Blog Entries tagged 'leadership'
The Fire This Time: My Interview with Ericka Huggins, for The Root
By Rebecca Walker
In 1967 Ericka Jenkins met John Huggins during her first year at HBCU Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. America was in turmoil. Inspired by a photo essay documenting police brutality against Huey Newton, she and John climbed into their car and headed for Los Angeles.
Within a year, the two teenagers had married and become active in the Black Panther Party. Three weeks after the birth of their only child, John Huggins was shot to death while organizing black students on the UCLA campus.
Devastated, Ericka continued her party work in New Haven, Conn. There, she was accused of conspiracy with intent to commit murder of a man thought to be an FBI informant. She spent two years in prison awaiting trial and upon release moved to Oakland, Calif., to join the leadership of the BPP. She continued the organization's mission of educating and feeding the black community for more than a decade.
Ericka still lives and teaches in Oakland, and in the midst of the recent reaction of the Oakland Police Department on Oct. 25 to peaceful protesters who are part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I thought she might put current events in historical perspective. I caught up with her as she was traveling to promote the fascinating Swedish film Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975.
The Root: What similarities and differences do you see between the Black Panther Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement?
Ericka Huggins: Both are spontaneous movements growing out of the needs and awareness of the people. Occupy Wall Street's unplanned locations, like New Haven, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, are also spontaneous in agreement. Two young men in New York created Occupy Wall Street. Two young men in Oakland created BPP. "All Power to the People" is a motto like "We are the 99 percent."
The BPP was well-organized and had a 10-point platform; Occupy Wall Street has many goals and a collective decision-making process. I am reminded of what drew me and John to the BPP. A similar mixture of hurt, anger and hope seem to draw people to Occupy Wall Street.
TR: Oakland is notorious for resistance to oppression and for extremely violent police retaliation. What is it about Oakland that makes it such a hot spot for dissent and retribution?
What She Said.
The Anti-Bono
Interview by Deborah Solomon
Q: As a native of Zambia with advanced degrees in public policy and economics from Harvard and Oxford, you are about to publish an attack on Western aid to Africa and its recent glamorization by celebrities. ‘‘Dead Aid,’’ as your book is called, is particularly hard on rock stars. Have you met Bono?
I have, yes, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year. It was at a party to raise money for Africans, and there were no Africans in the room, except for me.
What do you think of him?
I’ll make a general comment about this whole dependence on “celebrities.” I object to this situation as it is right now where they have inadvertently or manipulatively become the spokespeople for the African continent.
You argue in your book that Western aid to Africa has not only perpetuated poverty but also worsened it, and you are perhaps the first African to request in book form that all development aid be halted within five years.
Think about it this way — China has 1.3 billion people, only 300 million of whom live like us, if you will, with Western living standards. There are a billion Chinese who are living in substandard conditions. Do you know anybody who feels sorry for China? Nobody.
