This text is a compilation of documents dedicated to one of my greatest heroes (really heru). Dedicated to all the freedom fighters across our planet, learn and move forward.
Submitted by: Field Agent: F.Kubai
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Official Statement by Mr. Ture
We know that one of the greatest crimes an individual can commit is that of being ungrateful.
I have made many errors, but of one thing I am certain, my ability to continue serving in the African and World Revolution is greatly attributed to a number of contributions that I have received from the masses of African and other Oppressed Peoples worldwide. We cite here, just a few examples.
In 1966, when I had just been elected Chairperson of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, my first official act, was to visit the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. It is then that he ordered all members of the Fruit of Islam to protect me wherever I traveled, anywhere in the world. I am still under that umbrella of protection today, here in Africa, in Guinea. I could never be ungrateful to the Nation of Islam, to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, nor to his incarnation - Minister Louis Farrakhan.
In 1967, U.S. imperialism was seriously planning to assassinate me. It still is, this time by an FBI induced cancer, the latest in the white man's arsenal of chemical and biological warfare, as I am more determined to destroy it today than in 1967. It was Fidel Castro who before the OLAS Conference said "if imperialism touches one grain of hair on his head, we shall not let the fact pass without retaliation." It was he, who on his own behalf, asked them all to stay in contact with me when I returned to the United States to offer me protection. I could never be ungrateful to the People of Cuba nor to Cuba's incarnation - Fidel Castro.
In 1967, Presidents Ahmed Seku Ture and Kwame Nkrumah, through the intercession of Shirley Graham DuBois, invited me to attend the 8th Congress of the Democratic Party of Guinea (RDA). They invited me to live, work, study and struggle here in Guinea, an invitation which I readily accepted, despite tremendous criticism from almost every quarter. Thirty years later, I still live in Guinea, working, studying and struggling for the African Revolution. And I will continue to do so until the last second, of the last minute, of the last hour, of the last day. And it is my wish to sleep here in Guinea, eternally. I could never be ungrateful to the People of Guinea, nor Guinea's and Africa's incarnations - Ahmed Seku Ture and Kwame Nkrumah.
Today, on behalf of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), I am honored to accept an invitation that has been extended by Brother Muammar Al Qathafi and the People of the Libyan Jamiriyha to travel to Tripoli, which is in Africa, so that they might assist me in my eternal fight, against an unyielding enemy. It would be ungrateful, and unAfrican for me to refuse.
We wish to thank Brother Muammar and the People of the Libyan Jamiriyha for sending us this hospital plane which I, and members of my biological and ideological family now board. This act is just one more act of an infinite number of Brother Muammar's and the Libyan People's contributions to African and World Humanity. I am sure I will never be ungrateful to the revolutionary People of the Libyan Jamahiriyat as long as I live, as I shall remain eternally steadfast and faithful to revolutionary principles. And I know that my biological and ideological family will remain steadfast and faithful as well.
Sisters and Brother, Comrades, we know that the Cuban and Libyan Revolutions have a base of solid support among the Africans in United States and around the world. Imperialism also knows this. This support has been earned by Cuba and Libya, at great sacrifice. All Africans in the United States know anytime imperialism is hunting an African Revolutionary, if they make it to Cuba, as in baseball, they are home safe. From Robert Williams to Assata Shakur, Cuba has paid a heavy price as a haven for Revolutionaries throughout the world. We also know, first hand, Libya's contributions to, and protection of African and other Revolutionaries worldwide. U.S. imperialism is doing everything possible to corrode Cuba's and Libya's support among the Africans in the United States and the world.
Today, we board a hospital plane to travel nonstop from Conakry to Tripoli, Libya, a revolutionary country, an African country. All of our Brother, Sister and Allied Organizations, worldwide, have been requested by our Party, the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, to join us in Tripoli; and on our return from Tripoli to Conakry. Travel to a revolutionary country, especially one in Africa, must lead to concrete action to advance the African and World Revolution. We have a heightened responsibility to help protect Cuba and Libya at this time. We must move before U.S. imperialism is strengthened and attacks, not after, by strengthening our people ideologically and practically now. We must cement Cuba and Libya to Africa, and to African People worldwide, and vice versa.
We must make it clear, that an embargo and travel ban against Cuba and Libya, is an embargo and travel ban against Africa and against 1 billion African People who are scattered, suffering and struggling in every corner of the world. We must make it crystal clear that if you attack Cuba and Libya, you attack all African People worldwide, and we must break U.S. imperialism's hands off Cuba and Libya. We must end this illegal and immoral embargo and travel ban now. And with this act, by our example of boarding this hospital plane, we declare an end, once and for all, to this illegal and immoral embargo and travel ban, an end to this latest crime against African and World Humanity.
As children, we joined the Freedom Rides, to break the back of segregation and apartheid in interstate transportation in the United States. Today, we ride on the front of the bus, we charter buses to take one million men, women and children to marches in Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta. And we will never turn back.
In the 1960's, we said "Hell No, we won't go" to Vietnam, to fight against a people who never called us a nigger, and we didn't go. We said that they would defeat U.S. imperialism, and the heroic Vietnamese People, under the sterling example and leadership of the eternal Ho Chi Minh did.
Today, we say "Hell yes, we are going to Libya." We are traveling nonstop, all the way, from Conakry to Tripoli, and we warn the U.S. government not to interfere. We are certain today, that the people of Cuba and Libya, under the steadfast leadership of Fidel Castro and Muammar Quadafhi will be victorious.
The embargo and travel ban against Libya, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq and Iran is finished, as of this day. The All-African People's Revolutionary Party is honored to make our humble contribution towards this end. We thank the you. As African youth worldwide say, "the beat goes on."
As always, we remain Ready for Revolution!
Kwame Ture
Central Committee Member of the
All-African People's Revolutionary Party and the
Democratic Party of Guinea
Conakry, Guinea
Statement by Kwame Ture
Kwame Turé: Tribute to a Departed Pan-Africanist
by Prof. Tony Martin
Our dear brother, Kwame Turé/Stokely Carmichael, has now joined the ancestors in December of 1998. In life, Brother Kwame was a glorious embodiment of the best of our history. As a Caribbean man he demonstrated once again the boldness, daring, erudition and flair for world leadership that have often characterized the best amongst us. Like Edward Wilmot Blyden, preeminent Pan-African intellectual of the late 19th century; like Henry Sylvester Williams, founder of the modern Pan-African movement; like Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the most impactful Pan-Africanist of all time; like C.L.R.James and George Padmore, preeminent Pan-African ideologists and activists, Kwame Turé inspired and energized freedom loving people everywhere.
As an African American and Pan-African revolutionary, Brother Kwame once again demonstrated the indomitable spirit that has preserved our people over five hundred years, often in the face of frightful danger. Kwame was a general in the five hundred year war for freedom, justice and equality ushered in by the Atlantic slave trade. He picked up where Nat Turner, Martin Delany, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and many others left off. It was his fate to assume the mantle of leadership during one of the most intense periods of struggle. Much of the leadership of his cohort was killed in action or otherwise destroyed -- Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton -- the list is long and painful. Some who escaped death, such as Robert Williams and Assata Shakur, were forced into exile. No people should have to pay such a high price for freedom, but such unfortunately has been our lot in this era. Kwame Turé somehow escaped death on the battlefield but he was jailed over thirty times for his human rights activity in the United States. He also suffered the appalling indignity of being banned in his own country, Trinidad and Tobago, for approximately twenty years, presumably at the behest of imperialist power.
Kwame Turé's career followed closely those of some of the Pan-African leaders who preceded him. He was an elementary school student at Tranquillity Boys' Intermediate School in Port of Spain, where Henry Sylvester Williams had taught in the 19th century. He emigrated to New York, as did Marcus Garvey. He eventually settled in West Africa, as did Edward Wilmot Blyden, George Padmore and W.E.B. DuBois.
Kwame Turé has a special personal significance for me since he was the only major African American Black Power figure who I can say I knew personally. We were contemporaries at Tranquillity School. I met him in London in 1967 and watched as he near-singlehandedly ushered in the Black Power era in England. We both attended the eleventh congress of Séku Turé's Democratic Party of Guinea in Conakry in 1978. I had the privilege of introducing him as he opened the Emancipation Support Committee's lecture series in Port of Spain in 1996. Over the years our paths crossed in Boston, Guyana and perhaps other places that I do not recall. I have taught his classic work, Black Power, in my classes for over two decades.
Kwame Turé was personable and gracious. Forceful and uncompromising in struggle, he was gentle and unassuming out of the limelight. The magnetism of his personality was a constant, however. Whether via the public platform or in private, those who experienced him knew that they were in the presence of a great historical figure. May the ancestors welcome him and may his name always be revered where people aspire to freedom, justice and equality.
A brief Interview
An Interview with A-APRP Central Committee Member
Kwame Ture
On Revolutionary Culture and the Role of the Artist
Nehanda Imari: Brother Kwame, first of all how do you define culture?
Kwame Ture: Africa's noble son, Ahmed Sekou Toure, tells us precisely that culture is "all the material and immaterial works of art and science, plus knowledge, manners, education, a mode of thought behavior and attitudes accumulated by the People, both through and by virtue of their struggle for freedom from oppression and the hold and dominion of nature."
Nehanda Imari: How does the artist fit into this definition?
Kwame Ture: Culture is created only by the people. All artists use this culture. They do not create it. A writer writes a song or a book, they did not create music, language or writing; the people did. Thus, the artist only represents the People's culture. The culture of all oppressed is the culture of resistance. The enemy seeks to corrupt the artist into misrepresenting the people's culture, thus betraying them. Thus all artists coming from an oppressed people must represent resistance in their art form. Anything other than this is betrayal.
Nehanda Imari: You were an activist in the 60's and as you continue to be active in the people's fight for freedom. What role does the progressive artist play in the movement?
Kwame Ture: We said the culture of the oppressed is the culture of resistance and it comes to the forefront in mass confrontation with the enemy. Thus in the 60's in the U.S. the culture of the African masses came to the forefront with the spontaneous mass movement. The honest artists continue to represent the noble aims of their people. The artist has a responsibility to represent the people's culture with integrity and dignity. History absolves or indicts us all. And it is those artists who truly represent the people's interests and aspirations that the people praise. Today everywhere we can hear the ringing applause at the mention of the names Paul Robeson, Sony Kandia Kouyate, Miriam Makeba, Bob Marley, etc. Sekou Ture pointed out that " to each people their culture". It is clear that cultures differ, some depend on music to a larger extent than others, etc. But these differences are not necessarily antagonistic; just like the physical differences in the human family. Imperialism will seek to heighten these differences and, where possible, make them antagonistic. African art is basically utilitarian and social. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah shows us that African art is preoccupied with the moral-philosophical aspect of the society which explains its typical power.
Nehanda Imari: In conclusion can you give us a final comment on the artist today who wants to become a 'Revolutionary Artist' and serve humanity?
Kwame Ture: Revolutionary art is art which inspires the people to fight against all forms of injustice, which is the only true purpose of revolutionary art. Reformist art teaches the people to accept injustice in essence, while fighting against its form. I think the artists must use their form of their art to confront all evils in the society.
End. Stay Tuned Next Week.
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