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Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State by Edward Onaci
uranianmenace's review
5.0
a superbly written history of one of the most important, but rarely studied/talked about organizations from the Black Power era. one of the best books i’ve read in 2023! if we are to achieve liberation this history must be studied — this should be required reading material for communists, especially white communists, in America.
free the land! Black liberation now!
free the land! Black liberation now!
genderterrorist's review
5.0
One of the best books I've read in awhile. A dense, historical, pedagogical read that, even as Edward Onaci admits, barely scratches the surface of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, New Afrikan Political Science, the Republic of New Afrika itself, and the various struggles, theories, and epistemologies from which it came and which it bore.
Although I am a Leninist and an internationalist, this book is critical to understanding Black nationalism, which has for too long, been the target of a u.s.-backed, right-wing smear campaign comparing it to white nationalism and supremacy. It isn't, and I'd urge any leftist who believes that, to read this book, to understand what "Land Back" and reparations really means. It is a crude attempt at discrediting the rich history of Black resistance against white supremacy within this country; the demand for acquisition of land isn't really that farfetched when you study sociology and Black history [particularly Reconstruction, 1865 - 1877] and realize that very few Black people who suffered under slavery were given their '40 acres and a mule', and this is very much necessitated payback. Continuing on with Jim Crow and the rise of sharecropping [a new form of slavery], and the prison-industrial complex [current slavery], the demand for a Black nation-state in which Black self-determination is centered, the demand of land and reparations is vital.
One fascinating factor this book opened my eyes to, was the framing of the 14th Amendment as erroneous; the RNA believed that the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to all born within the illegal borders of the U.S., non-consensually forced Africans born into slavery, and all their descendants, to become U.S. citizens, putting up more obstacles in the struggle for liberation from white supremacy. Self-determination would guarantee Black people the right to decide if they want to be citizens or not. This was an angle I had not fully considered before, but was excited to read about.
This book is only 340 pages [excluding footnotes, bibliography, etc.], so again, it doesn't cover all the history, but as Onaci surmises, all of the history, brutally repressed by the white supremacist U.S. system and its long arms [FBI, COINTELPRO, etc.] Has yet to be uncovered. But this is a must-read for a good jumping off place.
Although I am a Leninist and an internationalist, this book is critical to understanding Black nationalism, which has for too long, been the target of a u.s.-backed, right-wing smear campaign comparing it to white nationalism and supremacy. It isn't, and I'd urge any leftist who believes that, to read this book, to understand what "Land Back" and reparations really means. It is a crude attempt at discrediting the rich history of Black resistance against white supremacy within this country; the demand for acquisition of land isn't really that farfetched when you study sociology and Black history [particularly Reconstruction, 1865 - 1877] and realize that very few Black people who suffered under slavery were given their '40 acres and a mule', and this is very much necessitated payback. Continuing on with Jim Crow and the rise of sharecropping [a new form of slavery], and the prison-industrial complex [current slavery], the demand for a Black nation-state in which Black self-determination is centered, the demand of land and reparations is vital.
One fascinating factor this book opened my eyes to, was the framing of the 14th Amendment as erroneous; the RNA believed that the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to all born within the illegal borders of the U.S., non-consensually forced Africans born into slavery, and all their descendants, to become U.S. citizens, putting up more obstacles in the struggle for liberation from white supremacy. Self-determination would guarantee Black people the right to decide if they want to be citizens or not. This was an angle I had not fully considered before, but was excited to read about.
This book is only 340 pages [excluding footnotes, bibliography, etc.], so again, it doesn't cover all the history, but as Onaci surmises, all of the history, brutally repressed by the white supremacist U.S. system and its long arms [FBI, COINTELPRO, etc.] Has yet to be uncovered. But this is a must-read for a good jumping off place.
raffaelhirt's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
1.25
The topic is interesting and the writing is good in places. However, the reliance on primary sources such as documents and interviews presents two major flaws that the author wasn't able to overcome. One, the book is rather drawn out. Some facts are repeatedly restated, and there are uncountable unnecessary summaries of quotations, which all reminded me of a student essay struggling to reach a word count. Two, the book is neither here nor there with regards to its genre. As a history book, it relies too much on anecdotal evidence and includes way too much opinion of both the sources as well as the author. As a biography of both the movement and the people involved, it's too convoluted and piecemealed.