or The Spear for short, became a full-spread newspaper in 1969.
Dubbed, the Voice of the International African Revolution, the Burning Spear Newspaper has been the leading organ of political and material support for the oppressed and exploited people of the world such as: Vietnam, Iran, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Occupied Palestine, Zimbabwe, Occupied Azania (South Africa), Cuba, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Congo, Walter Rodney's Guyana, Maurice Bishop’s Grenada, and everywhere else colonized and oppressed people have struggled for liberation.
The Burning Spear Newspaper has been the base through which an entire African Internationalist media complex was formed. This includes a publishing house, audio and visual communications.
In this episode, we speak with the Editor-In-Chief of the Burning Spear Newspaper, Akile Anai. Akile Anai is also the Director of Agitation and Propaganda for the African People’s Socialist Party. Akile oversees the work of print, audio, and visual media of the Burning Spear Publications and Black Power Media. She also supervises the political education processes of the Uhuru Movement and co-hosts the weekly political study #OmaliTaughtMe. Akile was featured in Ebony magazine as a Millenial of Change.
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.