Epilogue

The epilogue ponders the space created by a study of New Afrikan Independence Movement history for further exploration and analysis. Taking seriously Marilyn Preston Killingham’s perspective about racial terrorism, it reminds readers that historical state violence and ongoing repression against the activist left create archival silences that the small but growing body of scholarship about this movement has yet to fully explore. The production of geographies, economic studies, cultural analysis, and biographies associated with the NAIM will help scholars and activists continue to reveal and learn from the lessons of this dynamic political struggle. Therefore, the epilogue encourages further research as students of New Afrikan history continue to reveal archival silences and use them to generate the production of new ideas and more activism.

Revolutionary Name Choices

This chapter focuses primarily on the ideas behind and the practice of naming. It argues that name choices are the most fundamental form of individual and group self-determination developed by New Afrikans (and Black Power activists more generally). This chapter historicizes black naming practices in the United States, covering their importance from the era of racial slavery to the moments when Nation of Islam and Malcolm X, among others, were helping instil Black pride in mid-twentieth century African Americans. Specifically, it examines the ways that individual and group names, identity, cartography, and orthography became effective tools for the mechanics of liberation struggle. Taken for granted by both the name studies scholarship and histories of the Black Power Movement, this consideration of naming encourages scholars and activists to think more deeply and critically about the value of politically conscious naming practices.

The Fruition of Black Power

Chapter 2 analyzes the movement’s intellectual foundations. It uses the theoretical power of the New Afrikan concept “paper-citizen” to explain the various founding documents, including the RNA Declaration of Independence, the New Afrikan Oath, and more. Highlighting the major ideas from these documents reveals several important concepts through which New Afrikans critiqued the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and organized around their concept of New Afrikan citizenship. Besides the question of citizenship, New Afrikan political identity, Third World solidarity, and the governmental—not organizational—apparatus anchored a significant portion of known New Afrikan activism. Specific actions, such as supporting the independence of Puerto Rico, seeking out political relationships with U.S. indigenous nations, and running for political office exemplify NAPS as a lived experience of ideology. An assessment of those outcomes and the ideas behind them prepare readers for a deeper exploration of how and when NAPS and everyday life intersected within individual persons. The term lifestyle politics captures this phenomenon.

Introduction

An introduction of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) focuses on why this movement deserves the attention of scholars and activists. It explains that the NAIM is just one of many attempts all over the world by national and sub-national groupings attempting to govern themselves. In addition, the introduction explains why examining the history of this movement through the “lifestyle politics” of participants is a useful approach for understanding the long term implications of activism. Finally, the introduction provides an overview of the book’s organizations and key arguments.

Birth of the New Afrikan Independence Movement

Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of the NAIM from its inception into the 1980s. It explains how two brothers from South Philadelphia helped organize a Black Government Convention in 1968. Tracing the birth and early development of the NAIM clarifies how political geography, historical context, and personal circumstance helped shape activism. After relocating to the Detroit metropolitan area in the 1950s, brothers Milton and Richard Henry became community activists and political leaders. Working through the Group on Advanced Leadership and the Freedom Now Party, political struggle taught them the limits of seeking full entry into a nation that circumscribed their political power. At the same time, the Henry brothers witnessed decolonization in Africa, especially Ghana, which challenged them to reconsider the meaning of black liberation. Under the tutelage of people like Malcolm X and “Queen Mother” Audley Moore, they shifted their politics from reform and inclusion to revolution and self-determination. Changing their names to Gaidi and Imari Abubakari Obadele, they called for the 1968 convention. Convention participants declared black people’s right to independence from the United States of America, formed a provisional government with Robert F. Williams as the nominal president, and demanded reparations.

Cointel’s Got Blacks in Hell

The fifth chapter considers some of the dangerous and dispiriting aspects of social movement participation. It underscores the importance of external forces, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and state police, in shaping the development of social movements, as well as lifestyle politics. State repression led to incarceration, death, and demobilization; but even as activists added new names to the roster of political prisoners and prisoners of war, they also rethought their beliefs and ideas, and used the harms they experienced generate their collective political agenda. Chapter five, therefore, clarifies how New Afrikans thought about and acted as the result of hostility and violence, even as they pursued their goals.

For New Afrikan People’s War

This chapter considers the New Afrikan Independence Movement beyond the PG-RNA. It highlights some of the organizations and parties that struggled for New Afrikan independence alongside the Obadele-led formation. Groups such as the New Afrikan People’s Organization shared varying, though similar, interpretations of what New Afrikans could achieve. These included helping to build the reparations movement in America. New Afrikans’ unique approach connected the reparations claim to questions about the Fourteenth Amendment and how the federal government applied it to people of African descent. Another distinction was the PG-RNA’s interpretation of UN language about national self-determination for historically oppressed groups. From its foundations in the RNA Declaration of Independence, the New Afrikan reparations claim eventually made its way into the formation of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America in 1989. Therefore, this chapter shows how New Afrikan politics have informed certain aspects of the broader black political agenda into the twenty-first century.

New Afrikan Lifestyle Politics

Using interviews with Republic of New Afrika citizens and participant observation, this chapter seeks to understand New Afrikan lifestyle politics more deeply. Personal stories about the real and imagined RNA family, educational choices, and career paths as paper-citizens in an oppressive nation add more depth to the historical and sociological discussions about social movement activism. Because New Afrikans were members of organizations such as the Black Panther Party, because they experienced incarceration, and because they participated in all manners of activism, sometimes from their youth into adulthood, the people who have carried the NAIM into the twenty-first century provide unique opportunities to question and review the life course consequences of social movement activism.