Free the Land! Edward Onaci on the History of the Republic of New Afrika

In this episode we interview Edward Onaci. Onaci is an associate professor of history at Ursinus College. In this episode, we talk about Onaci’s event book, Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State. In our discussion, Onaci traces the origins of the RNA, the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and this broader field of theory we know as New Afrikan Political Science.

Along the way, Onaci highlights the influence of former UNIA and CPUSA member Queen Mother Audley Moore as well as the Obadele Brothers, Malcolm X and other key figures. He also touches on splits and ideological debates within the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and the creation of organizations like the New Afrikan People’s Organization, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and touches on the connections of recent political organizing work in Jackson Mississippi and around the US to organizing strategy first developed by those with a vision of a liberated New Afrikan nation back in the late sixties.