During the past week, several persons who have not been actively or officially involved in our Movement to Bring Back Black have requested to be allowed to make presentations at our convention in Kernersville next month. We must respectfully decline such requests for the following reasons.
The overarching reason Jim Clingman called us to meet in Cincinnati back on December 9, 2006 was growing disenchantment among Black Nationalists and self-determinists, with stances being taken by persons generally viewed as leaders or spokespersons for the Black community. It had become routine for such persons to decry the media’s tendency to refer to them as “black leaders.” They rejected the implied limitations inherent in being called “black,” and insisted that they preferred to be viewed as leaders who “only happened” to be black. This was their right of course, but Brother Jim rightfully took offense to their marginalization of Black people, and wrote a scathing denunciation of such racial and cultural blasphemy. That letter can be found and read on our web site www.bringbackblack.org.
Jim opined that if such “black-is-not-good-enough” mis-leaders resented being Black so much, the Black community should decline to allow them the privilege of claiming to represent or speak for us at all! He challenged us to: “Develop and implement a more effective leadership model that better addresses the needs of African Americans who are disconnected from the mainstream in the USA and across the African Diaspora. This leadership model will address the need for more effective political action, and grassroots economic development that benefits African American communities – primarily in urban areas. We seek to address the ‘authentic needs’ of African American communities, and place a high priority on Afri-centric education as a foundation for our children.”
We established a conceptual organization structure which would include while not being limited to, a Council of Elders, and ten (10) task forces covering major areas of human needs and concerns. The task forces were charged with responsibility for developing what would become “divisions” of a national organization which would for all intents and purposes, function as a “shadow government” to represent and advance the best interests of the Black COLLECTIVE in America, and throughout the African Diaspora. To our unabashed, unapologetic Black Nationalist, Black Self-Determinist, self-reliant way of thinking, the Black Collective in America represents a “nation-within-a-nation,” and thus needs at the very least, its own government-style organizational entity as other nations and cohesive groups have.
Interim leaders were selected for each task force, and attendees were asked to choose one of them to work with and contribute to. “Break-out” sessions were held, and a course of action laid out and agreed to by consensus. Jim advocated that we reconvene in about four months for the purpose of receiving progress reports from each task force. That followup meeting took place in Atlanta, Georgia on April 20 &21, 2007. It was agreed that the next plateau in our organization-building process would be a national convention at which we would officially “give birth” to our new organization, which would be named the NATIONALIST Black Leadership Council (NBLC). That convention will take place from October 11-14, 2007 in Kernersville, North Carolina, near Greensboro.
At our convention, each task force will conduct in-depth WORKshops during which the nature, scope, mission, purpose, and structure for its Division will be finalized, tweaked, and presented. Included in the task force’s charge is the designation of a candidate who would be offered the paid position of DIVISION DIRECTOR when funds were secured with which to hire the person. The persons chosen for the Division Director position would become our Movement’s principal leaders of and spokespersons for, the particular area of human needs and concerns for which their respective Divisions will be responsible.
Our Council Of Elders will identify a preferred candidate for the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the NBLC, and together with the task force chairpersons and Division Directors, this will constitute the New Leadership Model that our Movement will have put in place to serve and advance the best interests of our people, “those at home, and those abroad.”
In view of the foregoing then, it should be clearly understood that our convention next month will be an event which will SHOWCASE the component parts of the new leadership model proposed by Jim Clingman nine months ago, and brought into existence by and through the exhaustive process we have engaged in and sustained during the ensuing months. Members of our Council of Elders will have prominent roles and responsibilities there, and task force chairpersons will conduct, facilitate, and/or oversee the workshop sessions.
The lone exception to the foregoing outline will be the Economic Task Force workshop, where the featured presenter will be Dr. Claud Anderson, who will do a powerpoint presentation on his “PowerNomics Plan for the Empowerment of Black America.” It was this plan developed by Dr. Anderson and his wife and partner Joann, which inspired Jim Clingman and me to take the initiative that has led to establishing the Movement to Bring Back Black, and soon, the birth of the NATIONALIST Black Leadership Council (NBLC). “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”
Peace and Continued Blessings,
Baba Amefika D. Geuka
National Co-Convener
BBB/NBLC
September 26, 2007
