Land as a Fundamental Component in Black Liberation Movements

Africa World Now Project

[Note: This program was produced and aired in 2017]

The question of land as a fundamental aspect of Africana liberation movements is an often-neglected point of inquiry when exploring the long genealogy of Africana thought and behavior—radical or otherwise. Nevertheless, it is indeed, ever-present. A reading of the large cache of demands, treaties, and platforms of various communities of Africana people and organizations provide the historical reality of this fact.
With this, a place that one can start, and move forward or backward is with, of course, Brother Malcolm. As his revolutionary praxis evolved, he once exclaimed that:

“Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you've got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. Once you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get yours straight. There's been a revolution, a black revolution, going on in Africa. In Kenya, the Mau Mau were revolutionary; they were the ones who brought the word "Uhuru" to the fore. The Mau Mau, they were revolutionary, they believed in scorched earth, they knocked everything aside that got in their way, and their revolution was also based on land, a desire for land. In Algeria, the northern part of Africa, a revolution took place. The Algerians were revolutionists, they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France. They told France, to hell with France, they wanted some land, not some France. And they engaged in a bloody battle.

So, I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you that you don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. The only kind of revolution that is nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. It is the only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to the white folks -- on the toilet. That's no revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis for all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality...”

Brother Malcolm’s ideas are firmly situated in the long tradition of early radical activist and thinkers such as Detroit attorney Milton Henry, the 19th century movements of Benjamin Pap Singleton. And, of course, the Communist Party’s Black Belt Nation Thesis, lest we forget the efforts of the Republic of New Afrika.

Together, these, and the many other efforts across the African world all center the question of land as being the fundamental component in black liberation movements. We see this reality in communities in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Colombia, Brazil…etc

Land is understood not in the limited capitalist sense of ownership but the transmission of communal practices of human stewardship as being primary care-takers of the planet.

Today, we will explore the question of land and African world liberation with Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui and Dr. Willie Jamaal Wright.

Dr. Siddiqui is Assistant Professor of History at Winston Salem State University and Dr. Wright is Assistant Professor of geography at Florida State University.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples!

Enjoy the program!