On February 3, 2018, two members of the African People’s Socialist Party, Comrades Yejide Orunmila and Kiongozi Binamu were married in St. Petersburg, Florida in a beautiful outdoor ceremony witnessed by dozens of family, friends and Comrades and officiated by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Socialist International and leader of the International African Revolution.
Yejide Orunmila is a member of the Central Committee of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and serves as the president of the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO).
ANWO was founded by the APSP to overturn the special oppression of African women and to bring African working-class women into active revolutionary and political life.
Comrade Kiongozi is also a member of the African People’s Socialist Party and works in the Office of the Deputy Chair (ODC) under the leadership of Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela.
The ODC is responsible for leading the APSP’s economic work, some of which includes popular community institutions like the Uhuru Flea Markets, Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles, Uhuru Foods, the Uhuru House Community Centers, Uhuru Jiko Commercial Kitchens and the St. Louis-based, anti-gentrification project, the Black Power Blueprint.
As the ceremony began, the wedding party emerged, dressed in purple and gold Ankara fabric swaying and two-stepping to “Duro” by Nigerian singer Teknomiles.
Maxwell’s “Fortunate” played next as Comrades Yejide and Kiongozi, locked arm in arm, walked down the aisle together, stopping just in front of Chairman Omali and the bridal party.
Chairman opened up with a statement to all who gathered that we serve as witnesses from the community to formalize Yejide and Kiongozi’s eternal relationship to each other and their changed relationship to our community.
He then reminded us that the marriage ceremony “connects us to one another as husband and wife,” and that it is also a “ceremony that connects us to our community, our African nation and the rest of humanity.
“Marriage is the relationship that defines the foundation of our nation. It is a special relationship for a people forcibly dispersed away from our homeland, separated and scattered throughout the world.
“Throughout the ceremony, all were reminded that on this day Yejide and Kiongozi not only reaffirmed their love for each other, but as conscious Africans, their ceremony was a part of the “irreversible movement of a separated people back toward the oneness— the wholeness— that makes us complete as a nation that has been forcibly dispersed in Africa and throughout the world.”
The community was called on to not only participate in the wedding ceremony but in the success of Kiongozi and Yejide’s marriage, to remind them of their commitment to each other and to the community through their participation in the revolutionary struggle of the African working-class.
When asked to vow to do all within our power to support the union of the couple and to guarantee that they “shall never suffer the same divisive fate of our people and national homeland”, the enthusiastic group of family, friends and Comrades all emphatically stated that “we will.”
When asked to keep Kiongozi and Yejide reminded of their responsibility to each other and to the liberation and union of Africa and African people worldwide, the crowd united once more.
Kiongozi & Yejide’s wedding ended like most African weddings, with lots of hugs, food and dancing─ at a reception at the headquarters of the African People’s Socialist Party, the Uhuru House.
As revolutionaries committed to building a new world for African people worldwide, this was a fitting venue as theirs is a union brought about by and fortified through their commitment to the liberation and unification of Africa.
