A: In the late 1960s, at the height of the Black Power Movement, two acquaintances of Malcolm X, Gaidi Obadele and Imari Abubakari Obadele assembled a group of 500 militant black nationalists in Detroit, Michigan, to discuss the creation of a black nation within the United States. On March 31, 1968, 100 conference members signed a Declaration of Independence outlining the official doctrine of the new black nation, elected a provisional government, and named the nation the �Republic of New Africa� (RNA).
The RNA believes that as a nation, black people are entitled to the full rights of a nation, including land and self-determination. Furthermore, Amerikkka as the land upon which Black People (New Afrikans) have lived, toiled and made rich as slaves is theirs; it is land that Blacks must gain control of because, as Malcolm X said, land is the basis of independence, freedom, justice and equality. The RNA even identified the five states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as Black People's land. According to the RNA, gaining control of our land is the fundamental struggle facing Black People; without land, Black Power, rights and freedom have no substance. (See RNA leaflet below. - Courtesy of Brown-Tougaloo Exchange)
REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRICA. SOURCE LINK
Segregationist Dreamer
excerpt:
Milton Henry, right, in 1969, as vice president of the Republic of New Africa, with Mabel Williams, center, wife of the R.N.A.’s president in exile, Robert Williams.
Frustrated by the pace of change, Henry was soon drawn to black nationalism. He met Malcolm X and traveled with him to Cairo to meet African leaders. Henry helped organize the 1963 conference in Detroit at which Malcolm delivered his Message to the Grass Roots. (A lifelong audiophile, Henry recorded and released the speech on his own record label.) He was a pallbearer at Malcolm’s 1965 funeral.
By 1968, Henry and his brother Richard had adopted African names and developed a vaulting plan for racial separation. The Republic of New Africa, a socialist black nation, would be carved out of five Southern states with large black populations. In a move that helped ignite the contemporary reparations movement, the brothers demanded $400 billion in compensation from the U.S. government to descendants of slaves. Their offer to begin negotiations between the two nations received no reply.