Geography

Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) will be honored in an evening reception where he will tell the story of the 1966 protest that culminated in his tearing down of the anti-African mural which had hung in St. Petersburg’s City Hall since the 1940s.

The event will take place at Akwaaba Hall at the Uhuru House, 1245 18th Ave. South, St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Sept. 13th at 6 p.m. and is sponsored by the Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM).

Chairman Omali, then known as Joseph Waller, will reveal his plans to counter the city’s current attempt “to whitewash the issue of the removal of the obscene colonialist mural and undermine its significance for the African community of St. Petersburg and the U.S.”

The Uhuru Book Fair & Flea Market (UBFFM) is an education and economic development project of the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF), supporting programs for education, health, sustainable economic development, and self-determination by and for the African community.

UBFFM will be a free, all-day festival in West Philadelphia's Clark Park on September 24, 2016 featuring poetry, spoken word, independent African authors, a children’s education area, music, food and over 100 vendors!

Free educational resources will be available throughout the day to address adult literacy, English as a Second Language (ESL), and the community-wide lack of access to reading materials and educational resources.

These recent elections held on August 3, 2016 for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in all nine local provinces in Occupied Azania (South Africa) have confirmed the African National Congress’ (ANC) decline which was noticeable in the last 2014 parliamentary elections. 

This time the ANC received 53.9 percent of the national votes. This is the first time that the ANC has secured below 60 percent.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) received 26.8 percent of the votes and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) received 8.2 percent.

This means that the ANC in certain cities and towns will have to share power with EFF or any other organization.

NEW YORK––White students at The State University of New York at Binghamton, also known Binghamton University, are hot and bothered over a new training course for residential assistants.

The training workshop––#StopWhitePeople2k16––was revealed on August 24th when Resident Advisors received their training schedules.

The workshop description states:

“The premise of this session is to help others take the next step in understanding diversity, privilege, and the society we function within. Learning about these topics is a good first step, but when you’re encountered with “good” arguments from uneducated people, how do you respond? This open discussion will give attendees the tools to do so, and hopefully expand upon what they already know.”

White students at SUNY Binghamton, however, are bothered and upset about #StopWhitePeople2k16 and have deemed it “disturbing” and “counterproductive.” They are appalled that the university has allowed this course to exist.

We at The Burning Spear, are not sure why there is such a huge upset!

The workshop description is laughable at best and is mainly concerned with offering residential assistants tools to win a debate or argument in support of the concept of white privilege.

On top of that, how can a workshop speak on stopping white people without ever mentioning the urgent need to overturn parasitic capitalism, colonialism and imperialism, and spread African Internationalism? How? How, Sway?

This training session did not offer up any real solutions to actually stop the historic complicity and violence carried out by white people against African and other oppressed peoples in unity with imperialist white power.

Yesterday morning morning, young African women gathered at the front of Gibbs High School to conduct a press conference to discuss an incident that had happened a few days prior in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Gibbs High School Senior Jelani Masozi was forced by a school administrator, accompanied by a resource officer, to remove her head wrap on Thursday, August 25th, 2016.

LOUISIANA––Africans were reminded yet again that self-determined responses to natural disasters are necessary after heavy rainfall on August 11, 2016 caused flooding which left the black community at the mercy of our oppressors.

In the 72 hours after the flooding, many Africans living in Louisiana began the task of returning to their homes after an emergency evacuation left them packing plastic bags and leaving their homes and belongings for higher ground.

The rainfall, an estimated four feet of water in some places, flooded the islands before surging rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.

Loretta Lynch, an African woman and the U.S. attorney general, attended the memorial service for the three cops that were killed in Baton Rouge nan act of resistance by Gavin “Cosmo” Long. The memorial service was held on July 28, 2016 in Baton Rouge, LA.

The Africans United Coalition (AU Coalition) held a march on August 1st, Emancipation Day in Nassau, Bahamas. The march culminated with a rally and a community marketplace. The AU Coalition aimed for the day to be about political protest and community economic development.

The Coalition is made up of African-centered and grass roots organizations including the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress (EABIC), The Qubtic Church of the Black Messiah, The Nyabinghi House, the African Peoples Socialist Party-Bahamas (APSP-Bahamas) and other organizations.

Nassau, Bahamas––The Bahamas National Coalition Party (BNCP) staged a protest at the entrance of Sandals Royal Bahamian on Monday, August 22, 2016. The protest was held to show solidarity with 600 workers who had been recently fired by the hotel and was supported by the African People’s Socialist Party-Bahamas and the Africans United Coalition.