adminObi Egbuna Jnr Simunye
Because of its relationship to the mid-Atlantic slave trade and its role as the modern-day anchor for their extended relatives who crafted the blueprint for European colonialism and imperialism, Africans everywhere keep the US government and what is referred to as the nation’s capital, Washington DC, under a rather intense microscope. This has become a prerequisite for all daughters and sons of Mother Africa regardless of where we fall on the ideological spectrum. In other words, from the left to the right, Washington DC has and always will receive our undivided attention.
This explains why we must extend heartfelt congratulations to the 400 students at Howard University, who will eternally be remembered in the annals of history simply as HU Resist, for their historic nine-day occupation and protest of the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administration building.
Based on tone and expression HU Resist represented a continuum of the administration building takeovers in 1968 and 1989, which explains why central figures in both of those previous efforts were very forthcoming when lending their voices and expertise to this movement.
The HU Resist movement used this platform to address immediate issues, i.e. Gestapo-like tactics by HU campus police, the impact of gentrification on campus-community relations, their living conditions in the dormitories, mental health and sexual abuse.
Arguably one of HU Resist’s most unique maneouvres was the decision to temporarily name the administration building the Kwame Ture Student Centre in honour of the world- renowned pan-Africanist freedom fighter, who is one of Howard’s most beloved and revered graduates.
Ironically, 20 years after his passing on Kwame Ture’s pan-Africanist track record and pedigree continues to make him appealing on the campus he considered his home away from home. Howard is also home to a campus-based organisation called the Kwame Ture Society.
Four years ago a community-based children’s history and theatre company called Mass Emphasis debuted a play titled “Same Neighbourhood Different Perspectives: A Conversation Between General Colin Powell and Kwame Ture” in the Armour J. Blackburn Centre.
During his 31-year effort to build the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party that was first called into existence by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare”, Brother Ture stressed the invaluable contributions of Dr W.E.B. DuBois to the Pan-African Movement, it was none other than the Osagyefo who called Dr DuBois the father of modern day pan-Africanism.
The image of a banner with Kwame Ture’s name on it being placed over the name of Howard’s most decorated president Mordecai Johnson had broader historical implications than the students themselves perhaps realised.
Back in 1951 Dr E. Franklin Frazier, who was teaching at Howard University, was selected to chair a dinner tribute to Dr DuBois to celebrate his 83rd birthday, Dr Johnson had agreed to be one of the honorary chairpersons of the sponsoring group of this monumental occasion. However, when Dr DuBois was indicted as a criminal for not registering as an agent of a foreign power in the peace movement, Dr Johnson, who was a speaker on the programme, suddenly declined to appear.
The venue chosen to host this tribute dinner coincidentally cancelled was the Essex Hotel in New York City, where another distinguished Howard Alum, legendary recording artiste Donny Hathaway, committed suicide 28 years later. Our beloved brother jumped from the 15th floor battling the same mental depression HU Resist raised as one of its key issues.
Whereas Dr Johnson oversaw the ruler of Ethiopia, His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie, in January of 1954 receiving an honorary degree for Howard, Brother Kwame and the AAPRP provided key support to the Eritrean Revolution under the leadership of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, whose quest for self-determination put them on a collision course with the Emperor due to his feudalistic and reactionary declaration as ruler of Eritrean and Somalian territory.
When the brain trust of HU Resist discussed students and alumni having input in the future of the university’s direction, this was a call for intensification of what Brother Kwame called struggle in the ideological arena, and what Commandante Fidel Castro framed as the 21st century becoming an intensification for the battle of ideas.
Since the beginning of the Third Chiumrenga the Government and people of Zimbabwe, who study and pay close attention to the role of so-called African Americans in facilitating the US-EU imperialism’s regime change agenda, have kept activity at Howard University under a watchful eye.
One year after her historic election victory as the first so-called African American woman to become Mayor of Atlanta in 2001, Shirley Franklin – during her commencement address – heaped praise on the Government and people of Zimbabwe. Later that year former Mayor Franklin informed the former Zimbabwe Ambassador to the US, Dr Simbi Mubako, that she was interested in developing a sister city link with Zimbabwe.
In his capacity as a Fulbright fellow, HU Professor Dr John Trimble, who is also a member of one of the factions of the AAPRP, helped organise international conferences on appropriate technology in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya.
It is no secret that Amnesty International, under the guise of human rights, is a full-fledged participant in the US-EU imperialism’s Zimbabwe regime change agenda. During his brief stint as Amnesty International’s programme coordinator, a former Howard University student government president and student rep to the Board of Trustees, Jonathan Hutto, shared confidentially that Amnesty International was using the banner of gay rights to demonise and isolate Zimbabwe.
On June 3 2003 the former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, received a rather condescending and accusatory open letter from the president of the now defunct Trans Africa Forum, Mr Bill Fletcher. One of the main signatories was none other than the former US Ambassador to Botswana, Dr Horace Dawson, who established the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Centre in 1993 and became its director in 1997. Ambassador Dawson is primarily responsible for Howard ranking No. 1 among HBCU Peace Corps Volunteers.
Howard’s current president, Dr Wayne Frederick, who was the main target of HU Resist movement was quoted as saying: “When Howard students and alumni travel to other countries as Peace Corp Volunteers, they represent Howard’s long history of leadership and understanding through education and service.” What Ambassador Dawson, Dr Frederick and their main benefactor former Congressman Charles Rangel will have to answer is who fosters these students’ understanding and who exactly are they serving? Rangel also was an ardent supporter of US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Another distinguished HU alum, Dr Kwame Agyei Akoto, who is one of the founders of Nation House Positive Action Centre and its executive director and author of “Nation Building: Theory and Practice in Afrikan-Centred Education”, has a son who is married into the Movement for Democratic Change Diaspora network inside US borders.
In 2007 the current Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, who was a former HU student government vice president, who in 2007 when he was a councilman for the South Ward in Newark, signed a resolution denouncing the Bush and Blair administrations for using political muscle to prevent Zimbabwe from having access to Global Fund resources to fight the deadly HIV-AIDS pandemic.
Since Newark is the political stomping ground of the late Congressman Donald Payne, who was the loudest Democratic voice for regime change in Zimbabwe on Capitol Hill, a baton that has been picked up by current US Senator and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Mayor Baraka has a decision to make concerning using his platform to fight to have US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe lifted once and for all.
During his tenure as chair of the New Black Panther Party HU alum Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz made a splash by visiting Zimbabwe and meeting with former Zimbabwean vice president Joice Mujuru, in 2009 Shabazz and NBPP were signatories on an historic appeal sent to the Obama administration calling for the lifting of US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The internationally acclaimed filmmaker, Haile Gerima, who has been a professor at Howard teaching film for many years, has been very critical of ZANU-PF, primarily for the decision to grant political exile status to former Ethiopian president Mengistu Haile Miriam. Gerima’s bitterness led him to roll out the red carpet for the wife of former ZANU leader Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Mrs Vesta Sithole, when she was on tour promoting her book “My Life with an Unsung Hero”. One of Mrs Sithole’s stops on her book tour was Sankofa Video Books and Cafe, which is directly across the street from Howard and owned by Professor Gerima. Howard is also where Mrs Sithole’s nephew, Chandiwana Sithole, who is currently the special projects manager at the US State Department and USAID was enrolled in a PHD programme.
Howard’s TV station, WHUT-TV, is currently home to the Rock Newman Show, whose host is currently on Howard’s Board of Trustees, and has on numerous occasions openly expressed his support for the Government and People of Zimbabwe. Mr Newman was a student when Mr Mugabe visited the campus and stated his open invitation for so-called African Americans to come home to Zimbabwe. Mr Newman describes this gesture as one of the turning points in his life.
Two key figures who are Howard Alumni who have defended Zimbabwe against US-EU propaganda have been Dr Wilmer Leon and Dr Fahima Secka. For the last 15 years Dr Leon on his nationally syndicated radio show on Sirius XM Inside the Issues has aggressively defended Zimbabwe’s people and Government and denounced the sanctions. For 12 years Dr Secka has used platforms on PACIFICA Radio and Radio-One owned by Cathy Hughes, who Howard’s School of Communications is named after, to counter the regime change narrative by US-EU imperialism.
The existing divide concerning Zimbabwe inside the Howard community is a microcosm of the broader African community at home and abroad. We will either stand with the people and Government of Zimbabwe or with those aiming to uphold the colonial legacy of the war criminals Oliver Otis Howard and Cecil John Rhodes.
Obi Egbuna Jnr is the US correspondent to The Herald and External Relations Officer of the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association (ZICUFA). He can be contacted on [email protected]
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