Biography

I am going to explain...why I call myself an African. When I say the word "African," it's not because I'm in love with the word -- it is the concept. If Africa was called Nubia, I would call us Nubian. If it was called Original, I would call us originally. Whatever it was called, I would call us that because of the concept attached to the word. So for everybody who allows themselves to be separated from me because I said "African" instead of "Nubian" or "Black" or "Kemet" or "original" or "Israelite," don't be so foolish. I say "African" because the continent of Africa is the land from which we all originate. It is the word that we are most familiar with right now.

My definition of good is that you understand that this is a question of power. That you be willing to give up some power. That you be willing to give up some resources. That you be willing to pay Black people reparations for our years and years of service in this country. That you be willing to go home and tell your white mother and father about white racism and how it affects and kills Black people in our communities. That's my definition of good white people, and I haven't met any like that.

[From an interview by Bill Moyers]: The gap between the young people and the rest of society is that...young people don't have hope. Jesse Jackson says, "Keep hope alive," but there IS no hope because they look at the leadership, number one, and they say, "Okay, to get along in American society, you have to be a sell-out. You have to...put on a suit, talk like a white man, ask for what white people want, say what white people like to be successful." And young Black people don't see that as something that they want to strive for. We want to be able to be who we are, talk how we talk, walk how we walk, live how we want to live, and be producers and providers for OUR children in the future. We want to be African.

[From a forum hosted by Phil V. Donahue]: When white people feel serious and angry and upset about abortion, they come out in the thousands--up to the millions--to say, "This is what we believe about abortion!" Where is the white outcry against white racism that murders African people all around this entire globe? It doesn't exist. So who are these white good people? I want to meet them! I want to see them!

People say, "What is a Sister Souljah moment?" And I say, "That's when you meet a beautiful, powerful woman - and you just can't forget her."