To celebrate the month of African resistance, The Burning Spear newspaper launched a Spear sales competition for the entire month of August, where distributors around the U.S. competed to sell the most newspapers in their respective communities.
It was a heated competition, with participants from coast to coast pushing bundles of Spears, putting out the theory of African Internationalism on subways, school campuses, restaurants—you name it.
For this competition we identified two types of winners: the top region with the most sales and the top individual with the most sales.
While the region victory went to the Midwest, with comrades in Chicago and St. Louis working around the clock selling The Spear, the top individual Spearseller came out of Greenville, South Carolina.
Salute the Spear sales winner: Kalem Reid
Kalem is no stranger to Spearselling.
He had distributed The Spear years ago and called up the Spear’s office wanting to get back in the game.
He ordered 300 of the August Spear, committing himself to moving the paper throughout Greenville and surrounding cities, understanding the importance of putting this paper into the hands of our brothers and sisters there.
Kalem is an enthusiastic, mobilizing Spear distributor who even coined a new sales pitch:
“Extra, extra, read all about it! We got The Burning Spear, please don’t doubt it!”
In an “all distributors” meeting held on the last Sunday of every month, Kalem gave his profound testimony:
“In the area where I’m living—Greenville, South Carolina—they are loving the newspaper. The people in the community are not used to having a black newspaper that has inspiring news about African people across the globe.
“I’m a street vendor Monday through Thursday. I’m out there pushing the paper real hard.
“I take pictures of people with The Burning Spear newspaper. I have some of the papers inside of local barbershops.”
When talking about why he loves selling the paper he said, “I love selling the newspaper. Instead of reading the local newspapers, the New York Times, people look forward to The Spear.
“When I have everything on my table as a street vendor, they just go ahead and get the paper.”
“It’s just a passion, to have this black newspaper, political education.
“That is something that we need. You get the NY Times or your local newspaper, but don’t forget about YOU.
“The Burning Spear newspaper is a great newspaper. I love selling it. I’m just glad it’s out.
“The way things are going in my community right now, there’s a high crime rate [horizontal violence]. This is a way for me to give my community a sense of hope.”
We salute Kalem Reid as our Black August Spear sales winner and appreciate all of those who participated in this competition.
Keep your eye out for the announcement of our next competition—you could be the next Spear sales winner!
Keep the Spear burning!
Sell, sell, sell!
Voice of the International African Revolution!
