Finally! Baba Jalil will be freed!

by Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at

6260 AAAK/ September 2020 JC-PG

Africans Deserve Reparations! Cause, Black Lives Matter!

Blessings of IMANI (FAITH) Victorious G-o-ds, Esteemed Elders, Sister, Brother and Youthful Leaders,

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and incredible Ancients and Ancestors from millennia past, yesteryears and, literally, yesterday – find you and (y)our extended Family staying healthy and keeping in positive spirits. WE hope you are doing as best you can to stay safe despite the continuing criminal actions of the usa government that has led us to a sickening SEVEN MILLION-PLUS INFECTIONS AND WELL OVER 200 THOUSAND DEATHS from the coronavirus and capitalist systematic health rationing! And, the horrors of police terrorism as well as the corporate climate catastrophes manifested in devastating wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and the earthquakes that are on the horizon. Asé.

Please continue sending your sacred-most thoughts for the healing of our long-time Bay View editor, the beloved Mother Mary Ratcliff; and Publisher Baba Willie Ratcliff, who turned an amazing 88 years young in September. They deserve our full support at this monumental moment. WE are also welcoming to the Bay Area our incoming editor, Comrade Malik, European enslavement name Keith Washington, who is joining us straight-outa the torturous prison system in Texas. Please, please be as generous as you can in helping this critical FREE publication continue thriving by making a much-needed donation of any amount at https://www.gofundme.com/f/invest-in-liberation Asé.

Honoring our new ancestors

As always, WE offer our immense gratitude to several notable humane beings who recently transformed to the Ancestral realm. Long-time community and political activist MARK ALLEN in Chicago. Comrade MYESHA JENKINS, human rights, socialist, anti-apartheid activist from the Bay Area who repatriated to South Africa in the 6230s/1990s. TOOTS HIBBERT, reggae master and leader of the African-Jamaican group Toots and the Maytals. Judge RUTH BADER GINSBERG, a champion for women’s equality, reproductive choice and voter’s rights. And, Queen Mother EDDIE JUNE WILLIAMS, beloved Momma of nine children, including Queen Dr. Deborah Williams.

Long Live the Spirit and Contributions of these new, and All our incredible, Ancestors. Asé. Asé. Asé-O.

Jalil Muntaqim is scheduled to be released in October!

Insha Allah, through God’s will and the advocacy of the people, one of our longest-imprisoned political leaders, Jalil Muntaqim, was granted parole in September and is scheduled for release in late October. Born in OHLONE/Oakland, Baba Jalil, European enslavement name Anthony Bottom, was a member of the Black Panther Party and a Black Liberation Army supporter. He became part of the New York 3 – including Ancestor NUH ABDUL QAYYUUM, Een Albert Washington (whose life was stolen while incarcerated in 6240/2000) and Baba Herman Bell (who was finally released last year) – after being captured, jailed, “convicted” and sentenced to 25 years to life for allegedly murdering two New York City police officers in 1971. 

Baba Jalil has been held in torturous government confinement for nearly five decades in New York state, and also in California on another false charge that resulted in the San Francisco 8 case and our successful freedom campaign. Though he has been a principled leader and teacher to many inside, and outside, the prison walls, he has been denied parole several times over the past quarter century. Last spring, he, unfortunately, contracted the coronavirus in prison. While a judge ordered his release, African American State Attorney General in New York Letitia James refused to release this distinguished elder. 

Assembly Bill 3121 . . . will establish a nine-person “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans”

Please join our freedom and justice-loving community in welcoming back Baba Jalil! May WE all increase our efforts to win FREEDOM, AMNESTY AND RESTITUTION FOR ALL OUR POLITICAL PRISONERS AND EXILES and victims of the usa government’s admitted repressive “cointel” programs to divide and destroy Black and progressive leaders, organizations and movements. Go to the Jericho Amnesty Movement to learn more and get involved at thejerichomovement.com. Asé.

Destination REPARATIONS

i/WE are so grateful to everyone who took time to study, endorse and make calls to elected officials on H.R. 40 and S.1083, our “Commissions to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act.” You all helped make it possible that WE now have 155 endorsers in the House of Representatives (as of this writing); nearly all of our Bay Area congresspersons; as well as our two U.S. Senators from California, Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein.

CONGRATS to Reparationists around California! On the final day of the legislative session, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 3121. This bill, introduced by Assembly Member Dr. Shirley Weber of San Diego, will establish a nine-person “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans” (modeled on the federal H.R. 40). This is a(nother) Victory for Reparations! More are on the way. Asé.

WE invite you and your organization to become a part of our all-volunteer, fully-people funded N’COBRA. And, to prepare to contribute your best ideas and proposals for collective action to the hearing processes that are coming in the next period. You can get involved by going to ncobraonline.org or contact me c/o [email protected] at the address below. FREE THE LAND! REPARATIONS RIGHT NOW FOR AFRICAN NATIONS AND DESCENDANTS/ASCENDANTS! Asé.

Condemnation

WE condemn the corrupt, corporate, fascist gangster Trump-Pence regime for their continuing crimes against humanity and nature, including the recent disclosures regarding prior knowledge of the dangerous corona COVID-19. WE also are enraged by the writer Bob Woodward author of the new book, “RAGE.” Woodward, his bosses at the corporate Washington Post, operated by billionaire Jeff Bezos, as well as his publishers Simon & Schuster held back Trump’s lies regarding the deadly virus for over seven months. Their early exposure of Trump’s lies could have, potentially, saved HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES in the usa; and MILLIONS MORE INFECTIONS around our planet, massive grief and a resulting destruction of many families and livelihoods.

CONGRATULATIONS! 

CONGRATS are in order for Queen Tameara Dyson and her family, owners of Souley Vegan! Her company is now expanding from downtown Oakland to east Oakland and even 400 miles south to Los Angeles. Though the current restaurant is closed due to the pandemic, you can still order online at souleyvegan.com and pick-up at Third & Broadway near OHLONE Square, aka Jack London and the estuary. Asé.

CONGRATS to Queen Margo Hall on her selection as the new Artistic Director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theater! She becomes the first woman to lead one of the most revered companies in the Bay Area and California. Asé.

CONGRATS to residents of one of my former home-cities, Chicago, for changing the name of one of its largest parks. Douglas Park was named for a past Illinois Senator and 1860s Democratic Party pro-enslavement candidate for President, Senator Stephen Douglas (who ran against another Senator from Illinois by the name of Abe Lincoln, who was also pro-enslavement where slavery already existed). The park will now bear the name of another “Douglas(s),” as in abolitionist, journalist and our great Ancestor FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Asé.

CONGRATULATIONS are also in order for our dear Queen Awele Makeba, and also Zendaya Stoemer Coleman, Yahya Abdul-Matteen II, their families as well as our OHLONE/Oakland community and our public school district for winning EMMYs!!! WE are so proud of them! As some of our finest and most creative contributors, they were each Gifted one of the highest honors an artist can achieve (as EMMYs are awarded for distinguished achievements in television)! Check out this short clip from the film “We Are the Dream” (which was directed by Awele and executive produced by another Oakland native, two-time Academy Award Winner and rapper Mahershala Ali). Asé. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Gr6csM7jc

Register, vote early and continue organizing

Please make sure you and your network of relatives and friends are registered and prepared to vote. Do it early in October, so you don’t get left out. There are many important races and issues on this year’s ballots that affect our lives and livelihoods. Check this edition of the Bay View for analysis and guidance. Asé.

Finally, continue to take (y)our righteous steps … and our Divine will do the rest. Walk in the Power of IMANI (FAITH) … on each and every day. Amen-RA Hotep! Asé.

#BlackLivesMatter #AfricansDeserveReparations #BringOurEldersHomeNow #AbolishPrisonsandPolice #LoveandDefendMotherEarth #BlackNewDeal

Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at is an ascendant of the Yoruba and Ewondo nations in Alkebulan-Afrika, a Baba (Elder), Pan Africanist, socialist and (inter)nationalist. He is also a “FREE-tired” community-labor-environmental and justice organizer, writer, composer, yogi, martial artist, vegan and author of several books, including “Many Paths to Kujichagulia (Self-Determination).” In addition, he is a Life Member, former National Male Co-Chair and recently-assigned Acting West Regional Representative of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA). Take a listen to a few songs from his musical catalog at, https://soundcloud.com/search?q=jahahara Invite Baba Jahahara to present at your group, school, spiritual gathering or event c/o [email protected] or FONAMI, P.O. Box 10963, Oakland, CA 94610.

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