history as a tool for organizing w/ Obi Egbuna Jr

Africa World Now Project

Analyzing the conditions which dictate the systems and institutions which also perpetuate inequities require the ability to identify and map. It requires the science and art of identifying genealogy. It requires the necessity to map memory-to [re]member. But not simply for remembrance.

African/a peoples oscillate between variations of a peculiar aversion to history or wanting to know everything about history, specific African/a history.

But few understand the purpose of history or its use as a tool for organizing.

Today, we will listen to a conversation I recently had with Obi Egbuna Jr., where we explore the question [in phase one of a series of conversations] which asks: How can history be a tool for organizing?

It is one thing to know bits and pieces of historical content, but a historical consciousness not being cultivated into a critical consciousness is without purpose. The notion of a tree without roots is often given as axiom to grounding African/a peoples on the path to learning history. But what is important to engage is the question for what? To what ends? For what purpose?

Knowing your roots [i.e. history] does not necessitate purpose [unorganized information is not knowledge. Knowledge is only power when organized, intentionally organized].

To move to the next level of historical consciousness, is to evolve it into a critical Africana consciousness. Association is not enough to be considered a functional component of a movement and proximity does not guarantee contribution. One has to struggle with ideas through practice, crafting this into a praxis for expressed objective[s] in order to find continuity with the past, to understanding the present, ultimately leading to creating a future.

Obi Egbuna Jr., was born in London, England, and raised in Washington, DC, spending time in Nigeria.

Obi is a founding member of the Pan-African Liberation Organization (PALO), established in Washington, D.C., from 1990-2007.

In addition to organizing and speaking engagements, Obi is a journalist, African/a history teacher and playwright. Obi is correspondent to The Herald, Zimbabwe’s national newspaper, and the first US correspondent in the country’s 32 years as an independent nation.

Obi has taught African History at Roots Public Charter School since 1990 and has also taught at Ujamaa Shule and Northwestern High School in Prince George’s County. He is the current African History teacher for the Sankofa Homeschool Collective as well as holds community-based African History Classes.

Obi is a founding member and executive director of Mass Emphasis Children’s History and Theater Company (2012).

He has written several resolutions and appeals to the United Nations, World Health Organization, and Southern African Development Community covering a wide range of issues, ranging from HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe to police brutality in the United.

Obi has also organized around calling for the unconditional and immediate lifting of US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe that went to the White House, U.S. Senate and Congress.

Lastly, in addition to forging his own path, Obi worked directly with Kwame Ture the last 8 years of his life and is the son of Obi Egbuna Sr, who was a Nigerian-born novelist, playwright and political activist, leading member of the Universal Coloured People's Association (UCPA) and the British Black Power/Black Panther Movement.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Enjoy the program!

For more: https://battlecubazim.wordpress.com/word-from-the-producers/obi-egbuna-jr/