As part of our tribute lecture to the Afrocentric grand master teacher, Dr Runoko Rashidi, on the 14th of August last year, I published a section from the lecture titled "Critical Moments of Black Resistance That Occurred in August".
I indicated then, that I believed that this section of the Rashidi lecture deserved specialised attention and that I might consider doing this on a month-to-month basis.
The 12th of September marks the 45th anniversary of the brutal murder in detention of one of our preeminent Black Power Warriors, uBab’uBantu Biko.
As part of the tribute to Biko, this coming Saturday (17 September), we as Mutapa will once again host the black consciousness freedom fighter, writer, researcher and Biko biographer, Dr Andile M-Afrika.
Dr M-Afrika will deliver the 45th-anniversary commemorative Biko lecture under the theme, "Black Inferiorisation by Racism and The Elite: Lessons From Biko".The event will take place at Funda Centre in Diepkloof, Soweto, from 11am.
In my view, the commemoration of Biko’s life must happen within the globalised philosophical discourse on Black radical resistance. In this connection, it is therefore important that we examine the meaning of Biko to several other Black revolutionaries and revolutionary moments (particularly those that precede his birth).
Below, I provide a list of critical moments in the evolution of radical Black resistance that occurred during September.
These are moments I believe are also worth remembering and examining, as we remember Biko.
The list below is not exhaustive. There could be other moments or individuals I may have omitted.
Important Moments in Black Radical Resistance History That Occurred In September
- 3 September, marked the 184th anniversary of anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass’s escape from slavery on 3 September 1838.
- 11 September, marked the 35th anniversary of the assassination of one of the most uncompromising warriors of our race, Peter Tosh, who was killed on 11 September 1987.
- 11 September marked the 61st anniversary since the founding of the forerunner to the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), Poqo, which was formed on 11 September 1961.
- 12 September, marks the 45th anniversary of the brutal murder in detention of one of our preeminent Black Power Warriors, uBab’uBantu Biko.
- 12 September marks the 98th anniversary of the birth of one of Afrika’s finest revolutionaries, Amilcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, on 12 September 1924.
- 20 September marks the 264th anniversary of the birth of one of the cardinal leaders of the Haitian Revolution Jean Jacques Dessalines, on 20 September 1758.
- 21 September marks the 113th anniversary of the birth of one of the great Pan Afrikanist theoreticians of our time, Kwame Nkrumah, on 21 September 1909.
- 22 September marks the 194th anniversary of the mysterious of death of one of the great warrior Kings, uDlungwana kaNdaba! uDlungwana woMbelebele, Odlung’ emanxulumeni! Kwaze kwas’ amanxulum’ esibikelana! uNodumehlezi kaMenzi, uShaka akashayeki kanjengamanzi, Ilemb’ eleq’amanye amalembe ngokukhalipha, Inkosi eNkulu uShaka kaSenzangakhona kaJama, on 22 September, 1828.
- 23 September marks the 81st anniversary of the birth of a Black Power warrior of the highest calibre, George Lester Jackson, on 23 September 1941.
- 28 September marks the 193rd anniversary of the publication of David Walkers’s epoch-making anti-slavery essay titled ‘Appeal for a Slave Revolt’ on 28 September 1829.
*Veli Mbele kaSompisi is an Afrocentric essayist and cofounder of the Afrocentric think-tank Mutapa
