The Republic of New Afrika (RNA), founded in 1968 as the Republic of New Africa, is a
black nationalist organization and
black separatist movement in the
United States popularized by black militant groups. The larger New Afrika movement in particular has three goals:
Creation of an independent
black-majority country situated in the
Southeastern United States, in the heart of an area of black-majority population.
Payment by the federal government of several billion dollars in
reparations to African American descendants of slaves for the damages inflicted on Africans and their descendants by
chattel enslavement,
Jim Crow laws, and modern-day forms of
racism.
A
referendum of all African Americans to determine their desires for citizenship; movement leaders say their ancestors were not offered a choice in this matter after emancipation in 1865 following the
American Civil War.
The vision for this country was first promulgated by the Malcolm X Society[3] on March 31, 1968, at a Black Government Conference held in
Detroit,
Michigan. The conference participants drafted a constitution and declaration of independence,[3] and they identified five Southern states
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Georgia and
South Carolina (with adjoining areas in
East Texas and
North Florida) as subjugated national territory.[1]
History
The Black Government Conference was convened by the Malcolm X Society and the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL), two influential
Detroit-based black organizations with broad followings. The attendees 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, 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;[4] 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. It proposed militant self-defense through the building of local people's militias and a standing army to be called the Black Legion; and the building of racially based organizations to champion the right of
self-determination for people of black African descent.
The organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For example, it attempted to assist
Oceanhill-Brownsville area in Brooklyn to secede from the United States during the
1968 conflict over control of public schools. 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. (It had announced that the capital of the Republic would be in
Hinds County, Mississippi, located on a member's farm.) In the confrontations, law-enforcement officials were killed and injured. Organization members were prosecuted for the crimes the members claimed was in self defense.[5]
Notable members
Queen Mother Moore was a founding member. She helped found the group and helped out in the group as much as she could.
Robert F. Williams was a black nationalist elected as the first president of the Republic of New Afrika.[4]
Betty Shabazz, widow of
Malcolm X, was elected as second vice president of the first administration in 1968, working alongside Williams and Henry.[4]
Chokwe Lumumba, formerly Edwin Finley Taliaferro of Detroit, was elected as second vice president in 1971. He later became an attorney, working in Michigan and Mississippi in public defense. After settling in
Jackson, Mississippi, he was elected to the city council there. He was elected as mayor in 2013, dying in office in February 2014 of natural causes.
Safiya Bukhari, former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member, founder of the Jericho Movement for U.S. Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, and co-founder of the
Free Mumia Abdul-Jamal Coalition (NYC) was elected as vice-president.
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, Detroit: House of Songay, 1975.
Brother Imari [Obadele, Imari]. War In America: The Malcolm X Doctrine, Chicago: Ujamaa Distributors, 1977.
Kehinde, Muata. RNA President Imari Obadele is Free After Years of Illegal U.S. Imprisonment. In Burning Spear Louisville: African Peoples Socialist Party, 1980. pp. 4–28
Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Malcolm Generation & Other Stories, Philadelphia: House of Songhay, 1982.
Taifa, Nkechi;
Lumumba, Chokwe (1993) [1983, 1987]. Reparations Yes (3rd ed.). Baton Rouge: House of Songhay.
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.
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abcSalvatore, N. A. (2005). Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Firing Line: The Republic of New Africa]
William F. Buckley interviews Milton Henry, President of the Republic of New Afrika. 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 RealAudio.
Note: Forms of nationalism based primarily on
ethnic groups are listed above. This does not imply that all nationalists with a given ethnicity subscribe to that form of
ethnic nationalism.