“Is it not violent for a child to go to bed hungry in the richest country in the world? I think that is violent. But that type of violence is so institutionalized that it becomes a part of our way of life.” -Kwame Ture
Kwame Ture’s ideas served as an impetus for the intellectual and ideological development of Black revolutionaries all across the country. During Ture’s leadership in SNCC, he openly identified fake leadership amongst Black politicians and even African heads of state who practiced neo-colonialism.
At the end of (1967), there were efforts to merge SNCC with the Black Panther Party. During that time period, the Black Panthers drafted Kwame as their Prime Minister. He graciously accepted, and shortly after, the SNCC Central Committee voted to dismiss Kwame.
In (1968) Ture left the Black Panthers due to their alliances with white supporters and organizations. After leaving the Black Panthers in (1969), Brother Ture relocated to Guinea, West Africa. This geographical shift reaffirmed his commitment to Pan-African Nationalism and our global struggle.
Guinea President Sekou Toure taught us that “To achieve real action, you yourself must be a living part of Africa and her thought, you must be a part of that popular energy, which is entirely called for the freeing, progress, and happiness of Africa.”
While in Guinea, Brother Ture studied the history and culture of the beautiful land and its amazing people. The sisters and brothers of Guinea welcomed him with open arms. Brother Ture also revitalized Kwame Nkrumah’s (AAPRP) All African People’s Revolutionary Party, intensifying Pan-African Nationalist principles within the organization. In 1968, he married Mariam Makeba, a renowned singer from South Africa, and the marriage ended in divorce. After the divorce, he married a Guinean doctor named Marlyatou Barry–five strong children were born from both sacred unions.
Our brother Kwame Ture informs us that, “In 1967, President Sekou Toure and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, through the intercession of Shirley Dubois (wife of W.E.B. Dubois), invited me to attend the (8th) Congress of the Democratic Party of Guinea (RDA). They invited me to live, study, and struggle here in Guinea, an invitation that I readily accepted despite criticism. Thirty years later, I still live in Guinea, working, studying, and struggling for the last hour of the last day. And it is my wish to sleep here in Guinea eternally. I could never be ungrateful of the people of Guinea, nor Sekou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah.”
kou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah.”
It is essential to know that President Kwame Nkrumah created the first study cells of the (AAPRP) and took the self-assigned mission to travel to North America to build the organization. He would advocate that the progress for Africans in America and throughout the diaspora could only be achieved through Pan-African Nationalism.
We must take a careful look at our brother Kwame Ture’s move of repatriation to our Motherland. First, his connection came within the spiritual and mental realm. Once this was clear, his sense of connection with Africa was made physically. For this, my brothers and sisters is a beautiful evolution. What makes our brother’s life even more profound is the fact that he consistently continued to travel back and join us in our struggle here in racist America. He would continue to come here to help free us from the psychological slavery that many African Americans are victims of. He made sure that we always stayed connected with Africa!
He also taught Black leaders how to organize! Ture would teach us that Many people get confused with the difference between mobilization and organization. Many people think that in the 60’s we were organized, we were not, we were mobilized. This mobilized effort was powerful and lasted over several years, but it was spontaneous mobilization. Even though it was mobilized efforts, it gained certain tangible victories. But since it was mobilized, since it was spontaneous and unorganized, it will spin itself out just like a rebellion of a Rodney King uprising. Once you’ve gained these tangible victories after you spin yourself out, the enemy comes and rolls the gains back. What we’re seeing is the period of what is called the rollbacks since the spontaneous has spun out. We must take our mobilized efforts and take them towards organized efforts. We must make our struggle permanent, and to make it permanent it has to be organized!”
One of the greatest acts of honor and to completely pay tribute to the two African giants that influenced him in his life’s journey was to change his name from Stokely Carmichael to Kwame Ture!
Legally adopting the names of Ghana’s President Kwame Nkrumah and Guinea’s President Sekou Toure sealed and helped to indeed validate his tremendous legacy.
Baba Khabyr Hadas is an author, teacher, and member of the Universal negro Improvement Association and African Communities League founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914. Currently, Hadas serves as Head Archivist for UNIA-ACL Thomas W. Harvey Memorial Division #121, khabyrhadas@gmail.com
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