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Lifestyle Politics and the Republic of New Afrika, 1968-1989

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Lifestyle Politics and the Republic of New Afrika, 1968-1989 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship Repository SELF-DETERMINATION MEANS DETERMINING SELF: LIFESTYLE POLITICS AND THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRIKA, 1968-1989 BY EDWARD EUGENE ONACI DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Chair Professor James R. Barrett Associate Professor Clarence E. Lang, The University of Kansas Associate Professor Erik S. McDuffie i Abstract This dissertation explores the history of the RNA during its formative years and New Afrikans’ efforts to procure territorial independence in order to make their contributions to African American politics better known. It considers in depth the connection between Black self-determination, citizenship, and territorial sovereignty as it seeks to position New Afrikans and their goals more prominently in the historical scholarship of the Black Liberation Movement and in public memory more generally. Next, my dissertation studies how social movement participation impacts activists’ identities and mores through the prism of “lifestyle politics,” which ensures that activists’ humanity remains central to their story. I define lifestyle politics as the everyday lived practice of political ideology. It is the constant interpretation, contestation, negotiation, and reproduction of ideas shared between activists, and it elucidates the significance of mundane interactions between each individual and the ideas on which they base the pursuit of their group’s goals. Again, making these themes prominent humanizes Black Power activists, and moves the historical scholarship beyond discussions of organization and ideology. Ultimately, I argue that revolution for New Afrikans was a comprehensive process that changed the lives of activists. While embracing, but moving beyond the axiom that the personal was political, I reveal that by shifting the analysis to the daily practice of being a revolutionary, the complicated process of fighting to achieve political goals provides an important space to expand the literature on Black Power and activism in the following decade. ii Acknowledgments This dissertation benefitted greatly from the contributions and critiques of many people. Foremost among them are the professors who peopled my dissertation committee: Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, James R. Barrett, Clarence E. Lang, and Erik S. McDuffie. Their recommendations, criticisms, encouragement, and expertise were invaluable and essential to my ability to complete this gargantuan task. Dr. Cha-Jua acted as my adviser in this process. His insights and ability to pull together vast knowledge from seemingly infinite source material benefited me as a student and intellectual. My family – in terms of birth relatives and kindred spirits whom I had the fortune to meet in recent years – remain the primary inspiration behind my intellectual and scholarly pursuits. They questioned me about my research, the process of completing “the paper,” its relevance to society and the various social and political struggles being waged within it, and proposed many (counter)arguments to me and my research subjects. More importantly, they kept me sane while I trudged through this process to which I committed myself in 2004. Their smiles, hugs, company when eating meals, the beds, couches, and floors they provided when traveling, and – most importantly – their genuine desire for me achieve my goal were the best vital in helping me finish. Without them, I would not have “finished” this project. Throughout my graduate school career, I had opportunities to contribute to various community groups, grassroots organizers, and the efforts of a variety of humane beings who want nothing less than to leave this world in a better condition than they received it. The Chicago Freedom School stands out. As a volunteer and sometimes-paid staff member, I was given several opportunities to meet older scholars and veteran activists. More importantly, I engaged hundreds of Chicago youth. Their positivity, relentless love for all the songs I hate, iii uninhibited desire to “make it” and contribute something positive to world in the process, and pure love for each other and CFS justified my decision to pursue a PhD in History. Finally (in order to keep this brief), my intellectual, spiritual, romantic, and culinary partner, Patricia A. Lott, deserves my utmost appreciation. Among the most intelligent people I have ever encountered, she dedicated innumerable hours to reading and helping make sense of the various words that came together in this dissertation (even as she works hard to complete her own). She posed simple questions that were surprisingly difficult to answer, made sure I did not overdose on coffee when I was stressed, and did all the “right” things that reminded me that I was not alone in this process. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction………………..………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: “The Fruition of Black Power”: A Historical Overview of the RNA……...…….22 Chapter 3: “No Longer Deaf, Dumb or Blind”: New Afrikan Political Science and the Foundations of Lifestyle Politics..……………………………………………….64 Chapter 4: Evolutionary Onomastics: New Afrikan Name Choices, Self-Definition, and Self-Determination………………………………………………………….….109 Chapter 5: Revolutionary Lifestyle: Life Course Perspectives and Lifestyle Politics……..150 Chapter 6: “Cointel’s Got Blacks in Hell”: State Repression & Black Liberation………...200 Chapter 7: Death, Life, and Evolution: A Conclusion…………………...…………………227 Appendix A: Key Concepts and Acronyms.……………………………………………………234 Appendix B: Interviewee Profile Chart…...……………………………………………………235 Appendix C: Sample RNA Interview Questionnaire…………………………...........................239 References…….……………………………………………………….………..........................241 v Chapter 1 – Introduction A “sporadic” uprising commenced the night of August 5, 1970 after Lima, Ohio police officers shot and killed an African American woman named Christine Ricks. Ricks allegedly grabbed and fired a police officer’s revolver – the shot inadvertently nipping another officer in the ear – as she intervened in a physical confrontation between police and a local youth. Soon afterwards, a crowd convened and began marching to city hall to protest the shooting death. However, the protestors never reached their destination because police deployed teargas to stop them in their tracks. That same night, city officials reported that sniper fire and arson broke out throughout Lima, and they accused members of the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF), an offshoot of the Black Panther Party (BPP), as the prime suspects. Using those allegations as justification, Lima police carried out a warrantless raid on the NCCF office early the next morning as the National Guard prepared to occupy the city.1 News of the raid and occupation reached some Ohio-based “New Afrikans” – members of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) – who were in solidarity with Panthers, several aboveground groups, and local covert paramilitary organizations. A group of eight New Afrikans mobilized immediately in an effort to help protect their comrades under attack in Lima. Eight of them were “soldiers” in the New Afrikan Security Forces, the aboveground military wing of the RNA. This contingent of six women and two men traveled from Dayton to Lima with the explicit mission to engage in a firefight with police and guardsmen. Under the command of General Kuratibisha X Ali Rashid, the small unit entered Lima and found shelter in a house with several other groups of “soldiers” supporting the local Panthers. According to Rashid, after several wounded Panthers had been brought to the house, 1 the New Afrikan women decided to launch an offensive action against their enemies. The six utilized a guerilla formation taught to them by Vietcong soldiers during a military training in Canada. Two of the women took positions in front of the house and two arranged themselves in the back. Another “was in a tree or something,” and the final soldier supported the others from an unspecified location. Rashid recalls that the offensive strategy worked; the guerilla-styled onslaught forced police and Guardsmen to temporarily cease their attack, and diverted their attention enough for the wounded Panthers to safely exit the house.2 Despite Rashid’s heroic recollection of the events of August 5th 1970, the battle remains absent from Black Power history texts. Indeed, because of the clandestine nature of Rashid’s group (and certainly others), the offensive was not an event of which even New Afrikans were widely aware. What is more, police and National Guard related the incident and several other violent encounters between New Afrikans and the state solely as clashes with the BPP. These lapses of recall poignantly illustrate one of the problems with researching the RNA and the movement it struggled to bring to the fore of African Americans’ consciousness: silences and misunderstandings about RNA activities (i.e. lumping them and other Black activists with the BPP) and New Afrikans’ self-conscious construction of their formation as a “nation,” rather than an organization, relegate members and their contributions to Black Power and revolutionary politics to the shadows of African American
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