In 1968 three years after the assassination of Brother Omowale, Malcolm X, led by his inspiration and teachings, his followers in the Malcolm X Society lead over 500 Black activists at a national convention of our people in Detroit, Michigan. The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) was formed and brought into existence on March 30--31 of that year and announced a parliamentary strategy for winning independence. They issued a Declaration of Independence of the Black nation; named it RNA; formed a Provisional Government ["Provisional" means "temporary" or, in this case, "pre-independent], with officials elected in Convention; created a Nationalist 'Creed', basic laws, and adopted a Constitution 'Code of Umoja'. They identified and designated the Five States of Louisiana, Mississippi,Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as the New Afrikan nation's National Territory.
New Afrikan Creed
1. i believe in the spirituality, humanity and genius of Black people, and in our new pursuit of these values.
2. i believe in the family and the community, and in the community as a family, and i will work to make this concept live.
3. i believe in the community as more important than the individual.
4. i believe in constant struggle for freedom, to end oppression and build a better world. i believe in collective struggle; in fashioning victory in concert with my brothers and sisters.
5. i believe that the fundamental reason our oppression continues is that We, as a people, lack the power to control our lives.
6. i believe that fundamental way to gain that power, and end oppression, is to build a sovereign Black nation.
7. i believe that all the land in America, upon which We have lived for a long time, which We have worked and built upon, and which We have fought to stay on, is land that belongs to us as a people.
8. i believe in the Malcolm X Doctrine: that We must organize upon this land, and hold a plebiscite, to tell the world by a vote that We are free and our land independent, and that, after the vote, We must stand ready to defend ourselves, establishing the nation beyond contradiction.
9. Therefore, i pledge to struggle without cease, until We have won sovereignty. i pledge to struggle without fail until We have built a better condition than the world has yet known.
10. i will give my life, if that is necessary; i will give my time, my mind, my strength, and my wealth because this IS necessary.
11. i will follow my chosen leaders and help them.
12. i will love my brothers and sisters as myself.
13. i will steal nothing from a brother or sister, cheat no brother or sister, misuse no brother or sister, inform on no brother or sister, and spread no gossip.
14. i will keep myself clean in body, dress and speech, knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building.
15. i will be patient and uplifting with the deaf, dumb and blind, and i will seek by word and deed to heal the Black family, to bring into the Movement and into the Community mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters left by the wayside.
Now, freely and of my own will, i pledge this Creed, for the sake of freedom for my people and a better world, on pain of disgrace and banishment if i prove false. For, i am no longer deaf, dumb or blind. i am, by inspiration of the ancestors and grace of the Creator -- a New Afrikan.
The New Afrikan Oath
For the fruition of Black Power, for the triumph of Black Nationhood, i pledge to the Provisional Government Republic of New Afrika and to the building of a better people and a better world; i give my total devotion, my total resources, and the total power of my mortal life!!!
The Black Calendar - "Weusi Takwimu"
As a New Afrikan, I have learned that living is based on time and that nature determines time by the seasons based on the movement of the Sun: the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and Winter Solstice. Besides nature’s calendar, nations and cultures create manmade calendars to reckon time that marks their significant people, places, and events.
Calendars reflect worldviews, nations that dominate other nations impose their calendars on the dominated to shape their view of the world. Blacks in America have been under the calendar domination of whites, from Presidents Day, most of which justified slavery and racial oppression, to the Fourth of July, celebrating white America’s independence while Blacks were enslaved. It is my position that oppressed nationalities and ethnic groups cannot be self-determined without the development of their own historical calendars.
Understanding the need for a Black Calendar “Weusi Takwimu”, I decided to create one. Benjamin Banneker, the brilliant Black astronomer and clockmaker who created an acclaimed Almanac in 1791 inspired me; and Malcolm X’s words of “forging the best of the past with the best of the present”, guided me. My first creative task was to come up with names for the days of the week. Utilizing Black history and culture as a frame of reference, I identified the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (Nguzo Saba) to be the names for the days of the week:
*Imani (Faith) – Sunday
*Ummoja (Unity) – Monday
*Kugichagulia (Self-determination) – Tuesday
*Ujimma (Collective work and responsibility) – Wednesday
*Ujamma (Cooperative Economics) – Thursday
*Nia (Purpose) – Friday
*Kuumba (Creativity) – Saturday
With the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa as the days of the week, they become a perpetual Nguzo Saba, observed 365 days a year. Since the Nguzo Saba are Kiswahili terms, and to be consistent, I searched for Kiswahili words to describe the 12 months. To begin creating Kiswahili names for the months I had to designate when the New Year begins. The American Eurocentric calendar designates January 1st, in the dead of winter when the Sun is at its lowest point, as the beginning of the New Year. It was Roman Emperor Julius Caesar who in 46 B.C. established January 1st as the beginning of the New Year, the “Julian” calendar. The “Gregorian” calendar, introduced by the Catholic priesthood in 1582, is a revised version of the Julian.
From my perspective, the Black New Year should begin nature’s way – March 21st, the first day of Spring when life is springing forth again moved by the Sun's return. The Kiswahili term for the New Year celebrated in East Africa is Nairuzi; the word is derived from Nauruz (Navruz), a Persian word. Navruz, the Spring New Year Holiday, is celebrated in Iran, dating back to ancient Persia more than 2,500 years ago. Narvuz, celebrating the Sun's renewal (Spring Equinox), originated from the “Feast of ‘Shamo’” in ancient Kemit (Egypt) over 4,500 years ago. Shamo means the 'Renewal of Life', the rebirth of creation, it is still observed today in Egypt as ‘Sham el Nessim’ which means ‘sniffing the spring breeze’.
Having established the beginning of the New Year, I then identified the following relevant and meaningful Kiswahili terms to name the Months of the year:
1. Nairuzi – (March): Month of the New Light
2. Chaa – (April): Month of Cultivation
3. Masika – (May): Month of the Rainy Season
4. Kiangazi – (June): Month of the Growing Season
5. Shemsi – (July): Month of the Ascending Sun
6. Chaka – (August): Month of the Blazing Sun
7. Demani – (September): Month of the Falling Sun
8. Mavuno – (October): Month of the Harvest
9. Mungubariki – (November): Month of Thanking the Creator
10. Sakitu – (December): Month of the White Frost
11. Baridi – (January): Month of the Cold
12. Kikumbuko – (February): Month of Remembrance
Celebrating the Black 'New Afrikan' New Year
The Black 'New Afrikan' New Year 'Nairuzi', March 21st, with its roots in ancient Africa – Kemet, is a celebration of Light, Life, and Land. Though March 21st is the main day of the Black New Year celebration, Nairuzi is observed for 11 days from March 21st through March 31st. Preparation for Nairuzi begins on New Year’s Eve – March 20th, when homes are thoroughly cleaned and prepared for new beginnings. House cleaning entails getting rid of clothes and other things you no longer need, throwing them away or donating them; de-cluttering our environments.
New Year’s Eve is also spent preparing the celebratory table. A large table should be selected, preferably draped in ‘Kinte Cloth’, the table should be decorated with flowers (African violets), lighted lavender incense (smell of Spring), mirrors so that candles can be placed in front of them to magnify their light; one large yellow candle (symbolizing the new Sun), one medium size Black candle (representing Black people), and seven smaller size green candles reflecting the Seven ‘S’ Principles:
1. Self–Knowledge: knowing our history and culture;
2. Self–Healing: curing ourselves through cultural therapy;
3. Self–Respect: valuing and honoring ourselves;
4. Self–Efficacy: develop nation-building capacities;
5. Self–Reliance: relying on our own efforts and resources for progress;
6. Self–Defense: protecting ourselves through advocacy, arms, and institutions;
7. Self–Determination: determining our own destiny politically.
The Seven ‘S’ Principles represent the ‘7 Seeds’ of Black character development that must be replanted in our lives so that we can be a strong people and make progress. Indeed, the Black New Year is a time to clean up our lives from self-oppressing beliefs and character flaws. As we have cleaned our homes for the New Year, we must more importantly identify what we need to clean up in our lives. By purging ourselves internally, we make room for new growth of the ‘7 Seeds’ to take place. Once we complete the ‘casting out of our life’ phase, we can move on to the areas of Healing, Rejuvenating, Goal-setting, Reorganizing, New Focusing, and Committing.
Another important aspect of the Black New Year’s celebration is to spend significant time visiting family and friends. During the Nairuzi celebration days, we should atone, forgive, and offer gifts; spending time with each other; enjoying the Spring weather. Food is an essential part of enjoying the Black New Year, since Spring renews greenery the staple of the New Year’s Day meal is turnip, mustard, and collard greens; cabbage, green salads, sweet potatoes (making the year sweet and happy), corn bread, and fish. Besides these staples, many other food and dessert dishes can be prepared, but meat should be abstained from during the 11 days of celebration.
The most significant days of the 11 day celebration is the last weekend in March – the 3 day commemoration of ‘Nation Day Weekend’, the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) on March 29th, 30th and 31st, 1968, in Detroit, Michigan.
1. i believe in the spirituality, humanity and genius of Black people, and in our new pursuit of these values.
2. i believe in the family and the community, and in the community as a family, and i will work to make this concept live.
3. i believe in the community as more important than the individual.
4. i believe in constant struggle for freedom, to end oppression and build a better world. i believe in collective struggle; in fashioning victory in concert with my brothers and sisters.
5. i believe that the fundamental reason our oppression continues is that We, as a people, lack the power to control our lives.
6. i believe that fundamental way to gain that power, and end oppression, is to build a sovereign Black nation.
7. i believe that all the land in America, upon which We have lived for a long time, which We have worked and built upon, and which We have fought to stay on, is land that belongs to us as a people.
8. i believe in the Malcolm X Doctrine: that We must organize upon this land, and hold a plebiscite, to tell the world by a vote that We are free and our land independent, and that, after the vote, We must stand ready to defend ourselves, establishing the nation beyond contradiction.
9. Therefore, i pledge to struggle without cease, until We have won sovereignty. i pledge to struggle without fail until We have built a better condition than the world has yet known.
10. i will give my life, if that is necessary; i will give my time, my mind, my strength, and my wealth because this IS necessary.
11. i will follow my chosen leaders and help them.
12. i will love my brothers and sisters as myself.
13. i will steal nothing from a brother or sister, cheat no brother or sister, misuse no brother or sister, inform on no brother or sister, and spread no gossip.
14. i will keep myself clean in body, dress and speech, knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building.
15. i will be patient and uplifting with the deaf, dumb and blind, and i will seek by word and deed to heal the Black family, to bring into the Movement and into the Community mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters left by the wayside.
Now, freely and of my own will, i pledge this Creed, for the sake of freedom for my people and a better world, on pain of disgrace and banishment if i prove false. For, i am no longer deaf, dumb or blind. i am, by inspiration of the ancestors and grace of the Creator -- a New Afrikan.
The New Afrikan Oath
For the fruition of Black Power, for the triumph of Black Nationhood, i pledge to the Provisional Government Republic of New Afrika and to the building of a better people and a better world; i give my total devotion, my total resources, and the total power of my mortal life!!!
The Black Calendar - "Weusi Takwimu"
As a New Afrikan, I have learned that living is based on time and that nature determines time by the seasons based on the movement of the Sun: the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and Winter Solstice. Besides nature’s calendar, nations and cultures create manmade calendars to reckon time that marks their significant people, places, and events.
Calendars reflect worldviews, nations that dominate other nations impose their calendars on the dominated to shape their view of the world. Blacks in America have been under the calendar domination of whites, from Presidents Day, most of which justified slavery and racial oppression, to the Fourth of July, celebrating white America’s independence while Blacks were enslaved. It is my position that oppressed nationalities and ethnic groups cannot be self-determined without the development of their own historical calendars.
Understanding the need for a Black Calendar “Weusi Takwimu”, I decided to create one. Benjamin Banneker, the brilliant Black astronomer and clockmaker who created an acclaimed Almanac in 1791 inspired me; and Malcolm X’s words of “forging the best of the past with the best of the present”, guided me. My first creative task was to come up with names for the days of the week. Utilizing Black history and culture as a frame of reference, I identified the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (Nguzo Saba) to be the names for the days of the week:
*Imani (Faith) – Sunday
*Ummoja (Unity) – Monday
*Kugichagulia (Self-determination) – Tuesday
*Ujimma (Collective work and responsibility) – Wednesday
*Ujamma (Cooperative Economics) – Thursday
*Nia (Purpose) – Friday
*Kuumba (Creativity) – Saturday
With the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa as the days of the week, they become a perpetual Nguzo Saba, observed 365 days a year. Since the Nguzo Saba are Kiswahili terms, and to be consistent, I searched for Kiswahili words to describe the 12 months. To begin creating Kiswahili names for the months I had to designate when the New Year begins. The American Eurocentric calendar designates January 1st, in the dead of winter when the Sun is at its lowest point, as the beginning of the New Year. It was Roman Emperor Julius Caesar who in 46 B.C. established January 1st as the beginning of the New Year, the “Julian” calendar. The “Gregorian” calendar, introduced by the Catholic priesthood in 1582, is a revised version of the Julian.
From my perspective, the Black New Year should begin nature’s way – March 21st, the first day of Spring when life is springing forth again moved by the Sun's return. The Kiswahili term for the New Year celebrated in East Africa is Nairuzi; the word is derived from Nauruz (Navruz), a Persian word. Navruz, the Spring New Year Holiday, is celebrated in Iran, dating back to ancient Persia more than 2,500 years ago. Narvuz, celebrating the Sun's renewal (Spring Equinox), originated from the “Feast of ‘Shamo’” in ancient Kemit (Egypt) over 4,500 years ago. Shamo means the 'Renewal of Life', the rebirth of creation, it is still observed today in Egypt as ‘Sham el Nessim’ which means ‘sniffing the spring breeze’.
Having established the beginning of the New Year, I then identified the following relevant and meaningful Kiswahili terms to name the Months of the year:
1. Nairuzi – (March): Month of the New Light
2. Chaa – (April): Month of Cultivation
3. Masika – (May): Month of the Rainy Season
4. Kiangazi – (June): Month of the Growing Season
5. Shemsi – (July): Month of the Ascending Sun
6. Chaka – (August): Month of the Blazing Sun
7. Demani – (September): Month of the Falling Sun
8. Mavuno – (October): Month of the Harvest
9. Mungubariki – (November): Month of Thanking the Creator
10. Sakitu – (December): Month of the White Frost
11. Baridi – (January): Month of the Cold
12. Kikumbuko – (February): Month of Remembrance
Celebrating the Black 'New Afrikan' New Year
The Black 'New Afrikan' New Year 'Nairuzi', March 21st, with its roots in ancient Africa – Kemet, is a celebration of Light, Life, and Land. Though March 21st is the main day of the Black New Year celebration, Nairuzi is observed for 11 days from March 21st through March 31st. Preparation for Nairuzi begins on New Year’s Eve – March 20th, when homes are thoroughly cleaned and prepared for new beginnings. House cleaning entails getting rid of clothes and other things you no longer need, throwing them away or donating them; de-cluttering our environments.
New Year’s Eve is also spent preparing the celebratory table. A large table should be selected, preferably draped in ‘Kinte Cloth’, the table should be decorated with flowers (African violets), lighted lavender incense (smell of Spring), mirrors so that candles can be placed in front of them to magnify their light; one large yellow candle (symbolizing the new Sun), one medium size Black candle (representing Black people), and seven smaller size green candles reflecting the Seven ‘S’ Principles:
1. Self–Knowledge: knowing our history and culture;
2. Self–Healing: curing ourselves through cultural therapy;
3. Self–Respect: valuing and honoring ourselves;
4. Self–Efficacy: develop nation-building capacities;
5. Self–Reliance: relying on our own efforts and resources for progress;
6. Self–Defense: protecting ourselves through advocacy, arms, and institutions;
7. Self–Determination: determining our own destiny politically.
The Seven ‘S’ Principles represent the ‘7 Seeds’ of Black character development that must be replanted in our lives so that we can be a strong people and make progress. Indeed, the Black New Year is a time to clean up our lives from self-oppressing beliefs and character flaws. As we have cleaned our homes for the New Year, we must more importantly identify what we need to clean up in our lives. By purging ourselves internally, we make room for new growth of the ‘7 Seeds’ to take place. Once we complete the ‘casting out of our life’ phase, we can move on to the areas of Healing, Rejuvenating, Goal-setting, Reorganizing, New Focusing, and Committing.
Another important aspect of the Black New Year’s celebration is to spend significant time visiting family and friends. During the Nairuzi celebration days, we should atone, forgive, and offer gifts; spending time with each other; enjoying the Spring weather. Food is an essential part of enjoying the Black New Year, since Spring renews greenery the staple of the New Year’s Day meal is turnip, mustard, and collard greens; cabbage, green salads, sweet potatoes (making the year sweet and happy), corn bread, and fish. Besides these staples, many other food and dessert dishes can be prepared, but meat should be abstained from during the 11 days of celebration.
The most significant days of the 11 day celebration is the last weekend in March – the 3 day commemoration of ‘Nation Day Weekend’, the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) on March 29th, 30th and 31st, 1968, in Detroit, Michigan.