Marvin X @ Muslim Reunion.AVI

Marvin X Defremery Park

Notes on the North American African Revolution

No matter the negrocities or contradictions, Islam gave North American Africans the possibilities of detoxing and recovering from our addiction to white supremacy. It was our original Black Studies not authorized by the white man's institutes of mis-education called universities. It gave us a necessary antidote to the toxin of white supremacy mythology. Elijah Muhmammad tricked the trick out of the tricked so-called Negro. The white supremacy institutions provided colonial elite intellectuals stuck in the muck and mire of white mythology or black mythology approved by the white masters. Rather than focusing on the black national needs of our community, there was a shift to pan-Africanism, as if the socalled Negro can solve Africa's problems when social/economic conditions are clear evidence he can't solve his own problems.

The recent snubbing of the African Union by NATO when the AU tried to mediate the crisis in Libya is clear evidence there is much work Africa must do for itself, and the socalled Negro has no role in the matter. Alas, where is the North American African revolution at this moment? As Sam Anderson noted some time ago, this is the first revolution in history led by senior citizens. For example, the events in Oakland this past weekend that celebrated Black Muslims in the Bay Area and the Celebration for Geronimo by Black Panthers were attended by mostly adults, not youth, the classical vanguard of revolution. Absent radical change that brings youth into the revolution, we shall see the elders making revolution in walkers and wheel chairs, meanwhile youth will be somewhere discussing hip hop, 5 percent issues and Moorish Science issues that are more or less esoteric and irrelevant.
--Marvin X,
Academy of da Corner
14th and Broadway
Oakland

Muslim Pioneer share Memories at Defermery Park Reunion

We are so thankful to Allah for blessing us to hear the testimony of a pioneer of Islam in the Bay Area, Sister Olivia Samaiyah Beyah, aka Sadie, one of the officials at Mosque #26 and later at Masjid Clara Muhammad on Bond Street in Oakland. When Malcolm X was sat down after the assassination of JFK, Queen Mother was at the home of Elijah Muhammad in Phoenix, Az.

Black Panthers Celebrate Transition of Geronimo Ji-Jaga

Black Panthers Celebrate Transition of Geronimo Ji-Jaga to Ancestors

On a beautiful, sunny day in the Bay, Oakland Black Panthers and community celebrated the transition of legendary Black Panther Minister of Defense, Geronimo Ji-Jaga who spent 27 years in prison on trumped up charges, fabricated by the FBI.

Speaker after speaker gave honor and praise to G, the soldier who said he was only following the order of his elders when he joined the US Army and learned the skills to return home to defend his community nationwide.

Because of the split in the Black Panther Party, Oakland Panthers would not testify that he was in Oakland at the time he allegedly murdered a woman on a Los Angeles tennis court. FBI intelligence records could have proven he was in Oakland as well.

No matter, on Sunday, Oakland Black Panthers paid tribute to the man equal in stature to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, especially as per time spent in prison for revolutionary activity. He shall forever be remembered for his contribution to the liberation of North American Africans.

Throughout the afternoon, speakers such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Rev. Freeman, David Johnson and Willie Sundiata Tate of the San Quentin Six, Ayana At-Thinin, Avotcja, Stu Hanlon (G's lawyer along with the late Johnny Cochran) and a host of others, praised our dearly beloved and departed brother who joined the ancestors in the Motherland where he finally settled, Tanzania, East Africa.

The event was organized by Black Panther chief archivist Billy X Jennings, but participants included the Black Panther Commemorator Newspaper, under the guidance of Melvin Dixon, Big Man, Jabari Shaw of the BSU of at Laney College, Brother Ustadi of the Afrikan Learning Center.
There were performances by Tarika Lewis, first female member of the BPP and Phavia Kujichagulia, griot of the first order. Percussionist Tacuma King also performed along with other too numerous to mention.

Toward the end of the evening, Billy X Jennings, the chief organizer, announced he had been saving the best for last and then introduced Marvin X, poet, playwright, activist, one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, who attended Merritt College with Black Panther co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the man who introduced Eldridge Cleaver to the Black Panthers, along with Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier when they attended the Black House, the political/cultural center founded by Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver in San Francisco, 1967.

Marvin took the mike along with two young lady poet/performers, Toya and Aries Jordan, sisters from the east coast who have joined his Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre. Aries, under the mentorship of Marvin X, published her first collection of poetry. She electrified the audience at the Joyce Gordon Gallery during a Woman's History Month Celebration organized by Marvin X, who called together the most powerful African women in the Bay Area, Hunia Bradly, Rev. Mutima Imani, Ayodele Nzinga, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikel, Jerri Lange, Talibah, who presented a poetic womanhood rites of passage. Aries performed a scene from the Vagina Monologue as well as her poetry.

Marvin X made opening remarks on Geronimo, saying he recalled two essential things about the brother. Firstly, that he was a soldier who practiced discipline, and this was necessary for the present generation of youth to acquire, that it ain't about any means necessary but the right means necessary to achieve victory. Secondly, G went into the US Army because his elders commanded him to do so, in order to learn the skills to defend his community.

Marvin X demanded youth follow their elders in the tradition of Geronimo. "As Sun Ra taught me, if you don't do the right thing, you can't go forward or backward, the Creator got things fixed so you are just stuck on stupid until you do the right thing."

Toya and Aries went to their respective mikes, Marvin X in the middle. They recited What If, a pantheistic poem about Allah as the All in All, Allah as everything, the dope fiend, the alcoholic, the tree, the river, the mama you hate, the father you hate, etc. The trio then recited a Marvin X classic For the Women, and then the women lead a recitation of a lessor known poem For the Men. Shortly after, the event ended. Power to the People!

Analysis: After being a participant/observer for the last two days at events at Defermery Park, the Muslim reunion of Saturday and the BPP celebration on Sunday, there is clearly a need for a once and month Speak Out for community. Speakers and spoken word arists are nice, but what is most important is for the people to speak out, to vent their trauma and unresolved grief. Nothing else is more important.

Muslim Elders Celebrate at West Oakland Park

Bay Area Black Muslim Honor Elders


West Oakland's historic Defermery Park, aka Bobby Hutton Park, was the site of a celebration of Black Muslims in the Bay Area, 1950-2011. It was a small gathering of mostly pioneers who were part of the Nation of Islam in the Bay from the late 50s to the early 70s. There were men and women who had been laborers and officials in the NOI.

Of course, after the transition of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, some of these soldiers, men and women, became Sunni Muslims under Elijah Muhammad's son, Imam Warithdin Muhammad. Others joined the NOI under Minister Farrakhan. Some were associated with Dr. Yusef Bey's Black Muslim Bakery.

They all came together yesterday for a celebration of their personal and communal struggle to lift the banner of Islam in the Bay. All pioneers over 65 received a beautiful certificate of appreciation that said the following:

To each is a goal to which Allah turns him; then strive together (as in a race) towards all that is good. Wheresoever ye are, Allah will bring you together. For Allah hath power over all things. S.2.,A.148

It is with the highest respect and the greatest appreciation for your "Service to Allah" that the Unity in the Community Committee offers this certificate as an indication of your contributions to our Deen and the Mission of Allah.

The event included free food, spoken word, prayers and testimonies. Imams and ministers addressed the gathering. The most poignant remarks came from the women soldiers who talked briefly of their role in building the Islamic nation in the Bay.

Future gatherings are planned so believers will have more time to share their testimonies. Some of those present included Imam Alamin, Imam Shuaib, Minister Keith Muhammad, Norman Brown, Sister Sadie, Fahizah Alim, Khalid Wajjib (one of the organizers), Abdul Sabry, Saadat Ahmed, Mikel Muhammad, Hasan Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, Rashidah, Marvin X, et al.

Accompanied by poet/actress Aries Jordan, Marvin X read poetry that was well received by the gathering. The author of thirty books stated in his remarks that he credits the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for his writing style. He is working on A History of Black Muslims in the Bay: 1954-2011.
Poet/actress Aries Jordan


Poet Marvin X
Today, Sunday, July 17, an even larger gathering is expected at Defermery Park when members of the Black Panther Party will gather to celebrate the life of Geronimo Ji-Jaga, Minister of Defense, who made his transition in Africa recently, after serving 27 years in prison on charges trumped up by the FBI in an attempt to disrupt and destroy the black liberation movement, including Muslims, Panthers, Civil Rights workers and other radicals fighting for social justice. The celebration for Geronimo begins at 2pm, Bobby Hutton Park, 18th and Adeline, West Oakland.
--Marvin X

All Praises are due Walter Turner and Greg Bridges of KPFA

We give all praises to Brothers Walter Turner and Greg Bridges of KPFA Radio, Berkeley, for last nights special program on the life and times of Black Panther revolutionaries Field Marshall Don Cox and Minister of Defense Geronimo Ji-Jaga. This program should/must be heard by all North American African youth and adults seeking a knowledge of true American history. The interviews with surviving Black Panther Party members was a riveting narrative on the revolutionary personality, what one must endure, suffer, the necessary discipline and love for the people.