Kwame Ture: When Africans Plan It

In the battle for hearts and minds, one half is easy. According to Pan-African revolutionary Kwame Ture, we already know in our hearts that oppression is wrong. Our blood boils when we see injustices being visited on our communities - both in Africa and in the diaspora.

The key, agues Ture in this clip from one of his lectures, is to harness minds as well. He gives the example of the Watts Riots in 1965, which erupted spontaneously after an African in America was pulled over for drink driving and treated with brutality.

The community had had enough and revolted. In the ensuing six days of rioting, 34 people died and over a thousand were injured, while some 4,000 were arrested. Around a thousand buildings were vandalised, causing an estimated 40-million dollars of damage.

Ture’s point is this: if instead of letting the anger build and build until it burst out uncontrollably in a collective act of fury, imagine if it had planned and organised its response - if it had listened not just to the heart but to the mind as well.

It’s a lesson that still applies in the Pan-African struggle today. We need to be smart and organise ourselves, as well as feel compassion and indignation. Share and like if you agree.