When I joined the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) in February 2022, my first and only goal was to start a branch in San Diego, California. After hearing about the specific campaigns that ANWO had to offer, I knew it was imperative that other African women be involved with forwarding the agenda to our liberation. I united with the powerful phrase “African Women Must Lead!”
Outreach is key to recruiting members to the African Revolution. We immediately began with seizing territory–letting the community know that ANWO was on the scene and ready to build!
We took the theory of African Internationalism and brought clarity to the everyday oppression that African working-class people face. We showed that women no longer have to sit idle as genocide is waged on our communities and how to struggle to win a victory against the oppressor through the process of organization, tactics, and strategy.
Our outreach began small, passing out flyers and leaflets at schools hoping to reach other African women who believed in revolution as the solution. We broadened our reach when we traveled to Oakland, California for African Liberation Day. We had the chance to speak to the community and look into the relationships between African men and women–really deepening the community’s understanding of colonialism, and antagonistic and non-antagonistic struggles with our partners.
Arrest “Child Protective Services” (CPS)
Upon returning back to southern California, we picked up our first #ArrestCPS case. The goal of #ArrestCPS is to expose the parasitic nature of the foster system and the devastating role it plays in the lives of black families, as we work tirelessly toward the reunification of affected African families. We quickly became acquainted with a mother of three from the community who had been in a battle with the State for two years to regain custody of her children after a domestic dispute.
ANWO was able to provide political education to the community on the family regulation system falsely known as “child protective services” and draw the lines connected to colonialism. We showed up at child and family team meetings as well as court dates, letting the court system know they would not isolate another family and that we were going to hold them accountable. In October of last year, mama and baby were reunited.
We were able to assist another family a few months later as we were carrying out our #ArrestCPS National Day of Action in Los Angeles, California. During the L.A Day of Action our organizers met Morris, a brother who lives in Chicago but had an open CPS case in LA.
His child was removed from the home due to the mother struggling with mental health. Morris, although living in Chicago, remained an active parent in his child’s life and the court refused to recognize his parental rights as a father. Through organization and community, the child was safely returned home in January.
As we move into August and begin planning for yet another National Day of Action, our goal this year is to broaden the discussion and to build relationships with other organizations who are committed to the erasure of State-sponsored kidnapping.
ANWO continues to be of service to the California community when it comes to educating and advocating for families against the colonial State. The people know who to call when black families are under attack!
Winning African women and allies to African Revolution
African Internationalism teaches us to take up political space and to be known by the masses. As the imperialist crisis thickens, it is our responsibility as organizers to lead the masses to an understanding of the contradictions of parasitic capitalism and colonialism in order to overturn these conditions.
That means inserting ourselves wherever struggle arises and ANWO has done exactly that! We continue to organize around issues of reproductive rights, the mass incarceration and ongoing sexual exploitation of women behind bars, self-defense and how to overturn colonial violence, the issue of childcare with the building of Uhuru Kijiji Childcare Collectives, and the role of women in the revolution.
We have built unity with groups like Union Del Barrio, The Palestinian Youth Movement, the Committee Against Police Brutality, Participatory Defense, Anakbayan and other oppressed peoples who unite with the destruction of colonialism.
It also means creating spaces for African women to safely commune and plan ways to transform our conditions.
Recruit, recruit, recruit!
The African National Women’s Organization wants YOU! We have had an exceptional year of growth in development and membership, and we have no intentions of slowing down! We are the only anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist international black women’s organization around. If you unite with the right of African women to fight against colonialism, and to be equal makers and shapers of history, then we are for you!
We meet women at their political door, and want African women from all walks of life in our ranks! If you have skills you want to use for the liberation of the African Nation, join us!
Uhuru!
African Women Must Lead!
ANWO in a City Near You!
ANWOuhuru.org
