This article was written a few days after May 1, 1998, after meeting some of the Black Panthers in Los Angeles, at the funeral of Eldridge Cleaver. It was published in Palestine Times around the year 2000. The paper stopped publishing in 2007. Links to the original issue are:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010504044545/http://www.ptimes.com/issue86/articles.html#13
http://www.ptimes.com/issue86/articles.html#13
Black Panthers and
Colonialism
By Fazeel Azeez Chauhan
The Civil Rights Movement
heroically reversed the effects of slavery in America. Even today, it is
important to understand what strategies were used to create slavery so that we
can better defend ourselves. The British Colonialists used the same tactics to
create self-hatred among the natives of India.
What is the process that turns a
human being into a creature of self-hatred and self-doubt whereby the enslaved
becomes fully controlled and fearful of another person? The slave master uses
the process known as "seasoning" to condition slaves. Strong men and
women are broken down, tortured and stripped of their dignity through
seasoning. The process re-makes the person into an image, pleasing to the
oppressor.
To maintain fear and control,
seasoning usually involves the enforcement of five strategies:
1- Establish and maintain strict
rules.
2- Implant in the slave a consciousness of personal inferiority.
3- Make the slave believe that the master has enormous power.
4- Strip the slave of his roots and identity, including his name, culture,
history and language. Make the slave admire the standards of "good"
conduct of the master, so that the slave longs to be like the master.
5- Impress upon the slave his utter sense of helplessness to create a habit of
perfect dependence.
When the slave fears for his own
personal life, more than the survival of the group, the seasoning process is
complete. This is yet another example of the philosophy of divide and conquer.
It creates mistrust, apathy and cynicism among the poisoned society. Similar to
the slave masters, the British Colonialists proclaimed proudly, "We will
not only rule them, we will control their hearts and souls for generations to
come."
On 15 October 1966, the Black
Panthers for Self Defense Party was created to combat this racist philosophy,
which continued through Apartheid and segregation. The Black Panther Party played
an essential role in the Civil Rights Movement. The founders were fed up with
the non-violent approach, because African Americans were being killed, beaten,
humiliated and oppressed every day. Bobby Seale and Huey Newton decided one day
to take matters in their own hands to change the injustices of the status quo.
Within an hour, they came up with the goals of their party, those being:
1. Freedom and power to determine
the destiny of their community.
2. Full employment for their people.
3. An end to the exploitation of their Black community by Capitalists.
4. Decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
5. Education for their people, which exposes the true nature of the American
society. They wanted education that teaches them their true history and their
role in the present day society.
6. All Black men to be exempt from military service.
7. Immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people.
8. Freedom for all Black men held in jail.
9. All Black people who are brought to trial should be tried by a jury of their
own peers, from their own community.
10. They wanted land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
They wanted a Black Colony.
Langston Hughes, a famous
musician, was a Black Panther who said, "The Panther in his desperate
boldness wears no disguise. He is motivated by the truest of the oldest
lies." The text paper "Arm the Masses" proclaims, "What we
believe equals revolutionary nationalism and socialism for the Black Nation.
Forty million Africans are captured inside the racist, capitalist
U.S.A....". To help their community, the Black Panthers designed new and
innovative social programmes that continue to this day. These include, but are
not limited to, free breakfasts for students, free medical clinics, free clothing
and shoes, free education and assistance for the elderly.
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
called the Black Panthers "the greatest threat to the internal security of
the country". The police and the FBI infiltrated the Panthers through
their Counter Intelligence Program to destroy the party and assassinate its
leaders. They provoked violence between the Panthers and the U.S. Government.
They created internal fragmentation through their propaganda to stop the
Panthers' alliances with other groups.
One of the leaders was Kathleen
Cleaver. She received a law degree from Yale and is a Professor at Emory
University Law School in Atlanta. A reporter, Eldridge Cleaver, joined the
Panthers two years after the assassination of Malcolm X (Malik Shahbaz).
Eldridge (El Rage) was soon framed with a murder case and the couple had to go
into exile in Algeria. Their Muslim son was raised there and in Somalia.
Eldridge passed away a few weeks ago.
The Panthers admired the
revolutionary Philosophy of Malik Shahbaz, who called for freedom and justice
for the oppressed people "by any means necessary". A major activity
of the Panthers was policing the police. They confronted the police, equipped
with law books and rifles, when it was legal to do so. For further information,
read a book or see the movie "Panther". Their common slogan was
"Power to the People. Power to the People". We should be grateful to
African Americans for their sacrifices. We enjoy several freedoms because they
fought to attain these rights for all of us.
As always, well written article about a very interesting being. Your article is thought provoking. It reminded me of poems by Allama Mohammed Iqbal, poet / philosopher from Pakistan / India. He is known as the reincarnation or continuation of Rumi. He frequently refers to “Shaheen” in his poetry. I believe it refers to Hawk, Eagle, Falcon, because to the layman like me, they seem to be all in the same family. Some of these are well known verses or couplets, some of which we were required to memorize, from our Urdu text books. I think he wrote more in Farsi than in Urdu. In Iran he is well known as Iqbal Lahori. As he resided in the historical city of Lahore, where is shrine is, right at the entrance of the Badshahi masjid.
Shaheen kabhi parwaz say thak kar naheen girta:
The eagle never falls down because of being tired.
Tu Shaheen hay, parwaz hay kaam tera:
You are a hawk, your work is to fly.
And this one, sung by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan:
Naheen tera nashayman qasr-e-sultani kay gunbad par
Tu Shaheen hay basayra kar pahaRRon ki chatano’n par
You nest (home) is not on the domes of the palaces of kings
You are a falcon, hang out in the high cliffs of mountans
The first line also refers to the crowd, most people: pigeons hang out in warmth of the crowd, at domes where they are given food, where they don’t have to hunt, and can be in the comfort zone.
Whereas, an eagle is kind of solitary, flies much higher than a pigeon. Does it’s own hunting. Chooses the road less travelled.
Iqbal, as a philosopher repeats this idea, about the nature of human beings. That it’s our nature to choose that high road. The heat which will produce gold.
He was also using these ideas to inspire the Muslims of India, to kick the ass of the British, and to no longer live in slavery, which was called colonization.
Jhapat kar palatna, palat kar jhapatna:
Iqbal describes how an eagle hunts. It does not attack the prey from behind.
The eagle approaches the prey (bird) from the front, and at the first encounter, does a close call, a fly-by. A generous move, to allow the prey to get away, if it can.
Then the eagle turns, and returns to attack again.
Iqbal lived 500 years after Rumi, but often talked to him. Iqbal calls Rumi his spiritual master. In Rumi’s masnavi, there are many amazing stories, with multiple meanings. In his story about the Merchant and the Parrot. The parrot is in a cage. Some scholars see the metaphors as: The parrot is the ego. Or the human being locked in the cage of the body. The way to freedom, is to kill the ego. Like in Buddhism they say, ego is the I, me and mine, which desires so many things. In psychology and in common language, there are many definitions of ego. In sufism, they say annihilate the ego, to be on a spiritual path. Some teachers say the ego is necessary to survive in the world, as a tool. Though any tool can be used as a weapon. Ego defined in that way, is that thing which makes a man unique, it’s what pushes him to compete, to hunt, to win, it’s what drives him. But that ego needs to be reigned in. If a man does not control his ego, his ego will control him. And that ego kills relationship. Perhaps the ego is also what makes a person selfish, confined, limited, on the ground. While generosity makes a person fly like a hawk, like Shaheen