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Republic of New Afrika
Flag of RNA
Flag of the Republic of New Afrika
Motto: Free The Land
US States identified as subjugated national territory at the 1968 foundational conference[1]
US States identified as subjugated national territory at the 1968 foundational conference[1]
StatusSubjugated Nation
  • Proclaimed capital
  • Administrative
    center
Jackson, Mississippi
Largest cityNew Orleans
Official languagesEnglish
Demonym(s)New Afrikan
TypeProvisional government
Governmentpresidential republic
• President
Sah Ankh Sa Ma’at[2]
• Vice President
Ayodele Kofie
Subjugated Nation 
by United States
31 March 1968
3 July 1983
• Last Amendment
15 May 1983
Area
• Total
750,503 km2 (289,771 sq mi)
Population
• 2022 census
22,427,294
Republic of New Afrika
Founded1969
Detroit, Michigan
IdeologyPan-Afrikan
Black Nationalist
Anti-Racism

The Republic of New Afrika (RNA), is an independence movement in the United States that aims to secure land for the development of a separate Black Nation populated, and controlled by Black americans. The proposed country would be situated in the southeastern United States. A similar claim is made for all the black-majority counties and cities throughout the United States. Along with the liberation of lands in the south, the RNA demands that reparations from the US government be paid to the descendants of Enslaved Afrikans for the damages inflicted upon their ancestors by chattel enslavement, Jim Crow segregation, prolonged terrorism and persistent modern-day forms of racism. After the above two goals are achieved, a referendum of all African Americans should be set up in order to decide whether they would stay legal citizens of USA, renounce the citizenship, or something else since Black people were not given a choice in this matter after the end of enslavement.

The proposed territory is where the highest percent of blacks are in the US (2000).

These ideas were made manifest on March 31, 1968, at a Malcolm X Society[3] Conference on Black Government held in Detroit, Michigan. The Republic of New Afrika would theoretically encompass five Southern states: (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina); and the black-majority counties adjacent to this area in Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.

History

From at least 680 BCE[4], Afrikan Peoples have inhabited the Americas. Proponents of the RNA draw inspiration from the idea of precolonial Black americans enjoying freedom, independence, self-government and self-determination. When Enslaved Afrikans were brought to the Americas, one of their most powerful motives was to regain this freedom, independence, self-government and self-determination[5]. Since the beginning of Chattel enslavement in the Americas, Black rebellions became normal as a way-of-life. After the the American Civil War, and the subsequent end of chattel enslavement, Black americans were faced with the question of how to go on and exist. They had no land, and overall very little education. Problems like this would eventually lead to ideas gaining sovereignty.

Manifestation of RNA ideas

The Republic of New Afrika flag

The Black Government Conference was convened on March 31, 1968 by the Malcolm X Society and the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL), two influential Detroit-based organizations with broad followings. This weekend meeting 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, a black nationalist, human rights advocate 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; and Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, served as second vice president.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) advocated a form of cooperative economics through the building of New Communities—named after the Ujamaa concept promoted by then Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere; militant self-defense through the building of local people's militias and a standing army called the Black Legion; and respect for international law through the building of organizations that champion the right of self-determination for people of Afrikan descent.

US Reaction to RNA

During its existence, the organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For example, it attempted to assist Brownsville, Brooklyn in seceding from the United States during the conflict that took place there. Additionally, it was involved with shootouts at New Bethel Baptist Church in 1969[6][7] (during the one-year anniversary of the founding) and another in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1971[8][9] (where it had begun to start its occupation of the South on a single farm). Within both events, police were killed as well as injured and harsh many of the leaders were captured and imprisoned.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called the Republic of New Afrika a seditious group and conducted raids on its meetings, which led to violent confrontations, and the arrest and repeated imprisonment of RNA leaders noted above. The group was a target of the COINTELPRO operation by the federal authorities but was also subject to diverse Red Squad activities of Michigan State Police and the Detroit Police Department, among other cities.

Territory and demographics

The proposed boundaries of the RNA will be the current boarders that encompass the 5 states in the south-east United States. From the west, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Current RNA Events

The 21st century has seen a continuation of the effort of gaining freedom for Afrikans in America. With the assault of cointelpro, many of the leaders, and members have been confined in prisons across America. Because of that, the Front for the Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation has been initiated, in order that Afrikans in North America be educated to re-align their point of view in the direction of the oppression being doled down upon them, as well as the oppression being faced by First World peoples around the globe.

Publications

  • 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. 154p. Detroit. House of Songay, 1975.
  • Brother Imari [Obadele, Imari]. War In America: The Malcolm X Doctrine. 45p. Chicago. Ujamaa Distributors, 1977.
  • Kehinde, Muata. RNA President Imari Obadele is Free After Years of Illegal U.S. Imprisonment. In Burning Spear February 1980. Louisville. African Peoples Socialist Party. 4 p to 28 p.
  • Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Malcolm Generation & Other Stories. 56p. Philiadelphia. House of Songhay, 1982.

[1]

  • 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.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 * Taifa, Nkechi, and Lumumba, Chokwe. Reparations Yes! 3rd ed. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, 1983, 1987, 1993.
  2. ↑ "Info | PGRNA".
  3. ↑ Mjagkij, Nina (2013-05-13). Organizing Black America. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135581237.
  4. ↑ Van Sertima, Ivan (1976). The African presence in Ancient America: They Came Before Columbus. Random House. p. 145. ISBN 0394402456.
  5. ↑ www.asetbooks.com/us/nationhood/rna/RepublicOfNewAfrika.html
  6. ↑ http://detroit1701.org/NewBethel.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900748,00.html
  8. ↑ http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=2899150
  9. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/us/06obadele.html
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