Abuy Nfubea a former founder of Black Panther Party in Spain
The Black Panther Party in Spain 30th Anniversary 1988-2018 interview
Abuy Nfubea a former founder member of Black Panther Party chapter in Spain
" The most combative militants descover malcolmx X & Black nationalist through Hip-Hop groups such as Africa Bambata, 2pac, Scholly D, Africa Islam, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy "
NKU: This year they are 30th Anniversary: It has been said a lot, and I would like to clarify in the US about the beginnings since you are one of the founders, what its the Real Origins of Black Panther Party in Spain?
AN:The origins of the Spanish chapter of Black Panthers are at the context of Free Mandela Movement during the end of the Spanish political transition in the second half of 1983: with the annulment of the decrees laws of black reparation, dictated in 1980 by President Suarez. The creation in 1985 before the first foreign emigration law whose institutional racism and the entry of Spain into the European Union that Spanish Goverment expelled Black Comunitty, special Equatorian Guinea from history, textbooks, TV, school, universities etc ... reducing all blacks people to immigrants. The Black youth connected in this particular moment of the history with, art, cinema and the boom of Afro-American culture and Afrocentric philosophies that come to Spain through Hip-Hop. In response the Free Mandela Movement hitherto in the hands of Christian church groups was taken over by a sector of radical Guinean students linked to MALEVA, a cultural association and PSEUG another university association, politicized and radicalized by Tomas Sankara's revolution in Burkina Faso and Bob Marley's Reggae Rastafari music. In 1986 this group under the leadership of Marcelino Bondjale, assaulted the South African Embassy in Madrid of Apartheid in protest of the murder of the poet Benjamin Moloise. This action attracted and politized hundreds of B-Boys but divided the Spanish antipartheid movement into two groups, one pro Winnie and another more moderate under the white Christian leadership IEPALA. This youth organized themselves in gangs such Los Colours, Los Bra, MRT, Radical Black Power, Madrid Vandals, Simplemente hermanos, Borikua etc… These gangs are going to be attracted by antifascist groups or leftis organizations, Marxist-Leninists, the workers' movement, squatters, anarchists, by derailing a perpetration of anti-capitalism and political resistance through propaganda or mobilization in student strikes on the street, and combating the bands of extreme right against discrimination, homophobia, sexism, and racism. About 1988 a Basque priest who had been expelled from Brukina Faso after the fall of Tomas Sankara created in the Labor University, the African study group called Franzt Fanon, as well as social services of support in food and health to the emigrants and African refugees. The Hip-hop and RnB became more and more militants with group such Public Enemy fan club in the Stones nightclub in Torrejon de ArdozWhat united these groups was their opposition to the impunity of Nazi terrorism evolutioned towards a revolutionary political consciousness and antifascist politics in places like Barcelona where they were transformed into MAN Anti-Nazi Movement, .
IMANI: This year, 30 before I want to know what was the political and historical context in which spanish black youth believe that is time has come to raise or make a qualitative leap in the organic consciousness
AN: well, at the end of 1989, in a context characterized by the impunity of Nazi skin terrorism against the black community with crimes like the Dominicans sista´s Lucrezia Perez: Diferents brothers (Sera, Enrike, Siale, Tomy and mine) linked with the antifascism atmosphera on campus the Alcala Labor University and the Pedro Gumiel High school, we was deeply influenced by Pan-African and revolutionary history, the readings of Huey P Newton, Aldridge Cleaver Pantera Negra, Angela Davis si vienen por mi en la mañana, George Jackson cartas a la revolucion, Rober Wiliamas Negros en armas Winnie Mandela, Malcolm X Omowale, the work of Kwame Toure " Poder Negro" and Political Hip-Hop groups such as Scholly D, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy: we drafted the manifesto "No aggression without response. Organize and fight" and a program of 12 points, to young blacks of Madrid, and we spread the document among them the leaders of the most important gangs, “ we spoke them on unity against white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist power structures no taking advantage of intra-ethnic factionalism and cliquishness to effectively suppress revolutionary Black movements in Spain. We told them that we are not more gangsters, but African revolutionaries and since that time we gonna resolve conflicts and contradictions among our people and society as a whole through principled of the 12 point programe and nonviolent actions between us, and never through counterrevolutionary violence that is promoted and propagated by our enemies. The document, no unanswered aggression, was very simple, and began to circulate in the spring of 1990. It was a challenge to the intellectuals Uncle Tom integrationists who constantly at that time and today appeared in the media forgiving the right-wing terrorists and denying the will of the black youth of retaliation, which infuriated the young blacks and we capitalized this discontent, although we were not the only ones. Against white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist power structures no taking advantage of intra-ethnic factionalism and cliquishness to effectively suppress revolutionary movements in the United States. The lesson for contemporary black revolutionaries today is to resolve conflicts and contradictions among our people and society as a whole through principled, nonviolent actions, and not through counterrevolutionary violence that is promoted and propagated by our enemies. Immediately afterwards, the gangs were asked to sign an adhesion and total loyalty document with an oath with a copy of the Cuban edition of Malcolm X's biography. As a demonstration of revolutionary commitment they were given a 20-day skill period to stop showing the gold chains and to wear the hanging Africa symbol of militancy it was assumed that the leaders would be part of the central committee this was the founding act of the Black Panthers Party.
IMANI: What was the Rol Apartheid moviment and how was the process from Free Mándela to Black Nationalist ?
AN: As the Free Mandela movement was increasingly co-opted and decaffeinated by the NGO phenomenon, plunged the Free Mandela movement into an "ideological disorientation" and witnessing a deep-rooted discursive-practice demolition within the black youth movement that, together with the church, was the base. The most combative militants took refuge in the black consciousness movement that came thanks to rap groups such as Africa Bamabata, Scholly D, and Christian parishes as those of Father Asier and protestant churches whose homilies were authentic rap. These dissident students who broke with the PSEUG students' association found among the refugees and inmates of the outskirts of Guettos what they were looking for and that the campus no longer gave: militants for a new "project" that seeks to put into practice self-defense. we launched a radical group outside the strategy dictated by IEPALA, with the manifesto "no aggression without response" captured dozens and hundreds of youth B-Boy militants to a document that was broadcast in rap clubs like El Yasta and especially Stones Disco. The text was the founding declaration of a new "project" with which they aspired to the Black Power taking back the action that a sector of the Free Mandela movement that was considered liquidationist. This work that considered the effective and positive popular struggle any action against what was thought was a real success. When the State in retaliation created the NGOs and intercultural mediation with the integration as neocolonial strategy ideology type, Movimiento Contra la intolerancia or SOS Racismo, the black youth in the biggest cities and the periphery of Spain not adhered to them, but they joined Black Panther Party. Far from what people think our "main task" was not the armed actions of self-defense but the political formation to be able to face the Nazi terror of practicing occupation of the Black Community?
We know very little about the background of the movement in Spain, please tell us what the remote political and psychological magma furoen origins of the Black Panthers Movement in Spain?
The origins of the Spanish Black Panthers are at the end of the transition in the second half of the 83 with the annulment of the decrees laws of black reparation, dictated in 1980 by President Suarez. The creation a year before the first foreign law whose institutional racism and the entry of Spain into the European Union that expelled blacks from history opfdifla textbooks, TV, school, universities etc ... reducing blacks to immigrants , art, cinema, the boom of Afro-American culture and philosophies that come to Spain through Hip-Hop. In response the Free Mandela Movement hitherto in the hands of Christian church groups was taken over by a sector of Guinean students linked to MALEVA cultural association and PSEUG university association, politicized and radicalized by Tomas Sankara's revolution and Bob Marley's antipartheid music in 1986 Assaulted the South African Embassy of Apartheid in protest of the murder of the poet Benjamin Moloise, which divided the antipartheid movement into two groups, one pro Winnie and another more moderate. At the end of 1990, in a context characterized by the impunity of Nazi skin terror against the black community with crimes like that of the Dominicans Lucrezia Perez: Abuy, Sera, Enrike, Siale and Tomy linked to the African studies group Franzt Fanon, social workers with immigrants and the nightclub of RnB Stones and deeply influenced by the readings of Huey P Newton, Winnie Mandela, Malcolm X Omowale, the work of Kwame Toure "Black Power" and Hip-Hop groups such as Scholly D, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy: drafted the manifesto "No aggression without response., Organize and fight" and a program of 12 points, gathered on the campus of the Alcala de Heneres labor university and the Pedro Gumiel high school to young blacks of Madrid, among them the leaders of the most important gangs and founder the party of the Black Panthers of Spain
Before the events of the 1988 general strike of students did you already know something about black panthers, how and when was the first time you heard about black Panthers?
The first time I heard on the Black Panthers, i was a child on 1982, when a black girls of Equatoguinean origin suffered sexual assault, an attempt to rape in the neighborhood of Villafontana Mostoles Spain. In retaliation for justice this young people formed the feminist collective called Black Panther. Years later in 1989 the Spanish public television RTVE and the most important newspaper El Pais, published huge debates and images of the murder of Dr. Huey P. Newton. My uncle Antonino Eworo, who had met Huey P Newton in his place of medicine student in Cuba, said that the death of Huey P. Newton was a great tragedy for Africa and Africans at home and abroad. And he gave me the equivalent of 25 euros if I went to church and prayed for the soul of the Huey. Of course I said yes, I took the money and went to the disco. I never thought that someday a humble neighborhood B-Boy like me, could ever talk to who were the outside ideological influences of the party like Aroon Michael, Michel McGee, Winnie Mandela, Aminata Umoja, Chokwe Lumumba, Lester Lewis, Akinyele Umoja, Professor Grift, Omali Yehsitela or Dr. Kahlid Mohamed.
Why the free mandela movement of Spain went into crisis in the late 80's at a time when the departure and release of Nelson Mandela seemed imminent? How did that influence the black panthers party?
As the Free Mandela movement was increasingly co-opted and decaffeinated by the NGO phenomenon, plunged the Free Mandela movement into an "ideological disorientation" and witnessing a deep-rooted discursive-practice demolition within the black youth movement that, together with the church, was the base. The most combative militants took refuge in the black consciousness movement that came thanks to rap groups such as Africa Bamabata and Christian parishes as those of Father Asier and protestant churches whose homilies were authentic rap. These dissident students who broke with the PSEUG students' association found among the refugees and inmates of the outskirts of Guettos what they were looking for and that the campus no longer gave: militants for a new "project" that seeks to put into practice self-defense. we launched a radical group outside the strategy dictated by IEPALA, with the manifesto "no aggression without response" captured dozens and hundreds of militants to a document that was broadcast in rap clubs like El Yasta and especially Stones. The text was the founding declaration of a new "project" with which they aspired to the Black Power taking back the action that a sector of the Free Mandela movement that was considered liquidationist. This work that considered the effective and positive popular struggle any action against what was thought was a real success. When the State in retaliation created the NGOs and intercultural mediation with the integration as neocolonial strategy ideology type, Movimiento Contra la intolerancia or SOS Racismo, the black youth in the biggest cities and the periphery not adhered to them, but they joined Black Panther Party. Far from what people think our "main task" was not the armed actions of self-defense but the political formation to be able to face the Nazi terror of practicing occupation of the Black Community? The document, no unanswered aggression, was very simple, and began to circulate in the spring of 1990. It was a challenge to the intellectuals Uncle Tom integrationists who constantly at that time and today appeared in the media forgiving the right-wing terrorists and denying the will of the black youth of retaliation, which infuriated the young blacks and we capitalized this discontent, although we were not the only ones. Undoubtedly the decisive element for abandoned Uncle Tom mentality and to assume the Black Panther’s ideas and vision was the assault on the South African embassy in 1986 by black student headed by Marcelino Bondjale. This act divided the free Mandela Movement into two blocks, one moderate partisan of Nelson and other partisan radical of Winnie. A solidarity committee was established with the leaders of Maleva Association who had led the uprising against Apartheid and who was detained pending trial. From this committee of solidarity the mandate would emanate to find new channels to continue the struggle. Although my family was rather conservative, they were not Uncle Tom, it was a matriarchy and I was instilled that in this conflict had to support Winnie and at home there was talk of that history and in the meals and church was commented. At that time I was a dj and I wanted to be a Raper, or rather in the Breack Dance and I was influenced by brother T-7, the father of the Spanish Hip-Hop and ideologue of the guns or brotherhoods, which in those days, attracted the political radicalization of the poets who later linked to the Black Panthers. We stopped listening groups such Fat Boys, my Adidias or Run DMC and we started to listen to Schooly D, Afrika Islam, Gill Schoot Heron Rakjhim, LL Cool J, very poopy political rap and very aware rhymes. The same week that Mandela was released, a historic community assembly was convened in June 1990, under the motto Free Mandela: the struggle continues !!! in the street Bravo Murillo of Madrid, headquarters of MOLIFUGE, in the offices of lawyer Dr. Ndjondjo Muadacucu. The truth was we did not have much experience and I asked my cousin Pablo Ovono to gather a couple of hard guys from the guns Brotherhood, Simply Brothers and we went. This was my first militant events that i spoke. In that room were the most important African leaders of the time by the conservative black right was the businessman, ex-military Guinean Mr. Ekomo de Yacure, who was one of the greatest references. Also, the Reduane Asuik trade unionist, from AEME, Moroccan workers association in Spain, Senegalese unionist Lamin Sagne, founder of AISE association of the Senegalese workers in Spain, and the lawyer Djondjo and Marcelino Bondjale from MALEVA organization form Equatorial Guinea. There were older people who impressed me, the atmosphere is on, the people embraced, but also young people wept happily for the release of Mandela and great enthusiasm. There was a prayer thanking God for such a great day: there were 2 blacks with uncle Tom's paint that spoke very well and they asked for tranquility and that we were careful and all that they often say to demobilize and frighten the afraid and afropessimism. There were also black youth who had suffered Nazi terrorist attacks and although it was not the order of the day, they called for a solution. finally when the elders had spoken the word was given to the young people, Siale took the floor and proposed a draft document that months later would be the political presentation of the Black Panther Party, "organize yourself and fight, no unanswered aggression." In the end we decree the continuity of the struggle, not to agree with the oppressive State of De Clerk, but we wanted to see winners and conquerors. From where it turned out that the black youths aligned with Winnie Mandela and Chris Hanni and not with Nelson Mandela: I was proud of my people, I do not see back that collective state of self-esteem among the blacks community until the summer of 1990, after the victory of the Cameroon National football team during the world cup against Maradona's Argentina. It seems a lie, but those little things serve to raise the level of consciousness. Many brothers in the street boys gangster stopped to me and said: we have finally free Mandela and now what us here? With this question, the idea and necessity of the Panthers Black Party was born at this time.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish chapter of the New Black Panther Party on 28 October 1990 at the Labour University of Alcala and the Pedro Gumiel Higth School at Chorillo, the major immigrant neighborhood´s. The party was a youth organization. The majority of us began to militancy in the Black Panthers Party from very young, with an average age of 15-20 years being this our space with the ideas and the practical Pan-Africanist & Socialist, practically from children, at home with different experiences of the black popular movement (social, associative, union, church, etc.).The first thing to understand is that the Spanish chapter of the Black Panthers was a youth freedom fighter organization, it was not a group of black intellectual students chatting on Facebook and especially in those times and partly also today, gangs are and still the only real youth organizations. We were some inexperienced but born observers, I looked at everything and our condition led us to notice that these young blacks, B-boys, would today be the CRIPT here Latin King, active gang members were armed on the streets and doing nothing, especially young boys. In those days we read a lot and read a book about Bunchy Carter and the Los Angeles branch of the Black Panthers that took them from gangsters to Revolutionaries. Boom !!!.... there came the idea that we could do the same here and I started in the band where myself had played The Colours Power in Fuenlabrada. I noticed that these brothers - unlike the whites - when they finished high school, had no street educators, no spaces or programs made so that they could find a job and forget the bands. These boys had come from children or had been born in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, were teenagers, with a high school failure, a product of institutional racism, unstructured families ... nor was it easy to find a job because they were not qualified and especially because they were black or Latino. All the groups dressed the same, nothing could distinguish them. Everything came together and made them into people of exceptional courage. The multitudinal fights between rival groups were habitual, in that time the bands had a great number of members. They were attributed violent actions in parks, painted war or the placing of an RBG flag in the street as in a Nazi booth during the official celebration of Alcalá de Henares in 1995. Of course these groups were not majority and had little social support inside the Black Community but they attracted the attention of African Youth. This would then serve to create and recruit the best cadres of the party with whom we began to deliver political education classes and some discipline to transform their criminal mentality into a revolutionary mentality. Through the party they lost the gangs phenomenon and were several dozen who came to our meetings that baptized as a political formation where we gave them the whole idea of Malcolm X. Although they were not linked I was concerned to know one by one brothers, families , their problems, illusions and their fears expressed in the classes of political formation, I let them expand and I saw that what they suffered was what I was going through, and that orientation and closeness, when everything around is very confusing , it's very valuable. The most important aspect was black history. As Kus says "Over the years, I suppose, almost every black kid has a crisis that has an identity. That leads you to look for a way to find out a lot about different black cultures, African history, the American African culture with its sad history of slavery and hatred. “we started implementing point number 5 of platform writing by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal. We started teaching, brother’s African history. The purpose of black history classes was to motivate and break with the Afro-pessimism. Another aspect, also very important, was discipline, without these conditions, it is not possible to create a revolutionary organization. We launched the program in 12 points through this work, the black youth saw the inability to apply the ideas of malcolm x of self-defense and in less than 2 years during the celebrations of the 5th centenary of the so-called discovery of America, we had chapters in the majority of the great black communities of Spain. Almería, Madrid, Alcalá, Valencia, Murcia, Torrejón, León, Barcelona, Leganes, Mostoles, Asturias, Zaragoza, Fuenlabrada. This helped the Nazi terrorism and the boycott campaign to the Barcelona Olympics games 92 for the Negro de Banyoles. And the Spanish Chapter of Black Panther was recognized by brother leader Aaron Michael as official chapter. We always fought against isolation and we went an African Internationalism organization and, despite our little experience, we came into contact with revolutionary organizations such as RNA, NAPO, AAPRP, APSP, Black Radical Congress, MXGRM and we subscribed to the most important newspapers of the moment apart from The Black Panther, Nation Time of Baba Herman Fergusson and the historic the Burning Spear. We organized a 10th anniversary of the fall of Dr. Huey P. Newton and we sent delegation to A Million Men March, Million Youth March. With his first trip in 1993, Akinyele Umoja was undoubtedly the person who settled between the movement of Spanish black liberation a certain revolutionary vision of the work of Malcolm x
HAITI REVOLUTion You said that the Haiti revolution was what most impressed young gang members. How was that??
As every year since 1992, the Garveyista Garveyista Cimarron Movement began the year celebrating and commemorating the 214th anniversary of the triumph of the Great Maroon Revolution of Santo Domingo, the greatest epic in history and part of our identity that is the revolutionary Haitian that occurred on January 1, 1804. This year under the title of Kilombo to the Republic and of the Marimar of Panafricanism, we pay tribute to the daughters of a revolution that is a milestone in history: Makendal, Bukman, Thoussian, Dessaili and os other architects of the Revolution to approach the figure of Thoussiant to pay tribute to his ideas and his legacy, during. On the importance of this fact in the unparalleled history that gave rise to pan-Africanism since the cimarronaje. The epic started in 1791 had its central point in the Oath of Bois Caïman, the first pan-African constituent assembly in history and that was the result of several weeks of meticulous secret organization, during the night of August 14 and 15, in Bois Caïman there was a Voodoo ceremony led by the theologian and Jamaican activist and houngan Dutty Boukman, assisted by a mambo woman, voodoo high priestess and commander, Cécile Fatiman, in front of two hundred delegates who made the following oath in creloe:
"The good Lord who created the Earth, who gives us light from above, who supports the ocean and makes the roar of thunder, listen well, all of you!" This God, hidden in the clouds, watches us. atrocities that the white man does The god of the white man calls him to commit crimes Our God asks only for us justice and good deeds But this good God commands vengeance He will direct our hands He will help us image of the god of whites who thirsts for our tears and listen to the voice of freedom that speaks in the hearts of all of us. "
Toussiant and his great effort to make a revolution from the blacks, from African unity to the most humble of this earth, with this annual celebration we carry the feeling of many Africans that even today, more than 200 years later, we recognize in this great Revolution Pan-Africanism a turning point in the international context of the time and the defeat of French, Spanish and British imperialism together as well as racism, slavery and fascism. As Kwame Nkrumah stated, bizarre thought and practice greatly influenced the African Revolution in Ghana 1958, in its attempt to liberate black women and men from exploitation by Europe, to free it from the domination of capital and to think about the possibility of a pan-Africanist society. The Haitian revolution not only abolished slavery but also introduced in Spanish America the principles of equality, fraternity and freedom, the principles of enlightenment that together with internationalism, solidarity, social justice, the right of peoples to their self-determination, independence and sovereignty, which were always the sustenance of the October Revolution, which armed and financed Higuins, Sant Martin and Bolivar to liberate the continent. Without the Maroon Revolution of Haiti, neither Simon Bolivar could have been constituted as the great homeland, nor Trosky, Lenin, Castro, Durruti, Hugo Chavez or Nelson Mándela. The silencing of this epic by the Ibero-American European academy is due to the enormous internal contradictions derived from its deep racist education, white and colonial supremacy based on white supremacy, as well as the rise of Tios Tom governments on the island and the African Union.
The Afrocentric quest not only led to the union of the palenques and kilombos in the creation of the first pan-Africanist state in the world, it opened a path of hope by giving way to a new social regime, which would demonstrate that a world without exploiters or exploited was possible. In FOJA and other pan-Africanist revolutionary groups, together with the ideas of Arcelin, Winnie Mandela and Garvey, the ideas of the Haitian Revolution have always been an inspiration. That revolution gave other exploited Third World countries an example to follow, for it marked a time in the struggle for a better world. Since then, this celebration is a way of expressing our immense gratitude and recognition for such a gesture of detachment, a symbol of solidarity, courage and brotherhood of the blacks of the countryside. The Russian revolution boosted development and was an example for several peoples in the world in the struggle for independence. being the first great attempt of transformation of the world, of turning utopia into reality, which started a new era for humanity, with historical inspirations like Dr. Arcelin, genuine son of the best of this revolution.
What was the rol of black student movement, in Spain during thuose years 86?
The black student movement, in Spain, is considered one of the pillars of social mobilization and it was in the meantime that hip-hop defected to the most avant-garde sector of action was where the repertoires of action were, promoted the social mobilization and , finally, we enter into organization processes. and we learned to react with violence. Something complex becuase we was teach on Martin Luther King and Cristinity we suffered the repression of part of the authority, with the rest of the White students but it gave a collective concience. the Demostration were not cool there were physical hosts that imply the blows and detentions, until practically invisible violence, like the withdrawal of the passport or the loss of matrícula. The violence exercised by the authority generates response dynamics on the part of the students, which varied depending on the strength of the movement and its objectives. In this sense, the forms of repression certainly influenced the forms of protest. within the African student movement of the College Africa and the secondary of higth scholl generated diverse dynamics that were confronted above all when the murder of Benjamin Moloise. African High class university students did not get involved in the movements they were afraid to go out to the marches they said that we were afflicted and that we should not get into the affairs of the whites, that our obligation was to hear and shut up and study (Laughter )but we saw that only one way to lose the fear was to participate along with a few white students a sector of students we saw a political opportunity, the structures of mobilization, and the framing processes. above all, to create a structure that mobilized the blacks to get involved in the action, to go to the demonstrations to strike, and to Africans to redefine our situation as unjust in front of the idyllic vision of the greater clergy and the African uncle tom. it allowed us to develop a new diagnosis and a treatment for existing forms of suffering, a diagnosis and a treatment through which that suffering is morally condemned. The fact that what happened in Mandela was not just him but was an unjust universal system: this relationship gave blacks youth a potential and legitimity for action,
What was the conception at Ideological level or strategical of the organzation?
As i td yu we had lefties and anarquists and too mouch antifacist lennist influence. All we socialiced politicly at Anti Apartheid Movement influence beacuse may ther brother ad sster have been militant of SHARP but we know that the brothers in street the b-Boys and gang only knows mowale Malcolm x and Winnie Mandela becuase they saw him the hip-hop clip on Tv Raps. And at home your mama told you on Winie Mandea. So we used comunists dalectical as comrade or demcratic centralism The organization did not want to be a communist party in the classical style, But it must serve to give theoretical and strategic solidity to the service of the black movement, avoiding in any case any attempt of manipulation or satellization on the part of the African Negro NGOs. Let us understand the organization of black Panthers as national liberation Organization at the service of the independence movement and not the other way round, at the same time we understand that the organization only forms part of this Back Comumitty movement and that it must be plural so that the different tendencies of the pan-Anfricanist left they can arise, with the right to organize all of them, as long as this organization does not serve to diminish the general Black movement's autonomy.
¿Cual fue experiencia personal previa a la creación de los Panteras ?
What was the roll of Hip-jop in the strugling of NAZI TERRORISM?
Ours was an explosion of young blacks emerging from the Free Mandela movement and the example of Winnie, black youth from student strikes, radical hip-hop culture of groups like Schooly D, Public Enemy, Paris, Afrika Islam etc such Dead Prezz now. People who have read Malcolm X and Dr. Huey P Newton were not willing to more to allow the impunity of terrorism Nazi Skin. We were very idealistic teenagers, people who spent the little money they have to buy Public Enemy rap albums, mainly reading Marvell's superhero comics, we were looking for an ideal, with a youthful soul in search of an ideology Black Power, revolutionary activism with values and a cause that in Spain, sought and found in more or less informal youth organizations and associative tissues implanted in many districts and districts in Spanish towns and cities, such as those formed by the known guns or sororities: And we find the message of Malcolm X. Most of us were inexperienced young people who were proud of being black and of the struggle of our fathers against the Africanist dictatorships uncle Tom of Macías and Obiang and the like, and that is why we dedicate ourselves in body and soul, that after a few We began a youth career as young militants. The ideals we absorb in particular derive from the anti-apartheid struggle and the mythical figure of Malcolm X, to which we connect initially with more enthusiasm than knowledge, and who try to communicate to the rest of the world our ideals and source of inspiration. Then there was no internet and what it took then were the books, magazines, newspapers and fanzines like Afrotown; we held conferences, a training school at a human and political level of militancy and other actions. With the growth of Pan-Africanism and increasingly important youth activities, the afrocentrado discourse, referring to youth level in places and neighborhoods where there was no organization, began to emerge and to develop a pioneering discourse on racism, machismo (Celia Mba), self-organization, drugs, conceptualization of power, critique of euro white Marxism, unemployment, communitarianism, music RAP, creation and implantation in Spain of symbolism as African Liberation Day, the reparation, appropriation of Afrocentric history, but without losing the afrocentrada centrality.
Dr ARCELIN NEGRO DE BANYOLES
During these years we made many campaigns and praiseworthy community projects that today constitute a great contribution and legacy to the new black movement today and of course to the whole Garveyist movement, the important ones being the struggle for the black African man stuffed in a museum of Banyoles, the painted magic kings, etc... Especially our capacity in 30 years to form militants and political cadres who in certain neighborhoods created assemblies where we meet once a week in bars, parks or cultural centers, which I believe cohesion and thematic unity. To say that helped in the end of the 80 to formalize language and dissent, organize rabies and young black people began to see here things that only happened in London or USA: posters with the slogan Black Panthers. we created ideological cohesion and an aspect of the was determinate is that on the one hand we conjugate the agitation in the streets with demonstrations, taking of buildings and on the other with the referential work in the institutions: from the critic of the local politics analysis of the politics as it was the forum of municipalities and that gave the sufficient maturity that made that little by little our project was passing of children to the parents, the majors so that the project was consolidated. And despite the campaigns of attacks and smear against the maroon panthers, we created alliances with all, but without losing the afrocentrada centrality. after its passage through the youth organizations and we have been the generation that has continued to be mostly linked to the different struggles, especially the Pan-African movement and that is an important leap at the historical level, since many people have arisen from the Panthers or FOJA and have continued to militate in other areas of the community and this is the result of an unknown work and unusual result and we did it without any political umbrella. The fact that this work is and has been essential to talk about other aspirations today fashionable in the black community as natural hair, black in political parties or Reparation-PNL and especially for the growth of the dream of Marcus Garvey and Dr. Arcelin. From 2004-2006, 80% of the demonstrations convened by immigrants were convened by individuals, groups directly or indirectly imbued with black panthers. Therefore, accepting that the current reality is changing and confused as the forms of oppression have camouflaged and there are no public aggressions and young blacks believe that everything has been for their academic titles or hours chatting on facebook. But the truth is that if in Spain today and blacks have some validity, it is the result of the work of the revolutionary youth that engaged in different generations in the Black Panthers.as a result of having passed through the Black Panthers to have formed as militants from many points of view, discussions, debates, confrontations, at all levels and disciplines, pasting posters, analyzing legal texts, institutional negotiation, design, radio making and writing Leaflets, perform security work reading incredible books such as black superheroes comic .This formation will never be obtained at university although we live 4 times and do 30 colleges. The love for the comrades, the friendship and the whole lesson that Dr. Runoko Rashidi: on the importance of continuity. We have been created a real school part of the aforementioned political school.
Now feminist speeches and movements in the black community are fashionable, can you tell us what role women play in the party?
Long before Enrique, Tomy, Serafin, Siale and Abuy created in 1990, the Black Panthers in Alcalá, in 1982 two young Guinean women who had suffered sexual assault in the Villafontana neighborhood of the city of Mostoles, created: the Collective feminist Black Panthers. The founding of the Spanish section of the Black Panthers party meant not only a continuity of the Free Mandela Movement process but the articulation of a new collective strategy based on self-defense against the impunity of Nazi terrorism against the Black Community. This expanded the participation of black women as well as the radicalization of pan-Africanist demands and their strategies. Although dominated mainly by male leaders, women always played a very important leadership role in the behavior of the party. Most of the young women who enlisted were not feminists in the Eurocentric style of Betty Freeman but rather a womanist who joined the party fed up with the impunity of Nazi terrorism machismo identity crisis In a new context determined by Hip-Hop, they assumed everything type of responsibilities. And the rise of Uncle Tom all this conditioned the gender dynamics. Young and prominent activist leaders emerged who were the daughters of the previous generation whose mothers were committed to African freedoms, the education of their daughters and vocational training. The panthers formed a number of black women activists such as: Mefe, Sonia Mba, Mari Bel Obiang, Olga Asue, Ada Okenve, Mary Luz Mba, Bibi Kalala, Sandra and Sonia Ikpeba, Celia Mba, Conchi Buika, Helen Jones, Rufi Maaba, Mariam, Jenny Fdez. Leona, Lidia etc ... In fact, sista Mariam was one of the promoters of the manifesto for the Afro-Spanishization that APN Association Black Panthers launched in 2004.
MEMORY COMMUNITY
An important reflection is that the Black Panthers in those years played a fundamental role even essential, they had the task of keeping alive in the street what was the fight. Because it was the reference for combative black youth since there was not much else, they had to play a role that served as a link between four generations. One of the important things that the Pan-Africanist had was that he gave blacks a collective political idea or identity. It has been very important because it has been a school of political, ideological, cultural and militant formation during these 40 years. It is also something that continues to happen today in F.O.J.A and should give us a reference of what the Panthers were, since many times it was and is the first militancy of many people and sometimes even the only one. The view is that it was young people who composed it and what is important is that for many women it was their first militancy, because it allowed them to come into contact with a much deeper line of commitment. Perhaps, they entered the party to fight fascism in the streets, institutes, university, discotheques, parks etc ... but the formation allowed them a connection with greater reflections in the long term. These two issues now are not played alone - the Black Panthers - nor revolutionary Pan-Africanism, there are many more organizations, some militants, more references than luckily, black movements that can make that link between the different black generations of struggle. Do not pose the struggle of the young blacks, only as mere aesthetics or slogans.
RACISM
The Black Panthers were a youth organization was not given in facebook but in a general expression and is that it is not given in abstract but in concrete social formations, these gave many young women a key keys, as a result the ex-militants are still an axis of articulation, today of the black struggles in Spain. One of the great tasks that the Black Panthers did and it was a political victory especially after the assassination of Lucrecia Perez, was to make visible the Nazi terrorist attacks against immigrants and blacks, on the other hand the racist, fascist, sexist or homophobic character of the same, because the normal thing was that the authorities attributed it to the so-called "urban tribes". What left unpunished and blamed the victims to the young blacks Thanks to this struggle the racism Negrophobia stopped being something individual, gave terrorism a political character and made visible that anti-black terrorism, were not isolated cases. .
Today product of the depoliticization and folklorization of black consciousness, many people are still not aware of the role and importance that the Black Panthers played in Spain. Today we would be in another totally different context, if those years of struggle of the Black Panthers and many people have tried to mistakenly reduce what were the Black Panthers with the violent struggle against street fascism, against the Nazi skin heads or part of the anti-fascist self-defense
THEORITICAL CONTRIBUTION
We learned love for comrades, friendship, commitment and continuity. That generated a real school, apart from the political school mentioned above. The most important thing in the long term was the youth activity that the pan-Africanist movement developed because the Black Panthers trained these 5 generations of young Africans who today are fathers and mothers of families, professionals and then we were exploited, super alienated, frustrated and dejected. The Black Panthers Party gave us an illusion, a cause to live and die for. I emphasize above all our capacity in these years to form militants and political cadres that in certain neighborhoods created assemblies, accumulation of forces and social base etc ... We developed the theoretical contributions of Malcolm X on self-defense because the attacks of fascism at that time were important and not only contributed, how to denounce them media and judicially, but above all we learned to fight it politically and that attracted militants and raised the consciousness of youth black Another aspect was the ideological clarification, what Brother Ras Babiker called then a thematic unit. I would highlight three levels of analysis: On the one hand, the capacity for agitation in a very simple way, in search of cohesion in a way that created an African socio-political space, Pan-Africanist and the black question, ceased to be a taboo. And today we talk about Black Power and the RBG, Garvey's flag, is seen in the acts of the movement. The Black Panthers recovered similiar dates - until then unpublished - like the African Liberation Day, we created alliances with white revolutionary groups but without losing the centralized Afro-centric and community. Secondly, an important aspect was that on the one hand we combine the agitation in the streets with demonstrations, building intakes, food preparation programs, political education class, lawyers to fix the documentation of illegal immigrants, and on the other with work reference in the institutions: from the criticism of local policies as was the forum in the municipalities and that gave sufficient maturity that made little by little our project was passed from children to parents, so that the project will be consolidated.
COMMUNITY BASE
Despite the campaigns, attacks and discredit by White supremacy, Eurocentric academy and Negroe intellectual, another aspect that Black Panthers contributed, was the perspective of Black Power, anti-apartheid, Hip-Hop was that of all generations, ours, which went through the Black Panther Party has been the generation that has continued most linked mostly to the struggles and Pan-Africanist militancy after its passage through the youth organizations as Black Panthers and that is an important leap at historical level. Many people have emerged from Black Panthers and have continued to work in other areas of the black community and that is the result of an unknown work, so ungrateful and unusual results. And we did it without any political umbrella to fight and the fact that this work is and has been essential to talk about other very fashionable aspirations in Spain, such as natural hair, electoral participation of black people, unemployment, institutional racism, Concentration camps for immigrants, sexism, homelessness,. And the truth is that today Pan-Africanism and the Blacks Community in Spain today, including Uncle Tom, have some validity in Spain today: it is the result of the work that two generations of black youth did through the Black Panthers game. As a result of having spent these 32 years for the Black Movement as a whole, the socio-political space of the Pan-Africanist movement and, above all, the school of African philosophy, gave black youth the great opportunity to form politically as a militant from many points of view. view, at all levels and disciplines: discussions, debates, confrontations, and the work of pasting posters, analysis of legal texts, institutional negotiation, design, radio, TV, making and writing pamphlets, performing security tasks, reading incredible books like the comics of black superheroes. The control of artists and celebrities, since these, being outside the community and organic process, always end up taking on the neocolonial dynamics, turning against the process. And the black panthers articulated in a vanguard political force to be able to "save" the black process, when the celebrities become Uncle Tom. Although we live 400 years and do 30 careers, this training would never have been obtained in any university, we did not learn to be black in the faculty but in the Black Panthers.
LEGACY OF 4 GENERATION
The most important in the long term was the youthful activity of the Black Panthers because we formed 4 generations of black youth who were frustrated and killed, we gave them an illusion, a cause to live and die. The work of university and school formation, the work of the party's base, ideological and thoughtless has not done it any more than the panthers. And it has been fruitful because it opened a fan and an immense opportunity of Garveyism, revolutionary, nkrumist, Pan-Africanism and maroon. And this has created a character and temperament that lasts until today; all these generations occupy today in Spanish society their place and do their jobs some of them of great value. Artists such as: Killer B, Frank, Chojin, Mefe, Conchy Buika, Doblehache, politicians such as (Ignacio Sola or Patricio Bakale), professionals and intellectuals such as David Fanon, actors (Yoyo Ovono, Emilio Buale), journalists, priests, entrepreneurship sportsmen (Kus or Alex boxing champion in Spain), journalists, filmmakers such as Santy Zanou or Paloma Bilanwe, Padre Mitogo, entrepreneurs such as Rufi sister, etc. in some way formed in this school. And many people who are still active. For example, the team of Uhuru Afrika TV, the same Ras Babiker who was our teacher and the maximum living reference, remains active in the fight against the dictatorship in Sudan, trade unionists such as Ataye Mbenky, Ragna Paisa (manager of Peret), poetry of Obiang Nsang on Uhuru Afrika TV, Moises Nvumba on voice radio of the voiceless. There are many of whose names I do not remember, I am doing a lot of work in parties, ideological groups and thought. And this creates a character and temperament that lasts until today all this generation occupy today in society their place and do their jobs, some of them of great value, whether in London, Santo Domingo, Guinea, Spain. One case: José Mendez has been appointed ambassador in Panama by the Dominican Republic government.
THE STRUGLE CONTINUIS
We do not feel exclusive heirs of this history nor of the mark black panthers. Today there are other organizations that are fighting in the black community to which we are directed. The reasons why we started the fight a handful of illusioned young blacks today continues as 30 years ago. In Spain the young blacks today continue to live under prison, impunity, Exclusion violence in a very selective way. The most endearing people materially where they persist endemically: hunger, extreme poverty and widespread, marginality and social fragmentation, lack of basic services, potable water, pandemics, lower life expectancy, high child mortality, high environmental risks and high vulnerability to natural disasters , political and social unemployment, absence of work, low levels of schooling and illiteracy, high level of violation of Human Rights, Civil and Social and direct impact of armed conflict, denial of the right to asylum, low democratic participation, racism and Institutional exclusion and widespread invisibility in the bodies of participation are mostly black: and it is no coincidence. 90% of black NGOs have no institutional support or meeting or participation spaces, invisibility, care, guardianship, pity, violence, charity and pain, afflictionism, gangs, and misery as extreme forms of denial: one neocolonial relationship of dependence through the macro-NGO. The blacks have little prospect of finding a job and do not appear as beneficiaries of aid. Youth unemployment, school failure, absence of scholarships. 55% of prisoners are black or Afro-descendants, alignment, sexism, consumerism and exclusion of associative expression. All policies are still designed to enhance black isolation and genocide. Examples are the Catalan forum for the integration of immigrants, the European directive, FRONTEX, or the non-discrimination council for racial or ethnic origin in Spain or the misery of Cal Àfrica in Besòs Barcelona.
CONGRATULATION
We know that today in Spain the slave master is creating black clowns that reject Black Panthers, Malcolm, Farrakhan, Omali, Angela Davis, that Nkrumah was a dictator and Gaddafi a criminal, barbarities like that or call Mama Winnie Mandela, in definitive confusion, to deny the historical process of black liberation in Spain. You all know who they are and how they do it and who they pretend. No worries, they always hurt him, they bark and then we ride. That is why I want to end with the words of one of my favorite singers Ana Belen & Victor Manuel, who in one of his songs says: if a traitor are more than a few than those few, do not forget it easily. As I said during the closing of the 4th Congress of the Pan-Africanist Movement of Spain held in Barcelona in 2013, thanks to the black youth acting without thinking many people had the courage to understand that if we do not defend our own community, even if we do not know what is happening, nobody is going to do it. So I would like to express my absolute congratulations on this anniversary, not only to the founders (Sera, Enrique, Tommy, Siale and the humble servant) but also to all the comrades including APN who, at different times, including their courageous commitments in difficult circumstances, helped to make a world best. Especially the brave women like sister Rufi, Bibi, Lidia, Sandra, Sonia, Mary Bel, Mary Luz, Mariam etc ... who overcame with much difficulties the ideas and sexist joints and all the chapters of the different cities and neighborhoods of Spain. And how not to remember those who are no longer like Pablo Ovono Candela, Tcham Bissa, Pio Desiderio, Alfonse Arcelin, Desire, Aliu, Lucrecia Perez, Javier Siale, Felipe, Key Solo.
I want to encourage all of you to write about this heroic page of history of Spain
"UHURU
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
TO BE CONTINUIS
" The most combative militants descover malcolmx X & Black nationalist through Hip-Hop groups such as Africa Bambata, 2pac, Scholly D, Africa Islam, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy "
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| Abuy with green shert with Reggea DJ King Shorty |
NKU: This year they are 30th Anniversary: It has been said a lot, and I would like to clarify in the US about the beginnings since you are one of the founders, what its the Real Origins of Black Panther Party in Spain?
AN:The origins of the Spanish chapter of Black Panthers are at the context of Free Mandela Movement during the end of the Spanish political transition in the second half of 1983: with the annulment of the decrees laws of black reparation, dictated in 1980 by President Suarez. The creation in 1985 before the first foreign emigration law whose institutional racism and the entry of Spain into the European Union that Spanish Goverment expelled Black Comunitty, special Equatorian Guinea from history, textbooks, TV, school, universities etc ... reducing all blacks people to immigrants. The Black youth connected in this particular moment of the history with, art, cinema and the boom of Afro-American culture and Afrocentric philosophies that come to Spain through Hip-Hop. In response the Free Mandela Movement hitherto in the hands of Christian church groups was taken over by a sector of radical Guinean students linked to MALEVA, a cultural association and PSEUG another university association, politicized and radicalized by Tomas Sankara's revolution in Burkina Faso and Bob Marley's Reggae Rastafari music. In 1986 this group under the leadership of Marcelino Bondjale, assaulted the South African Embassy in Madrid of Apartheid in protest of the murder of the poet Benjamin Moloise. This action attracted and politized hundreds of B-Boys but divided the Spanish antipartheid movement into two groups, one pro Winnie and another more moderate under the white Christian leadership IEPALA. This youth organized themselves in gangs such Los Colours, Los Bra, MRT, Radical Black Power, Madrid Vandals, Simplemente hermanos, Borikua etc… These gangs are going to be attracted by antifascist groups or leftis organizations, Marxist-Leninists, the workers' movement, squatters, anarchists, by derailing a perpetration of anti-capitalism and political resistance through propaganda or mobilization in student strikes on the street, and combating the bands of extreme right against discrimination, homophobia, sexism, and racism. About 1988 a Basque priest who had been expelled from Brukina Faso after the fall of Tomas Sankara created in the Labor University, the African study group called Franzt Fanon, as well as social services of support in food and health to the emigrants and African refugees. The Hip-hop and RnB became more and more militants with group such Public Enemy fan club in the Stones nightclub in Torrejon de ArdozWhat united these groups was their opposition to the impunity of Nazi terrorism evolutioned towards a revolutionary political consciousness and antifascist politics in places like Barcelona where they were transformed into MAN Anti-Nazi Movement, .
IMANI: This year, 30 before I want to know what was the political and historical context in which spanish black youth believe that is time has come to raise or make a qualitative leap in the organic consciousness
AN: well, at the end of 1989, in a context characterized by the impunity of Nazi skin terrorism against the black community with crimes like the Dominicans sista´s Lucrezia Perez: Diferents brothers (Sera, Enrike, Siale, Tomy and mine) linked with the antifascism atmosphera on campus the Alcala Labor University and the Pedro Gumiel High school, we was deeply influenced by Pan-African and revolutionary history, the readings of Huey P Newton, Aldridge Cleaver Pantera Negra, Angela Davis si vienen por mi en la mañana, George Jackson cartas a la revolucion, Rober Wiliamas Negros en armas Winnie Mandela, Malcolm X Omowale, the work of Kwame Toure " Poder Negro" and Political Hip-Hop groups such as Scholly D, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy: we drafted the manifesto "No aggression without response. Organize and fight" and a program of 12 points, to young blacks of Madrid, and we spread the document among them the leaders of the most important gangs, “ we spoke them on unity against white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist power structures no taking advantage of intra-ethnic factionalism and cliquishness to effectively suppress revolutionary Black movements in Spain. We told them that we are not more gangsters, but African revolutionaries and since that time we gonna resolve conflicts and contradictions among our people and society as a whole through principled of the 12 point programe and nonviolent actions between us, and never through counterrevolutionary violence that is promoted and propagated by our enemies. The document, no unanswered aggression, was very simple, and began to circulate in the spring of 1990. It was a challenge to the intellectuals Uncle Tom integrationists who constantly at that time and today appeared in the media forgiving the right-wing terrorists and denying the will of the black youth of retaliation, which infuriated the young blacks and we capitalized this discontent, although we were not the only ones. Against white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist power structures no taking advantage of intra-ethnic factionalism and cliquishness to effectively suppress revolutionary movements in the United States. The lesson for contemporary black revolutionaries today is to resolve conflicts and contradictions among our people and society as a whole through principled, nonviolent actions, and not through counterrevolutionary violence that is promoted and propagated by our enemies. Immediately afterwards, the gangs were asked to sign an adhesion and total loyalty document with an oath with a copy of the Cuban edition of Malcolm X's biography. As a demonstration of revolutionary commitment they were given a 20-day skill period to stop showing the gold chains and to wear the hanging Africa symbol of militancy it was assumed that the leaders would be part of the central committee this was the founding act of the Black Panthers Party.
IMANI: What was the Rol Apartheid moviment and how was the process from Free Mándela to Black Nationalist ?
AN: As the Free Mandela movement was increasingly co-opted and decaffeinated by the NGO phenomenon, plunged the Free Mandela movement into an "ideological disorientation" and witnessing a deep-rooted discursive-practice demolition within the black youth movement that, together with the church, was the base. The most combative militants took refuge in the black consciousness movement that came thanks to rap groups such as Africa Bamabata, Scholly D, and Christian parishes as those of Father Asier and protestant churches whose homilies were authentic rap. These dissident students who broke with the PSEUG students' association found among the refugees and inmates of the outskirts of Guettos what they were looking for and that the campus no longer gave: militants for a new "project" that seeks to put into practice self-defense. we launched a radical group outside the strategy dictated by IEPALA, with the manifesto "no aggression without response" captured dozens and hundreds of youth B-Boy militants to a document that was broadcast in rap clubs like El Yasta and especially Stones Disco. The text was the founding declaration of a new "project" with which they aspired to the Black Power taking back the action that a sector of the Free Mandela movement that was considered liquidationist. This work that considered the effective and positive popular struggle any action against what was thought was a real success. When the State in retaliation created the NGOs and intercultural mediation with the integration as neocolonial strategy ideology type, Movimiento Contra la intolerancia or SOS Racismo, the black youth in the biggest cities and the periphery of Spain not adhered to them, but they joined Black Panther Party. Far from what people think our "main task" was not the armed actions of self-defense but the political formation to be able to face the Nazi terror of practicing occupation of the Black Community?
We know very little about the background of the movement in Spain, please tell us what the remote political and psychological magma furoen origins of the Black Panthers Movement in Spain?
The origins of the Spanish Black Panthers are at the end of the transition in the second half of the 83 with the annulment of the decrees laws of black reparation, dictated in 1980 by President Suarez. The creation a year before the first foreign law whose institutional racism and the entry of Spain into the European Union that expelled blacks from history opfdifla textbooks, TV, school, universities etc ... reducing blacks to immigrants , art, cinema, the boom of Afro-American culture and philosophies that come to Spain through Hip-Hop. In response the Free Mandela Movement hitherto in the hands of Christian church groups was taken over by a sector of Guinean students linked to MALEVA cultural association and PSEUG university association, politicized and radicalized by Tomas Sankara's revolution and Bob Marley's antipartheid music in 1986 Assaulted the South African Embassy of Apartheid in protest of the murder of the poet Benjamin Moloise, which divided the antipartheid movement into two groups, one pro Winnie and another more moderate. At the end of 1990, in a context characterized by the impunity of Nazi skin terror against the black community with crimes like that of the Dominicans Lucrezia Perez: Abuy, Sera, Enrike, Siale and Tomy linked to the African studies group Franzt Fanon, social workers with immigrants and the nightclub of RnB Stones and deeply influenced by the readings of Huey P Newton, Winnie Mandela, Malcolm X Omowale, the work of Kwame Toure "Black Power" and Hip-Hop groups such as Scholly D, Paris, Sister Souljah and Public Enemy: drafted the manifesto "No aggression without response., Organize and fight" and a program of 12 points, gathered on the campus of the Alcala de Heneres labor university and the Pedro Gumiel high school to young blacks of Madrid, among them the leaders of the most important gangs and founder the party of the Black Panthers of Spain
Before the events of the 1988 general strike of students did you already know something about black panthers, how and when was the first time you heard about black Panthers?
The first time I heard on the Black Panthers, i was a child on 1982, when a black girls of Equatoguinean origin suffered sexual assault, an attempt to rape in the neighborhood of Villafontana Mostoles Spain. In retaliation for justice this young people formed the feminist collective called Black Panther. Years later in 1989 the Spanish public television RTVE and the most important newspaper El Pais, published huge debates and images of the murder of Dr. Huey P. Newton. My uncle Antonino Eworo, who had met Huey P Newton in his place of medicine student in Cuba, said that the death of Huey P. Newton was a great tragedy for Africa and Africans at home and abroad. And he gave me the equivalent of 25 euros if I went to church and prayed for the soul of the Huey. Of course I said yes, I took the money and went to the disco. I never thought that someday a humble neighborhood B-Boy like me, could ever talk to who were the outside ideological influences of the party like Aroon Michael, Michel McGee, Winnie Mandela, Aminata Umoja, Chokwe Lumumba, Lester Lewis, Akinyele Umoja, Professor Grift, Omali Yehsitela or Dr. Kahlid Mohamed.
Why the free mandela movement of Spain went into crisis in the late 80's at a time when the departure and release of Nelson Mandela seemed imminent? How did that influence the black panthers party?
As the Free Mandela movement was increasingly co-opted and decaffeinated by the NGO phenomenon, plunged the Free Mandela movement into an "ideological disorientation" and witnessing a deep-rooted discursive-practice demolition within the black youth movement that, together with the church, was the base. The most combative militants took refuge in the black consciousness movement that came thanks to rap groups such as Africa Bamabata and Christian parishes as those of Father Asier and protestant churches whose homilies were authentic rap. These dissident students who broke with the PSEUG students' association found among the refugees and inmates of the outskirts of Guettos what they were looking for and that the campus no longer gave: militants for a new "project" that seeks to put into practice self-defense. we launched a radical group outside the strategy dictated by IEPALA, with the manifesto "no aggression without response" captured dozens and hundreds of militants to a document that was broadcast in rap clubs like El Yasta and especially Stones. The text was the founding declaration of a new "project" with which they aspired to the Black Power taking back the action that a sector of the Free Mandela movement that was considered liquidationist. This work that considered the effective and positive popular struggle any action against what was thought was a real success. When the State in retaliation created the NGOs and intercultural mediation with the integration as neocolonial strategy ideology type, Movimiento Contra la intolerancia or SOS Racismo, the black youth in the biggest cities and the periphery not adhered to them, but they joined Black Panther Party. Far from what people think our "main task" was not the armed actions of self-defense but the political formation to be able to face the Nazi terror of practicing occupation of the Black Community? The document, no unanswered aggression, was very simple, and began to circulate in the spring of 1990. It was a challenge to the intellectuals Uncle Tom integrationists who constantly at that time and today appeared in the media forgiving the right-wing terrorists and denying the will of the black youth of retaliation, which infuriated the young blacks and we capitalized this discontent, although we were not the only ones. Undoubtedly the decisive element for abandoned Uncle Tom mentality and to assume the Black Panther’s ideas and vision was the assault on the South African embassy in 1986 by black student headed by Marcelino Bondjale. This act divided the free Mandela Movement into two blocks, one moderate partisan of Nelson and other partisan radical of Winnie. A solidarity committee was established with the leaders of Maleva Association who had led the uprising against Apartheid and who was detained pending trial. From this committee of solidarity the mandate would emanate to find new channels to continue the struggle. Although my family was rather conservative, they were not Uncle Tom, it was a matriarchy and I was instilled that in this conflict had to support Winnie and at home there was talk of that history and in the meals and church was commented. At that time I was a dj and I wanted to be a Raper, or rather in the Breack Dance and I was influenced by brother T-7, the father of the Spanish Hip-Hop and ideologue of the guns or brotherhoods, which in those days, attracted the political radicalization of the poets who later linked to the Black Panthers. We stopped listening groups such Fat Boys, my Adidias or Run DMC and we started to listen to Schooly D, Afrika Islam, Gill Schoot Heron Rakjhim, LL Cool J, very poopy political rap and very aware rhymes. The same week that Mandela was released, a historic community assembly was convened in June 1990, under the motto Free Mandela: the struggle continues !!! in the street Bravo Murillo of Madrid, headquarters of MOLIFUGE, in the offices of lawyer Dr. Ndjondjo Muadacucu. The truth was we did not have much experience and I asked my cousin Pablo Ovono to gather a couple of hard guys from the guns Brotherhood, Simply Brothers and we went. This was my first militant events that i spoke. In that room were the most important African leaders of the time by the conservative black right was the businessman, ex-military Guinean Mr. Ekomo de Yacure, who was one of the greatest references. Also, the Reduane Asuik trade unionist, from AEME, Moroccan workers association in Spain, Senegalese unionist Lamin Sagne, founder of AISE association of the Senegalese workers in Spain, and the lawyer Djondjo and Marcelino Bondjale from MALEVA organization form Equatorial Guinea. There were older people who impressed me, the atmosphere is on, the people embraced, but also young people wept happily for the release of Mandela and great enthusiasm. There was a prayer thanking God for such a great day: there were 2 blacks with uncle Tom's paint that spoke very well and they asked for tranquility and that we were careful and all that they often say to demobilize and frighten the afraid and afropessimism. There were also black youth who had suffered Nazi terrorist attacks and although it was not the order of the day, they called for a solution. finally when the elders had spoken the word was given to the young people, Siale took the floor and proposed a draft document that months later would be the political presentation of the Black Panther Party, "organize yourself and fight, no unanswered aggression." In the end we decree the continuity of the struggle, not to agree with the oppressive State of De Clerk, but we wanted to see winners and conquerors. From where it turned out that the black youths aligned with Winnie Mandela and Chris Hanni and not with Nelson Mandela: I was proud of my people, I do not see back that collective state of self-esteem among the blacks community until the summer of 1990, after the victory of the Cameroon National football team during the world cup against Maradona's Argentina. It seems a lie, but those little things serve to raise the level of consciousness. Many brothers in the street boys gangster stopped to me and said: we have finally free Mandela and now what us here? With this question, the idea and necessity of the Panthers Black Party was born at this time.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish chapter of the New Black Panther Party on 28 October 1990 at the Labour University of Alcala and the Pedro Gumiel Higth School at Chorillo, the major immigrant neighborhood´s. The party was a youth organization. The majority of us began to militancy in the Black Panthers Party from very young, with an average age of 15-20 years being this our space with the ideas and the practical Pan-Africanist & Socialist, practically from children, at home with different experiences of the black popular movement (social, associative, union, church, etc.).The first thing to understand is that the Spanish chapter of the Black Panthers was a youth freedom fighter organization, it was not a group of black intellectual students chatting on Facebook and especially in those times and partly also today, gangs are and still the only real youth organizations. We were some inexperienced but born observers, I looked at everything and our condition led us to notice that these young blacks, B-boys, would today be the CRIPT here Latin King, active gang members were armed on the streets and doing nothing, especially young boys. In those days we read a lot and read a book about Bunchy Carter and the Los Angeles branch of the Black Panthers that took them from gangsters to Revolutionaries. Boom !!!.... there came the idea that we could do the same here and I started in the band where myself had played The Colours Power in Fuenlabrada. I noticed that these brothers - unlike the whites - when they finished high school, had no street educators, no spaces or programs made so that they could find a job and forget the bands. These boys had come from children or had been born in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, were teenagers, with a high school failure, a product of institutional racism, unstructured families ... nor was it easy to find a job because they were not qualified and especially because they were black or Latino. All the groups dressed the same, nothing could distinguish them. Everything came together and made them into people of exceptional courage. The multitudinal fights between rival groups were habitual, in that time the bands had a great number of members. They were attributed violent actions in parks, painted war or the placing of an RBG flag in the street as in a Nazi booth during the official celebration of Alcalá de Henares in 1995. Of course these groups were not majority and had little social support inside the Black Community but they attracted the attention of African Youth. This would then serve to create and recruit the best cadres of the party with whom we began to deliver political education classes and some discipline to transform their criminal mentality into a revolutionary mentality. Through the party they lost the gangs phenomenon and were several dozen who came to our meetings that baptized as a political formation where we gave them the whole idea of Malcolm X. Although they were not linked I was concerned to know one by one brothers, families , their problems, illusions and their fears expressed in the classes of political formation, I let them expand and I saw that what they suffered was what I was going through, and that orientation and closeness, when everything around is very confusing , it's very valuable. The most important aspect was black history. As Kus says "Over the years, I suppose, almost every black kid has a crisis that has an identity. That leads you to look for a way to find out a lot about different black cultures, African history, the American African culture with its sad history of slavery and hatred. “we started implementing point number 5 of platform writing by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal. We started teaching, brother’s African history. The purpose of black history classes was to motivate and break with the Afro-pessimism. Another aspect, also very important, was discipline, without these conditions, it is not possible to create a revolutionary organization. We launched the program in 12 points through this work, the black youth saw the inability to apply the ideas of malcolm x of self-defense and in less than 2 years during the celebrations of the 5th centenary of the so-called discovery of America, we had chapters in the majority of the great black communities of Spain. Almería, Madrid, Alcalá, Valencia, Murcia, Torrejón, León, Barcelona, Leganes, Mostoles, Asturias, Zaragoza, Fuenlabrada. This helped the Nazi terrorism and the boycott campaign to the Barcelona Olympics games 92 for the Negro de Banyoles. And the Spanish Chapter of Black Panther was recognized by brother leader Aaron Michael as official chapter. We always fought against isolation and we went an African Internationalism organization and, despite our little experience, we came into contact with revolutionary organizations such as RNA, NAPO, AAPRP, APSP, Black Radical Congress, MXGRM and we subscribed to the most important newspapers of the moment apart from The Black Panther, Nation Time of Baba Herman Fergusson and the historic the Burning Spear. We organized a 10th anniversary of the fall of Dr. Huey P. Newton and we sent delegation to A Million Men March, Million Youth March. With his first trip in 1993, Akinyele Umoja was undoubtedly the person who settled between the movement of Spanish black liberation a certain revolutionary vision of the work of Malcolm x
HAITI REVOLUTion You said that the Haiti revolution was what most impressed young gang members. How was that??
As every year since 1992, the Garveyista Garveyista Cimarron Movement began the year celebrating and commemorating the 214th anniversary of the triumph of the Great Maroon Revolution of Santo Domingo, the greatest epic in history and part of our identity that is the revolutionary Haitian that occurred on January 1, 1804. This year under the title of Kilombo to the Republic and of the Marimar of Panafricanism, we pay tribute to the daughters of a revolution that is a milestone in history: Makendal, Bukman, Thoussian, Dessaili and os other architects of the Revolution to approach the figure of Thoussiant to pay tribute to his ideas and his legacy, during. On the importance of this fact in the unparalleled history that gave rise to pan-Africanism since the cimarronaje. The epic started in 1791 had its central point in the Oath of Bois Caïman, the first pan-African constituent assembly in history and that was the result of several weeks of meticulous secret organization, during the night of August 14 and 15, in Bois Caïman there was a Voodoo ceremony led by the theologian and Jamaican activist and houngan Dutty Boukman, assisted by a mambo woman, voodoo high priestess and commander, Cécile Fatiman, in front of two hundred delegates who made the following oath in creloe:
"The good Lord who created the Earth, who gives us light from above, who supports the ocean and makes the roar of thunder, listen well, all of you!" This God, hidden in the clouds, watches us. atrocities that the white man does The god of the white man calls him to commit crimes Our God asks only for us justice and good deeds But this good God commands vengeance He will direct our hands He will help us image of the god of whites who thirsts for our tears and listen to the voice of freedom that speaks in the hearts of all of us. "
Toussiant and his great effort to make a revolution from the blacks, from African unity to the most humble of this earth, with this annual celebration we carry the feeling of many Africans that even today, more than 200 years later, we recognize in this great Revolution Pan-Africanism a turning point in the international context of the time and the defeat of French, Spanish and British imperialism together as well as racism, slavery and fascism. As Kwame Nkrumah stated, bizarre thought and practice greatly influenced the African Revolution in Ghana 1958, in its attempt to liberate black women and men from exploitation by Europe, to free it from the domination of capital and to think about the possibility of a pan-Africanist society. The Haitian revolution not only abolished slavery but also introduced in Spanish America the principles of equality, fraternity and freedom, the principles of enlightenment that together with internationalism, solidarity, social justice, the right of peoples to their self-determination, independence and sovereignty, which were always the sustenance of the October Revolution, which armed and financed Higuins, Sant Martin and Bolivar to liberate the continent. Without the Maroon Revolution of Haiti, neither Simon Bolivar could have been constituted as the great homeland, nor Trosky, Lenin, Castro, Durruti, Hugo Chavez or Nelson Mándela. The silencing of this epic by the Ibero-American European academy is due to the enormous internal contradictions derived from its deep racist education, white and colonial supremacy based on white supremacy, as well as the rise of Tios Tom governments on the island and the African Union.
The Afrocentric quest not only led to the union of the palenques and kilombos in the creation of the first pan-Africanist state in the world, it opened a path of hope by giving way to a new social regime, which would demonstrate that a world without exploiters or exploited was possible. In FOJA and other pan-Africanist revolutionary groups, together with the ideas of Arcelin, Winnie Mandela and Garvey, the ideas of the Haitian Revolution have always been an inspiration. That revolution gave other exploited Third World countries an example to follow, for it marked a time in the struggle for a better world. Since then, this celebration is a way of expressing our immense gratitude and recognition for such a gesture of detachment, a symbol of solidarity, courage and brotherhood of the blacks of the countryside. The Russian revolution boosted development and was an example for several peoples in the world in the struggle for independence. being the first great attempt of transformation of the world, of turning utopia into reality, which started a new era for humanity, with historical inspirations like Dr. Arcelin, genuine son of the best of this revolution.
What was the rol of black student movement, in Spain during thuose years 86?
The black student movement, in Spain, is considered one of the pillars of social mobilization and it was in the meantime that hip-hop defected to the most avant-garde sector of action was where the repertoires of action were, promoted the social mobilization and , finally, we enter into organization processes. and we learned to react with violence. Something complex becuase we was teach on Martin Luther King and Cristinity we suffered the repression of part of the authority, with the rest of the White students but it gave a collective concience. the Demostration were not cool there were physical hosts that imply the blows and detentions, until practically invisible violence, like the withdrawal of the passport or the loss of matrícula. The violence exercised by the authority generates response dynamics on the part of the students, which varied depending on the strength of the movement and its objectives. In this sense, the forms of repression certainly influenced the forms of protest. within the African student movement of the College Africa and the secondary of higth scholl generated diverse dynamics that were confronted above all when the murder of Benjamin Moloise. African High class university students did not get involved in the movements they were afraid to go out to the marches they said that we were afflicted and that we should not get into the affairs of the whites, that our obligation was to hear and shut up and study (Laughter )but we saw that only one way to lose the fear was to participate along with a few white students a sector of students we saw a political opportunity, the structures of mobilization, and the framing processes. above all, to create a structure that mobilized the blacks to get involved in the action, to go to the demonstrations to strike, and to Africans to redefine our situation as unjust in front of the idyllic vision of the greater clergy and the African uncle tom. it allowed us to develop a new diagnosis and a treatment for existing forms of suffering, a diagnosis and a treatment through which that suffering is morally condemned. The fact that what happened in Mandela was not just him but was an unjust universal system: this relationship gave blacks youth a potential and legitimity for action,
What was the conception at Ideological level or strategical of the organzation?
As i td yu we had lefties and anarquists and too mouch antifacist lennist influence. All we socialiced politicly at Anti Apartheid Movement influence beacuse may ther brother ad sster have been militant of SHARP but we know that the brothers in street the b-Boys and gang only knows mowale Malcolm x and Winnie Mandela becuase they saw him the hip-hop clip on Tv Raps. And at home your mama told you on Winie Mandea. So we used comunists dalectical as comrade or demcratic centralism The organization did not want to be a communist party in the classical style, But it must serve to give theoretical and strategic solidity to the service of the black movement, avoiding in any case any attempt of manipulation or satellization on the part of the African Negro NGOs. Let us understand the organization of black Panthers as national liberation Organization at the service of the independence movement and not the other way round, at the same time we understand that the organization only forms part of this Back Comumitty movement and that it must be plural so that the different tendencies of the pan-Anfricanist left they can arise, with the right to organize all of them, as long as this organization does not serve to diminish the general Black movement's autonomy.
¿Cual fue experiencia personal previa a la creación de los Panteras ?
En esos ambientes de huelgas y protestas estudiantiles fui
expulsado del colegio de católico acusado de alentar y encabezar una huelga, no
era verdad pero yo fui a la sentada que en el campo de fútbol se realizó y como
era el único negro las miradas de don Juan el director y otros profesores que
me conocían me pidieron que delatara a los cabecillas; aspecto que me negué y como consecuencia me
expulsaron de 15 a 30 días. Asi regresé a Móstoles a la Comunidad Negra a casa de
mi tía Pilar Ngomo, mi objetivo era instalarme en la casa que mis padres tenían
en propiedad en Móstoles Carlos V pero había un inquilino que le pagaban a mi tía.Tenia
que aprender a ser negro de nuevo así que reaprender la cultura y proceso y razonamientos kemiticos. Para empezar fui a visitar a mi tío Rufo Ndongo Asama era un facha lo que se
dice un José antoniano, un negro nostálgico del franquismo que como militar, empresario
y político en PANDECA donde lo había
sido todo en vida, estaba convaleciente en el hospital de Móstoles, cuando
le vi postrado en aquella cama con esa pinta de gravedad sólo sin nadie, había envejecido
de repente mucho por la enfermedad. De alguna forma me sentí culpable se me
humedecieron los ojos, me enfurecí y llené de rabia. Había visto lo que mi tía Filomena había hecho con mi madre, ni siquiera
fue a verla al hospital y con mi padre su primo hermano y prácticamente su
padre ( Roma no paga a traidores) y me prometí a mí mismo que a mi Tio Rufo no le pasaría eso, pues en esta vida cuando tienes todos se te
acercan pero cuando ya no tienes incluso la
familia te abandona. Le llevé un flores, unos periódicos ABC y la Razón, era tan
facha que creía que el medio de Luis María Anson era muy light. Leiamos juntos "el alfa y la
omega" con la columna de Jaime Capmany. Tambien le compré una radio pequeña de pilas para que pudiera escuchar a Luis Herrero en la Cope (entonces no había trece tv ni Intereconomía ni Vox,
ni el distrito de Xavier Algara) lo más de derecha era eso. Y es lo que a él le gustaba. Y Saboré la libertad.Ese año fue determinante pues conocí a varias personas que serían mis camaradas Nacho, Andres y sobre todo Juan Utrero Brañas aka El che. Militaban en el
colectivo antifascista incordia y frecuentaban con Manuel Manu un anarco muy bakuniano, el resto eran leninista o social
revolucionarios y todos frecuentaban el centro social antirracista soweto. A Manu le conocía desde niño en el vecindario barrio de villafontana donde comenzaron a los Panteras Negras en 1982 por las dos chicas negras agredidas sexualmente. Este último y o éramos de la extrema izquierda así
que os podéis imaginar las comidas y discusiones con mi tío Rufo en casa. Que un negro sea liberal o
demócrata cristiano vale pero que sea pepero o de vox; es muy fuerte y
las mentes liberales blancas progresistas no lo asumen nunca, es difícil de comprender. Como nació
en ese entorno con mi padre Domingo Abuy y mis tíos; nunca me pareció algo antagónico. Allí en nocturno de BUP de 15 a 30 días
era demasiado tiempo y la libertad es lo más sabroso de los platos que un ser
humano puede llegar a comer. Así que me
matricule en el nocturno en el IES para terminar allí el curso y me compre una moto. Aquí conocía a
Luckky, era un hermano de padres congoleño y angolano con el que solíamos jugar al
baloncesto. Andrés era el mejor de no ser negro hubiera llegado al Madrid o al Estudiantes
era lo más parecido a Jordan, pero Lucky –no sé porque - y su nombre venia de
sky Walker que había ganado el concurso de mates de la NBA, de repente nos caímos
bien. Yo era muy flaco y él grande como un armario,
imponía nada más verle, pero había otra razón, a ambos nos chiflaba NWA el grupo
de rap de moda justo antes de la explosión de Public Enemy e Inmortal thecnhic .
Recuerda que en aquella época yo era un paleto negro venido del internado católico y NWA era lo más grande
que habíamos escuchado (RISAS) . Quería hacerme respetar pues sin darme cuenta mis formas eran algo
pijas en el underground negro así que comencé
por dejarme dread loqs y fingir que
fumaba Maria cuando era mentira,
me mareaban, me dejé pendiente aunque me
lo quitaba para ir a casa de familiares. Para esconder esa imagen de paleto y
pijo de los hombres G jersey de cuello, pantalones levis y mocasines martinelli,
comencé a parar en los bares de negros que había en Móstoles, trasnochar y salir
con diferentes mujeres de todos los colores y formas. El bar más famoso
entonces era el de Manga; un camerunés que siempre me mostró afecto. Un día viernes
íbamos a salir de marcha después de clase fui a su casa a Estoril y encontramos al novio de madre pegandola e insultadola,
parecía que era algo muy habitual de violenciaspalizas machista, era un chulo, miré a Lucky y vi que a pesar de su 1,80 estaba
aterrado.Fuimos directamente a la habitación mientras ese hombre siguió golpeando
a la mujer sin que nadie hiciera nada, sentí que me moría de impotencia rabia y comencé a
sudar .Lucky se hizo un peta en la habitación y comenzamos a fumar y cuando me
vio nervioso me dijo " tranquilizate, pues eso pasaba siempre ya luego se
arreglan y punto". Así supe el origen de esa sensación de melancolía y tristeza de Lucky
Ours was an explosion of young blacks emerging from the Free Mandela movement and the example of Winnie, black youth from student strikes, radical hip-hop culture of groups like Schooly D, Public Enemy, Paris, Afrika Islam etc such Dead Prezz now. People who have read Malcolm X and Dr. Huey P Newton were not willing to more to allow the impunity of terrorism Nazi Skin. We were very idealistic teenagers, people who spent the little money they have to buy Public Enemy rap albums, mainly reading Marvell's superhero comics, we were looking for an ideal, with a youthful soul in search of an ideology Black Power, revolutionary activism with values and a cause that in Spain, sought and found in more or less informal youth organizations and associative tissues implanted in many districts and districts in Spanish towns and cities, such as those formed by the known guns or sororities: And we find the message of Malcolm X. Most of us were inexperienced young people who were proud of being black and of the struggle of our fathers against the Africanist dictatorships uncle Tom of Macías and Obiang and the like, and that is why we dedicate ourselves in body and soul, that after a few We began a youth career as young militants. The ideals we absorb in particular derive from the anti-apartheid struggle and the mythical figure of Malcolm X, to which we connect initially with more enthusiasm than knowledge, and who try to communicate to the rest of the world our ideals and source of inspiration. Then there was no internet and what it took then were the books, magazines, newspapers and fanzines like Afrotown; we held conferences, a training school at a human and political level of militancy and other actions. With the growth of Pan-Africanism and increasingly important youth activities, the afrocentrado discourse, referring to youth level in places and neighborhoods where there was no organization, began to emerge and to develop a pioneering discourse on racism, machismo (Celia Mba), self-organization, drugs, conceptualization of power, critique of euro white Marxism, unemployment, communitarianism, music RAP, creation and implantation in Spain of symbolism as African Liberation Day, the reparation, appropriation of Afrocentric history, but without losing the afrocentrada centrality.
Dr ARCELIN NEGRO DE BANYOLES
During these years we made many campaigns and praiseworthy community projects that today constitute a great contribution and legacy to the new black movement today and of course to the whole Garveyist movement, the important ones being the struggle for the black African man stuffed in a museum of Banyoles, the painted magic kings, etc... Especially our capacity in 30 years to form militants and political cadres who in certain neighborhoods created assemblies where we meet once a week in bars, parks or cultural centers, which I believe cohesion and thematic unity. To say that helped in the end of the 80 to formalize language and dissent, organize rabies and young black people began to see here things that only happened in London or USA: posters with the slogan Black Panthers. we created ideological cohesion and an aspect of the was determinate is that on the one hand we conjugate the agitation in the streets with demonstrations, taking of buildings and on the other with the referential work in the institutions: from the critic of the local politics analysis of the politics as it was the forum of municipalities and that gave the sufficient maturity that made that little by little our project was passing of children to the parents, the majors so that the project was consolidated. And despite the campaigns of attacks and smear against the maroon panthers, we created alliances with all, but without losing the afrocentrada centrality. after its passage through the youth organizations and we have been the generation that has continued to be mostly linked to the different struggles, especially the Pan-African movement and that is an important leap at the historical level, since many people have arisen from the Panthers or FOJA and have continued to militate in other areas of the community and this is the result of an unknown work and unusual result and we did it without any political umbrella. The fact that this work is and has been essential to talk about other aspirations today fashionable in the black community as natural hair, black in political parties or Reparation-PNL and especially for the growth of the dream of Marcus Garvey and Dr. Arcelin. From 2004-2006, 80% of the demonstrations convened by immigrants were convened by individuals, groups directly or indirectly imbued with black panthers. Therefore, accepting that the current reality is changing and confused as the forms of oppression have camouflaged and there are no public aggressions and young blacks believe that everything has been for their academic titles or hours chatting on facebook. But the truth is that if in Spain today and blacks have some validity, it is the result of the work of the revolutionary youth that engaged in different generations in the Black Panthers.as a result of having passed through the Black Panthers to have formed as militants from many points of view, discussions, debates, confrontations, at all levels and disciplines, pasting posters, analyzing legal texts, institutional negotiation, design, radio making and writing Leaflets, perform security work reading incredible books such as black superheroes comic .This formation will never be obtained at university although we live 4 times and do 30 colleges. The love for the comrades, the friendship and the whole lesson that Dr. Runoko Rashidi: on the importance of continuity. We have been created a real school part of the aforementioned political school.
Now feminist speeches and movements in the black community are fashionable, can you tell us what role women play in the party?
Long before Enrique, Tomy, Serafin, Siale and Abuy created in 1990, the Black Panthers in Alcalá, in 1982 two young Guinean women who had suffered sexual assault in the Villafontana neighborhood of the city of Mostoles, created: the Collective feminist Black Panthers. The founding of the Spanish section of the Black Panthers party meant not only a continuity of the Free Mandela Movement process but the articulation of a new collective strategy based on self-defense against the impunity of Nazi terrorism against the Black Community. This expanded the participation of black women as well as the radicalization of pan-Africanist demands and their strategies. Although dominated mainly by male leaders, women always played a very important leadership role in the behavior of the party. Most of the young women who enlisted were not feminists in the Eurocentric style of Betty Freeman but rather a womanist who joined the party fed up with the impunity of Nazi terrorism machismo identity crisis In a new context determined by Hip-Hop, they assumed everything type of responsibilities. And the rise of Uncle Tom all this conditioned the gender dynamics. Young and prominent activist leaders emerged who were the daughters of the previous generation whose mothers were committed to African freedoms, the education of their daughters and vocational training. The panthers formed a number of black women activists such as: Mefe, Sonia Mba, Mari Bel Obiang, Olga Asue, Ada Okenve, Mary Luz Mba, Bibi Kalala, Sandra and Sonia Ikpeba, Celia Mba, Conchi Buika, Helen Jones, Rufi Maaba, Mariam, Jenny Fdez. Leona, Lidia etc ... In fact, sista Mariam was one of the promoters of the manifesto for the Afro-Spanishization that APN Association Black Panthers launched in 2004.
MEMORY COMMUNITY
An important reflection is that the Black Panthers in those years played a fundamental role even essential, they had the task of keeping alive in the street what was the fight. Because it was the reference for combative black youth since there was not much else, they had to play a role that served as a link between four generations. One of the important things that the Pan-Africanist had was that he gave blacks a collective political idea or identity. It has been very important because it has been a school of political, ideological, cultural and militant formation during these 40 years. It is also something that continues to happen today in F.O.J.A and should give us a reference of what the Panthers were, since many times it was and is the first militancy of many people and sometimes even the only one. The view is that it was young people who composed it and what is important is that for many women it was their first militancy, because it allowed them to come into contact with a much deeper line of commitment. Perhaps, they entered the party to fight fascism in the streets, institutes, university, discotheques, parks etc ... but the formation allowed them a connection with greater reflections in the long term. These two issues now are not played alone - the Black Panthers - nor revolutionary Pan-Africanism, there are many more organizations, some militants, more references than luckily, black movements that can make that link between the different black generations of struggle. Do not pose the struggle of the young blacks, only as mere aesthetics or slogans.
RACISM
The Black Panthers were a youth organization was not given in facebook but in a general expression and is that it is not given in abstract but in concrete social formations, these gave many young women a key keys, as a result the ex-militants are still an axis of articulation, today of the black struggles in Spain. One of the great tasks that the Black Panthers did and it was a political victory especially after the assassination of Lucrecia Perez, was to make visible the Nazi terrorist attacks against immigrants and blacks, on the other hand the racist, fascist, sexist or homophobic character of the same, because the normal thing was that the authorities attributed it to the so-called "urban tribes". What left unpunished and blamed the victims to the young blacks Thanks to this struggle the racism Negrophobia stopped being something individual, gave terrorism a political character and made visible that anti-black terrorism, were not isolated cases. .
Today product of the depoliticization and folklorization of black consciousness, many people are still not aware of the role and importance that the Black Panthers played in Spain. Today we would be in another totally different context, if those years of struggle of the Black Panthers and many people have tried to mistakenly reduce what were the Black Panthers with the violent struggle against street fascism, against the Nazi skin heads or part of the anti-fascist self-defense
THEORITICAL CONTRIBUTION
We learned love for comrades, friendship, commitment and continuity. That generated a real school, apart from the political school mentioned above. The most important thing in the long term was the youth activity that the pan-Africanist movement developed because the Black Panthers trained these 5 generations of young Africans who today are fathers and mothers of families, professionals and then we were exploited, super alienated, frustrated and dejected. The Black Panthers Party gave us an illusion, a cause to live and die for. I emphasize above all our capacity in these years to form militants and political cadres that in certain neighborhoods created assemblies, accumulation of forces and social base etc ... We developed the theoretical contributions of Malcolm X on self-defense because the attacks of fascism at that time were important and not only contributed, how to denounce them media and judicially, but above all we learned to fight it politically and that attracted militants and raised the consciousness of youth black Another aspect was the ideological clarification, what Brother Ras Babiker called then a thematic unit. I would highlight three levels of analysis: On the one hand, the capacity for agitation in a very simple way, in search of cohesion in a way that created an African socio-political space, Pan-Africanist and the black question, ceased to be a taboo. And today we talk about Black Power and the RBG, Garvey's flag, is seen in the acts of the movement. The Black Panthers recovered similiar dates - until then unpublished - like the African Liberation Day, we created alliances with white revolutionary groups but without losing the centralized Afro-centric and community. Secondly, an important aspect was that on the one hand we combine the agitation in the streets with demonstrations, building intakes, food preparation programs, political education class, lawyers to fix the documentation of illegal immigrants, and on the other with work reference in the institutions: from the criticism of local policies as was the forum in the municipalities and that gave sufficient maturity that made little by little our project was passed from children to parents, so that the project will be consolidated.
COMMUNITY BASE
Despite the campaigns, attacks and discredit by White supremacy, Eurocentric academy and Negroe intellectual, another aspect that Black Panthers contributed, was the perspective of Black Power, anti-apartheid, Hip-Hop was that of all generations, ours, which went through the Black Panther Party has been the generation that has continued most linked mostly to the struggles and Pan-Africanist militancy after its passage through the youth organizations as Black Panthers and that is an important leap at historical level. Many people have emerged from Black Panthers and have continued to work in other areas of the black community and that is the result of an unknown work, so ungrateful and unusual results. And we did it without any political umbrella to fight and the fact that this work is and has been essential to talk about other very fashionable aspirations in Spain, such as natural hair, electoral participation of black people, unemployment, institutional racism, Concentration camps for immigrants, sexism, homelessness,. And the truth is that today Pan-Africanism and the Blacks Community in Spain today, including Uncle Tom, have some validity in Spain today: it is the result of the work that two generations of black youth did through the Black Panthers game. As a result of having spent these 32 years for the Black Movement as a whole, the socio-political space of the Pan-Africanist movement and, above all, the school of African philosophy, gave black youth the great opportunity to form politically as a militant from many points of view. view, at all levels and disciplines: discussions, debates, confrontations, and the work of pasting posters, analysis of legal texts, institutional negotiation, design, radio, TV, making and writing pamphlets, performing security tasks, reading incredible books like the comics of black superheroes. The control of artists and celebrities, since these, being outside the community and organic process, always end up taking on the neocolonial dynamics, turning against the process. And the black panthers articulated in a vanguard political force to be able to "save" the black process, when the celebrities become Uncle Tom. Although we live 400 years and do 30 careers, this training would never have been obtained in any university, we did not learn to be black in the faculty but in the Black Panthers.
LEGACY OF 4 GENERATION
The most important in the long term was the youthful activity of the Black Panthers because we formed 4 generations of black youth who were frustrated and killed, we gave them an illusion, a cause to live and die. The work of university and school formation, the work of the party's base, ideological and thoughtless has not done it any more than the panthers. And it has been fruitful because it opened a fan and an immense opportunity of Garveyism, revolutionary, nkrumist, Pan-Africanism and maroon. And this has created a character and temperament that lasts until today; all these generations occupy today in Spanish society their place and do their jobs some of them of great value. Artists such as: Killer B, Frank, Chojin, Mefe, Conchy Buika, Doblehache, politicians such as (Ignacio Sola or Patricio Bakale), professionals and intellectuals such as David Fanon, actors (Yoyo Ovono, Emilio Buale), journalists, priests, entrepreneurship sportsmen (Kus or Alex boxing champion in Spain), journalists, filmmakers such as Santy Zanou or Paloma Bilanwe, Padre Mitogo, entrepreneurs such as Rufi sister, etc. in some way formed in this school. And many people who are still active. For example, the team of Uhuru Afrika TV, the same Ras Babiker who was our teacher and the maximum living reference, remains active in the fight against the dictatorship in Sudan, trade unionists such as Ataye Mbenky, Ragna Paisa (manager of Peret), poetry of Obiang Nsang on Uhuru Afrika TV, Moises Nvumba on voice radio of the voiceless. There are many of whose names I do not remember, I am doing a lot of work in parties, ideological groups and thought. And this creates a character and temperament that lasts until today all this generation occupy today in society their place and do their jobs, some of them of great value, whether in London, Santo Domingo, Guinea, Spain. One case: José Mendez has been appointed ambassador in Panama by the Dominican Republic government.
THE STRUGLE CONTINUIS
We do not feel exclusive heirs of this history nor of the mark black panthers. Today there are other organizations that are fighting in the black community to which we are directed. The reasons why we started the fight a handful of illusioned young blacks today continues as 30 years ago. In Spain the young blacks today continue to live under prison, impunity, Exclusion violence in a very selective way. The most endearing people materially where they persist endemically: hunger, extreme poverty and widespread, marginality and social fragmentation, lack of basic services, potable water, pandemics, lower life expectancy, high child mortality, high environmental risks and high vulnerability to natural disasters , political and social unemployment, absence of work, low levels of schooling and illiteracy, high level of violation of Human Rights, Civil and Social and direct impact of armed conflict, denial of the right to asylum, low democratic participation, racism and Institutional exclusion and widespread invisibility in the bodies of participation are mostly black: and it is no coincidence. 90% of black NGOs have no institutional support or meeting or participation spaces, invisibility, care, guardianship, pity, violence, charity and pain, afflictionism, gangs, and misery as extreme forms of denial: one neocolonial relationship of dependence through the macro-NGO. The blacks have little prospect of finding a job and do not appear as beneficiaries of aid. Youth unemployment, school failure, absence of scholarships. 55% of prisoners are black or Afro-descendants, alignment, sexism, consumerism and exclusion of associative expression. All policies are still designed to enhance black isolation and genocide. Examples are the Catalan forum for the integration of immigrants, the European directive, FRONTEX, or the non-discrimination council for racial or ethnic origin in Spain or the misery of Cal Àfrica in Besòs Barcelona.
CONGRATULATION
We know that today in Spain the slave master is creating black clowns that reject Black Panthers, Malcolm, Farrakhan, Omali, Angela Davis, that Nkrumah was a dictator and Gaddafi a criminal, barbarities like that or call Mama Winnie Mandela, in definitive confusion, to deny the historical process of black liberation in Spain. You all know who they are and how they do it and who they pretend. No worries, they always hurt him, they bark and then we ride. That is why I want to end with the words of one of my favorite singers Ana Belen & Victor Manuel, who in one of his songs says: if a traitor are more than a few than those few, do not forget it easily. As I said during the closing of the 4th Congress of the Pan-Africanist Movement of Spain held in Barcelona in 2013, thanks to the black youth acting without thinking many people had the courage to understand that if we do not defend our own community, even if we do not know what is happening, nobody is going to do it. So I would like to express my absolute congratulations on this anniversary, not only to the founders (Sera, Enrique, Tommy, Siale and the humble servant) but also to all the comrades including APN who, at different times, including their courageous commitments in difficult circumstances, helped to make a world best. Especially the brave women like sister Rufi, Bibi, Lidia, Sandra, Sonia, Mary Bel, Mary Luz, Mariam etc ... who overcame with much difficulties the ideas and sexist joints and all the chapters of the different cities and neighborhoods of Spain. And how not to remember those who are no longer like Pablo Ovono Candela, Tcham Bissa, Pio Desiderio, Alfonse Arcelin, Desire, Aliu, Lucrecia Perez, Javier Siale, Felipe, Key Solo.
I want to encourage all of you to write about this heroic page of history of Spain
"UHURU
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
TO BE CONTINUIS
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