Republic of New Afrika

Republic of New Afrika
Republic of New Afrika
1968-
	Flag of RNA Flag of the Republic of New Afrika
	US States identified as subjugated national territory at the 1968 foundational conference[2] US States identified as subjugated national territory at the 1968 foundational conference
Capital	Jackson, Mississippi
Largest city	New Orleans, Louisiana
Demonym	New Afrikan
Government
• President	Janiya Amirie Evans
• Vice President	Ayodele Kofie
Area
• Total	750,503 km2 (289,771 sq mi)
Today part of	Southern United States

Full article adapted from Wikipedia revision 1375941048 by Wikipedia contributors. Text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Formatting has been adapted; article text and references are retained. Snapshot imported 2026-09-25.

US black nationalist organization and movement

The Republic of New Afrika^[a] (RNA) is a black nationalist organization in the United States founded in 1968 by supporters of Malcolm X. The organization has three goals: creation of an independent socialist country^[5] in the heart of the Black Belt in the American South, payment by the U.S. federal government of several billion dollars in reparations to African Americans for the damages inflicted on them through slavery and Jim Crow laws, and a plebiscite of all African Americans to determine their desires for citizenship. Its provisional government claims sovereignty over the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as subjugated national territory. Robert F. Williams was the group's first president.

History

The idea of the RNA arose following the events of the 1967 Detroit riot.^[6]^{: 276} It was the first separate nation declared by African Americans in the United States.^[6]^{: 276}

The vision for this country was first promulgated at a Black Government Conference held in Detroit, Michigan on March 31, 1968. This conference was convened by the Malcolm X Society, an outgrowth of a Detroit civil rights group called the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL).^[2] The 500 attendees drafted a Declaration of Independence, a constitution, and the framework for a provisional government.^[6]^{: 276}^[2] They identified the five Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as subjugated national territory.^[2]

Chinese leader Mao Zedong signing a copy of his Little Red Book for Robert F. Williams, first president of the Republic of New Afrika organization

Robert F. Williams, then living in exile in Cuba, was chosen as the first president of the provisional government; attorney Gaidi Obadele (Milton Henry) was named first vice president and Betty Shabazz second vice president.^[2] Other cabinet members included Imari Obadele (minister of information), Herman Ferguson (minister of education), Queen Mother Audley Moore (minister of health and welfare) and H. Rap Brown (minister of defense).^[2] An RNA delegation traveled to China to meet Williams in June 1968.^[6]^{: 276} Williams accepted the position and proposed diplomatic initiatives for the RNA to undertake.^[6]^{: 276} Taifa writes that Imari Obadele was the driving force behind the group, serving in various roles until his death in 2010.^[2]

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) advocated a form of cooperative economics^[7] through the building of New Communities—named after the Ujamaa concept promoted by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.

It proposed and created militant self-defense through the building of local people's militias; a standing army to be called the Black Legion.

The organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For example, it attempted to assist Oceanhill-Brownsville area in Brooklyn to secede from the United States during the 1968 conflict over control of public schools. Additionally, it was involved with shootouts at New Bethel Baptist Church in 1969 (during the one-year anniversary of the founding) and another in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1971. (It had announced that the capital of the Republic would be in Hinds County, Mississippi, located on a member's farm.) In the confrontations, law-enforcement officials were killed and injured. Organization members were prosecuted for the crimes. The members claimed they acted in self defense.^[8]

The Republic of New Afrika's influence persisted through publications, such as Imari Obadele's War in America: The Malcolm X Doctrine (1977) and Free the land! (1984), and Nkechi Taifa's Reparations Yes (1993). Key figures like Chokwe Lumumba, elected vice president in 1971, became a prominent attorney defending Republic of New Afrika members and later mayor of Jackson, Mississippi (2013-2014), where he advanced cooperative economics before his death. ^[9]^[10]

Notable members

Queen Mother Moore was a founding member.
Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, was elected as second vice president of the first administration in 1968, working alongside Williams and Henry.^[11]
Chokwe Lumumba, formerly Edwin Finley Taliaferro of Detroit, was elected as second vice president in 1971. He later became an attorney, working in Michigan and Mississippi in public defense. After settling in Jackson, Mississippi, he was elected to the city council there. He was elected as mayor in 2013, dying in office in February 2014 of natural causes.
Safiya Bukhari, former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member, founder of the Jericho Movement for U.S. Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, and co-founder of the Free Mumia Abdul-Jamal Coalition (NYC) was elected as vice-president.
Sanyika Shakur, former leader of Eight Tray Gangster Crips and author (Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member)
Yuri Kochiyama, civil rights activist.^[12]

Leaders

Robert F. Williams, President in Exile (1968–1971)
Imari Obadele, President (1971–1991)

Publications

The Article Three Brief. 1973. (New Afrikans fought U.S. Marshals in an effort to retain control of the independent New Afrikan communities shortly after the U.S. Civil War.)
Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Foundations of the Black Nation, Detroit: House of Songay, 1975.
Brother Imari [Obadele, Imari]. War In America: The Malcolm X Doctrine, Chicago: Ujamaa Distributors, 1977.
Kehinde, Muata. RNA President Imari Obadele is Free After Years of Illegal U.S. Imprisonment. In Burning Spear Louisville: African Peoples Socialist Party, 1980. pp. 4–28
Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Malcolm Generation & Other Stories, Philadelphia: House of Songhay, 1982.
Taifa, Nkechi; Lumumba, Chokwe (1993) [1983, 1987]. Reparations Yes (3rd ed.). Baton Rouge: House of Songhay.
Obadele, Imari Abubakari. Free The Land!: The True Story of the Trials of the RNA-11 Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, 1984.
New Afrikan State-Building in North America. Ann Arbor. Univ. of Michigan Microfilm, 1985, pp. 345–357.
"The First New Afrikan States". In The Black Collegian, Jan./Feb. 1986.
A Beginner's Outline of the History of Afrikan People, 1st ed. Washington, D.C. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1987.
America The Nation-State. Washington, D.C. and Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1989, 1988.
Walker, Kwaku, and Walker, Abena. Black Genius. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
Afoh, Kwame, Lumumba, Chokwe, and Obafemi, Ahmed. A Brief History of the Black Struggle in America, With Obadele's Macro-Level Theory of Human Organization. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, Commission for Positive Education, 1991.
RNA. A People's Struggle. RNA, Box 90604, Washington, D.C. 20090–0604.
The Republic of New Africa New Afrikan Ujamaa: The Economics of the Republic of New Africa. 21p. San Francisco. 1970.
Obadele, Imari Abubakari. The Struggle for Independence and Reparations from the United States 142p. Baton Rouge. House of Songhay, 2004.
Obadele, Imari A., editor De-Colonization U.S.A.: The Independence Struggle of the Black Nation in the United States Centering on the 1996 United Nations Petition 228p. Baton Rouge. The Malcolm Generation, 1997.
Taifa, Nkechi. 'Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice' 379p. Washington, DC, House of Songhay II, 2020.

Notes

^ RNA activists began spelling "Afrika" with a "k" in the mid-1970s on the theory that this spelling was more consistent with precolonial African languages.^[4]

References

^ Onaci, Edward. "A New Afrikan Nation in the Western Hemisphere". In Bynum, Cornelius L., et al. (eds). The Black Intellectual Tradition: African American Thought in the Twentieth Century. United States, University of Illinois Press, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Taifa, Nkechi (2015). "Republic of New Afrika". In Shujaa, Mwalimu J.; Shujaa, Kenya J. (eds.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America. SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:10.4135/9781483346373. ISBN 9781483346373.
^ "Info | PGRNA".
^ Onaci, Edward. Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State. United States, University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pages 106-107.
^ "Re-Build! A special theoretical & ideological issue" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2025.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Li, Hongshan (2024). Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/li--20704. ISBN 9780231207058. JSTOR 10.7312/li--20704.
^ "New Afrikan Ujamaa - Google Drive". drive.google.com. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
^ "Brown-Tougaloo Project". cds.library.brown.edu. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
^ "Elect Chokwe Lumumba Mayor of Jackson" Archived 2013-05-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
^ Anderson, Talmadge; Stewart, James Benjamin (2007). Introduction to African American Studies: Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications. Black Classic Press. pp. 157–. ISBN 9781580730396. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
^ Salvatore, N. A. (2005). Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
^ Fujino, Diane C. (2005). Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 176–182. ISBN 978-0-8166-4593-0. OCLC 57069512.

External links

RNA links

Articles and reports

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Republic of New Africa William F. Buckley interviews Milton Henry, President of the Republic of New Afrika. Program number 126. Taped on Nov 18, 1968 (New York City, NY). 50 minutes. Available from the Hoover Institution.
Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the US Government Against the Republic of New Africa by Christian Davenport, Professor of Peace Studies and Political Science at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame.
The Real Republic of New Africa Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine By Dennis Smith. February 3, 2005. Accessed April 1, 2005

[5] RNA activists began spelling "Afrika" with a "k" in the mid-1970s on the theory that this spelling was more consistent with precolonial African languages.^[4]

[1] Onaci, Edward. "A New Afrikan Nation in the Western Hemisphere". In Bynum, Cornelius L., et al. (eds). The Black Intellectual Tradition: African American Thought in the Twentieth Century. United States, University of Illinois Press, 2021.

[taifa-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Taifa, Nkechi (2015). "Republic of New Afrika". In Shujaa, Mwalimu J.; Shujaa, Kenya J. (eds.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America. SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:10.4135/9781483346373. ISBN 9781483346373.

[3] "Info | PGRNA".

[4] Onaci, Edward. Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State. United States, University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pages 106-107.

[6] "Re-Build! A special theoretical & ideological issue" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2025.

[:Li-7] Li, Hongshan (2024). Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/li--20704. ISBN 9780231207058. JSTOR 10.7312/li--20704.

[8] "New Afrikan Ujamaa - Google Drive". drive.google.com. Retrieved December 15, 2025.

[9] "Brown-Tougaloo Project". cds.library.brown.edu. Retrieved July 24, 2020.

[10] "Elect Chokwe Lumumba Mayor of Jackson" Archived 2013-05-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 12, 2013.

[AndersonStewart2007-11] Anderson, Talmadge; Stewart, James Benjamin (2007). Introduction to African American Studies: Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications. Black Classic Press. pp. 157–. ISBN 9781580730396. Retrieved May 24, 2013.

[Singing_in_a_Strange_Land-12] Salvatore, N. A. (2005). Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[13] Fujino, Diane C. (2005). Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 176–182. ISBN 978-0-8166-4593-0. OCLC 57069512.

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