Episodes
Monday Jul 27, 2020
Black Agenda Radio 07.27.20
Monday Jul 27, 2020
Monday Jul 27, 2020
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The Black Is Back Coalition will make freedom for all political prisoners the top item at its upcoming national conference. And, What is the meaning of Pan-Africanism today, in a post-colonial world?
But first—the entire planet remains in the grips of the Covid-19 contagion. The United States has fared worse than any other developed country, economically and in terms of loss of life. Everyone TALKS about how bad things are in the Age of Covid, but it’s even more crucial to ask, What KIND of crisis is this? We posed that question to Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar.
The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference on August 15 and 16. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says the emphasis will be on the plight of political prisoners.
Many tens of millions of people of African descent live outside the Continent, but what does that mean, in political terms? We spoke with Jayne O. EE-FEK-WUN-EEG-WAY, a senior scholar at the Center for Genomics, Race, Identity and Difference at Duke University. She says the Africa connection means different things to different people.
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Black Agenda Radio 07.20.20
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: a man born to imprisoned victims of a racist police vendetta recounts his life in the Move organization. And, today’s Black activists could learn something from the Maroons, who built communities of freedom outside the reach of the slave master,
Black nationalism is a potent political force, with studies showing that about half of Black Americans see themselves as a nation within a nation. Edward Oh-NAH-Chi teaches history at Ursinus College, and has written a book titled, “Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State.” Onaci says there have been calls for a separate Black nation for generations.
Mike Africa was born in a Pennsylvania prison, a captive of the long Philadelphia police vendetta against the Move organization, in 1978. After for decades behind bars, all of the surviving Move members are now free, as Mike Africa explains.
In North and South America and the Caribbean, there is a long history of escaped slaves establishing their own communities in far-off swamps and mountains. Willie Jamaal Wright is a professor of Geography and Africana Studies at Rutgers University. Wright wrote an article titled, “The Morphology of Marronage,” which explores the history of the people we call Maroons.
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Black Agenda Radio 07.13.20
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: the Green Party gears up to take on the two corporate parties in November. And, the Movement for a Peoples Party plans to be on the presidential ballot in 2024, but its members are in the streets, today.
But first – by some measures, the current movement against police brutality is the largest political movement ever seen in the United States. But Clarence Taylor, a professor emeritus of history at Baruch College, in New York City, reminds us that brutal, repressive cops have been part of Americana for most of the nation’s history. Professor Taylor has written a book, titled, “Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City.”
When the corporate Democrats defeated Bernie Sanders’ first race for president, in 2016, a number of Sanders’ supporters left the Deocratic Party entirely, and formed the Movement for a People’s Party. Nick Brana is National coordinator for the M.P.P. Now Bernie Sanders has been forced out of the presidential race once again. We asked Nick Brana if Sander’s second defeat has resulted in a boost in recruitment for the People’s Party movement.
The Green Party held its national convention this weekend, and nominated party co-founder Howie Hawkins as their presidential candidate. Angela Walker, a Black activist from Milwaukee, is Hawkins’ vice presidential running mate.
Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley is a Green Party activist, and BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka was the Green’s vice presidential candidate in 2016. Both Kimberley and Baraka spoke at the Party convention. First, Margaret Kimberley.
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Black Agenda Radio 07.06.20
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: The Black Alliance for Peace steps up its campaign to get the
U.S. military out of Africa; a scholar takes a look at Kwaito music and young people’s
politics in South Africa; and, a new article celebrates the life and work of James Cone,
the father of Black Liberation Theology.
But first – the U.S. political establishment is still reeling from the nationwide wave of
demonstrations that followed the police killing of George Floyd. We spoke with Monifa
Bandele, a veteran activist from Brooklyn, New York, who sits on the policy table of the
Movement for Black Lives. Bandele says the ongoing protests are the result of years of
organizing.
The United States military has a larger presence on the African continent than Britain
and France at the height of their colonial empires. The Black Alliance for Peace is
escalating its campaign against AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa, which
is active in almost every nation on the continent. Alliance activist Tunde Osazua points
out that AFRICOM’s first big mission was the regime change attack on Libya, in 2011.
Dr. James Cone, the world-renowned theologian, died two years ago, but his work
continues to influence Black political thinking. Matt Harris is a PhD candidate at the
University of California, at Santa Barbara. Harris co-authored an article titled, "In the
Hope That They Can Make Their Own Future: James H. Cone and the Third World."
Harris says Cone is considered the father of Black liberation theology.
In South Africa, “kwaito” music is wildly popular with young people – just as is hip hop
among Black American youth. Xavier Livermon is a professor of African Diaspora
Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s spent years studying the kwaito music
phenomenon, and written a book, titled ““Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and
Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Professor Livermon says Kwaito music has
had a profound effect on South Afrian youth, whose 21 st century politics is quite different
than the young people who rose up against white minority rule in Soweto in 1976.