Special Features

What’s at the end of my rainbow? Freedom!

My name is Gazi Kodzo and if you have seen me chanting at one of the many marches I have led you should have easily determined that I am a homosexual. As a Gender and Sexuality Nonconforming African (GSNA) I have to endorse Akilé and Jesse because I am African before anything else! This is why…

“Millennials” is a generalized and imprecise term used to describe people born between the years of 1981 and 1997. This generation lives in a time where access to information is both endless and extremely suppressed. A time when paid leave is the system’s response to videos of police shootings that have live coverage, millions of views and instant commentary. A time where hashtags can start movements and end careers.

We are a generation that demands an immediate stance in response to the world and its developments. We are a generation that was sold a message of hope and change only to be betrayed by the status quo of a corrupt system that had been turned against the interests of the people.

Presented one piece of evidence after the other, millennials are suspicious, looking to differentiate between genuine representatives of progress and those who would sell out at the expense of the people.

Despite what corporate media would have you think who millennials are, we are invested and often participate in politics. Locally this is evident from the huge millennial support of Eritha Akilé Cainion’s campaign for District 6 and Jesse Nevel’s campaign for Mayor.

This article is part of a special Black August series on TheBurningSpear.com. We encourage all our readers to help “Keep The Spear Burning” during our Black August Fund Drive. Support your black power newspaper! Sponsor a prisoner or donate today at Burningspearmarketplace.com

Black August is a commemoration begun in 1979 by Africans in prison to raise up those who have died struggling for African liberation from within prison walls or in attempts to liberate Africans from the colonial prisons like George and Jonathan Jackson.

August 9, 2017 marks 3 years since the police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. Young Michael was murdered by Ferguson, MO copy, Darren Wilson. 

Witnesses stated that Mike Brown was shot eight times while his hands were in the air. His rotting body was then left on the concrete for more than eight hours as an example to the Ferguson community of what the police will do if we disobey their colonial orders. 

What the police did not expect in this suburb of St. Louis, MO was resistance from the African working class community. This powerful display of African Resistance on August 9, 2014 marks one of the critical dates in Black August.

Rapper J. Cole visited prisoners at the birthplace of Black August—San Quentin State Prison—on August 1, 2017.

Cole made the prison visit during the middle of the North American leg of his "4 Your Eyez Only tour." 

BlackAugust originated in the prison camp of San Quentin 1979. African prisoners would wear black armbands to remember the heroic, revolutionary actions of the #SoledadBrothers, the San Quentin Six, Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden and all our fallen Freedom Fighters. 

Today we raise up HarrietTubman as we celebrate Black August. The Burning Spear newspaper’s “Harriet’s Daughters” page is dedicated to the fighting African women who continue the legacy of Harriet Tubman, who was a fearless freedom fighter during the times of slavery in the U.S. 

Over the course of 10 years, Harriet Tubman made over 19 trips to the slave states of the South and helped bring over 300 Africans to the so-called “free” states of the North. 

Unfortunately, just bringing people to states where chattel slavery was illegal did not change the overall system of oppression that Africans were faced with throughout the U.S. 

Now over 150 years later we pick up where Harriet left off. 

But today as African Internationalists we understand that ours is not a struggle “from slavery to freedom” as Booker T. Washington might say. 

Rather, it is a struggle from being a free, independent and proud people with our own power and our own land, back to being a free, independent and proud people with our own power and our own land. 

The Burning Spear newspaper is celebrating the month of August––Black August––with a month-long fundraiser to raise $10,000 towards the production and distribution of our revolutionary newspaper!

“Black August: Keep The Spear Burning” will educate the masses of African people of the history and significance of this 38-year-old revolutionary celebration, while winning our people to support our very own black power newspaper through prisoner sponsorships, getting subscriptions and becoming distributors!

There will be various Uhuru Movement events held throughout the country in celebration of Black August putting forth the significance and history of The Spear and outlining various stories of African resistance, many of which have been chronicled in our beloved newspaper.

The August 29th primary elections in St. Petersburg, Florida are fast approaching as the climax of one of the most radical election seasons in recent years, and probably of all time.

This is due to two young radical candidates, Eritha “Akilé” Cainion and Jesse Nevel who are running under the slogans 'radical times, radical solutions' and 'unity through reparations,' respectively.

The movement to elect Akilé for District 6 City Council and Jesse Nevel for mayor of St. Petersburg is gaining fierce momentum and winning international support.

Although Akilé and Jesse are running against the big money political establishment, their campaigns, led by the Uhuru Movement, are fueled by an uprising of young, black working class leaders.

They are also fueled by white people who unite that the cornerstone of a progressive stance is a commitment to reparations to the black community.

St. Petersburg, Florida—The St. Pete local elections continue to be the focal point of many conversations held by residents, mainly because of the two candidates the Uhuru Movement has put forward: 20-year-old Eritha “Akilé” Cainion, who is running for District 6 City Council on a platform titled “Radical Times, Radical Solutions;” and 27-year-old mayoral candidate, Jesse Nevel, whose platform demands “Unity Through Reparations.”

These two candidates have been the driving force behind many of the critical points being addressed, such as reparations and economic development for the African (black) community, gentrification, Black Community Control of the Schools and Black Community Control of the Police.