Legacy
From Social Justice Wiki
Activists talk about the influence of Nehanda's legacy on their work.
"Nehanda is so deeply present in my heart that our separation, though all too real, still seems impossible. I don't remember when we first met; I can only recall her fabulous, strong-spirited presence in my life during the late 70s and early 80s in NYC. I remember how real she kept things--quite a talent in days when our rhetoric and hopes were often over-heated. In exile, Nehanda has achieved more than many of us who labor here at home--organizing, inspiring, giving analysis and ideas with an amazing amount of clarity and humor (always her sense of humor draws you to her). Nehanda's contribution to the breaking down of homophobia in the political movements is enormous, and as a lesbian, I particularly appreciate that. But I can no more quantify what she means to me and what impact she's had on my life than I can tell you why I need to breathe. She is one of those who struggles by choice for every day of her life. Without people like Nehanda, we would be lost."
-with love, laura whitehorn, former political prisoner
"When I went to Cuba for the first time, I had many expectations on what I wanted to see and who I wanted to meet. No one had given me a real heads up on meeting Nehanda, who's mere presence alone set her apart, when I met her. Strong, loving and beautiful were some of my initial thoughts. She has leader and caretaker as part of her DNA makeup and the thing I took most from her is her fierceness. I have become so close to her infact that when a New Afrikan name was chosen for me, I took on her last name Abiodun"
-Kamau Ade Abiodun, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
“It’s her smile, which I remember as vividly as my own mothers, genuine in both happiness and pain. Her smile reminds me of my responsibility to continue the work of the women who have all my life made choices to fight for their freedom as well as my own. Like the many women who have built me she reminds me that although so much is at stake, so much to work towards, so much to grow out of, it’s ok to still smile. She said it’s ok to smile, smiled and danced, days before she shared her own revolution.”
-Rolando Brown, the Hip-Hop Association
"...many people have never heard of this amazing woman. Nehanda represents the woman warrior in all of us. She is as wise as she is current--she believes in new methods for engaging our people. For instance, she is one of the biggest proponents of using culture, particularly music as enjoyed by young people, to politicize them. She inspires me because she continues her battle on behalf of Black people--children, men and women--in the face of incredible adversity and specifically in the face of her inability to come home and be with her loved ones."
-Meron, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
"It is no understatement to say that I would not be the same person politically today if it wasn’t for the five months that I spent in Cuba in the year 2000, getting to know Nehanda and the role that she has continued to play in my life ever since. Like so many other people I know, Nehanda has for me been a source of endless inspiration and wisdom on matters both political and personal, not to mention a close friend.
As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, I was deeply involved in local social issues, from fights over affirmative action to battles around the criminalization of youth of color – yet I felt that I had so much left to learn as I struggled to figure out what my place in the long term movement for justice and equality would be. I had the privilege of taking off a semester to spend in Cuba, and, because at the time there were no formal programs to study abroad, I decided that I would design a course of study all my own, one with Nehanda as my advisor. Those five months were an amazing inspiration to me – afternoons spent at her house, discussing the history of past liberation struggles within and external to the United States, the debates around strategy and tactics that raged then and still continue now, the lessons that we could learn from the project of the Cuban Revolution itself. It soon became clear that I was not the only one looking for her knowledge or trying to learn from her history, and our one-on-one sessions soon expanded to open forums, where young Cubans came together with people from the US, Jamaica, Argentina and beyond to collectively grapple with complex issues such as race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism, and talk together about what we as young people needed to do to effect change. She taught me so much that year in Havana, and that’s not even including all the shared bottles of rum and nights at La Pampa that lasted until dawn.
Five years later, I feel that my life is now dedicated to a historical progression towards justice, and I thank her for helping to set me on the right course in my path. Nehanda remains a friend as well as a teacher, and the central role that she plays, from afar, continues – in my moments of doubt, weakness, or when the daily frustrations of life mount up too far, I have never been unable to draw from her spirit and words of encouragement and affirmation to move forward.
There are so many lessons that she has taught me, but the ones that mean the most are:
- You can still be a socialist and look good – there is no contradiction between cute shoes and the revolution (that one might be most important)
- real political commitment goes far beyond the rhetoric – it is how you live your life and the giving nature of your spirit
- what the definition of strength is– to have to sacrifice, to suffer loss, and to still live your life in dedication to struggle and with infinite love and laughter –but that doesn’t mean you can’t sometimes break down
- the real leaders of our movements might not make it into every history book, but they live in the hearts of those that continue to pass their spirit on
Here’s to looking forward to the day that Nehanda joins us on the streets of uptown Manhattan, but until then her family will keep her close to this city in our thoughts and through our work. And we have that celebration bottle waiting."
-Dana Kaplan, Organizer
"Nehanda is a mother, a lover, a soldier, and a friend. As such, she too hurts. In the short time that we spent together, she shared with me how it really feels to be in exile, the human element of it. She grew up in Harlem, graduated from this very school (Columbia University). She misses here and believes she will come back...and not in chains. She said 'I want to be able to walk down the street and say 'yo' and not have everybody think I'm saying 'I."
She told me it's a thankless job. And it truly is. How many political prisoners, prisoners of war, or brothers and sisters in exile can we actually name? These folks committed the ultimate act of love and we don't even know they exist. In spite of all of this, Nehanda is unbroken, continuing her work without skipping a beat. For this, we love her; for this, we thank her"
-Amari Sekou, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
"Nehanda's love and knowlege hits me different everytime I see her! She will tell me how it is and let me feel bad about it and at the same time she will share with me ideas on how it should be and insipre me to struggle and fight harder for what I belive in."
-Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Clenched Fist
"I first met Nehanda at her birthday party in june 2002. The thing that first pulled me in was her warmth. She greeted me with a big smile and a warm hug. I felt really welcomed and loved. The more I got to know her and her story, I was impressed by her personal and inner-strength, her committment to her people and to revolution, and the sacrifices that she has made for these struggles. As an artist, I am very influenced by my surroundings and the people in my surroundings. My work is very much influenced by identity, representation, and other socio-political issues. Even though my work is not a verbatim documentary of my real life experiences, these experiences and people drive the work that I do and my vision. Nehanda has vision, foresight, and purpose. I admire that about her and I try to emulate that in my life and my life's work."
-Uraline Septembre, Artist, Maclolm X Grassroots Movement
"I keep a picture of Nehanda's (first) fiftieth birthday party by my desk. In it, she is smiling her bright loving Oshun smile, and just behind it, one can see in her eyes that her love and power and resolve is hard won. It is hard won every day. If asked to choose which of my sister's traits I admire most, I would say that it is her love, because this is what motivates everything else. Her incisive intellect; her fierce defense of the dignity and integrity of our people, and all people; her uncanny ability to not only survive, but look and do and be good doing it (even when she does not feel it), is all motivated by revolutionary love.
In my classes, I try to "teach Nehanda," even in advance of that book we all look forward to her finishing. I use her as an example of someone who, given circumstances close to other folks on her block and in her building, made choices that reflect values of self-determination and collective responsibility-- and keeps making these principled choices. I want to analyze, honor, protect and replicate this spirit, and these radical Black feminist politics. Nehanda inspires my commitment to pay attention to all the ways we survive, even though "we were never meant to survive" (Lorde), and to continue to share and amplify these stories and methodologies and feelings.
Although she and her family endured the painful (and too often silenced) experience of having to leave her own children in order to save her own life and work to make theirs better; she has taken on countless more children [some of them grown] who travel the planet, carrying "G-Mama" with them. ... She reminds me who I aspire to be, and gives me tools to become this. We hold each other's hand in our hearts although we are far away, and when we see each other, my heart forgets, for a moment, the hurt it feels when I remember that she is not yet, just around the corner or in the next room. Nevertheless,'Onward until Victory.' "
-Dr. Jafari Allen, University of Texas at Austin
"I first met Nehanda in the summer of 1996. Nehanda Abiodun told me that she had known me and my family long before that. Nehanda revealed to me that she used to frequent my former school, Uhuru Sasa Shule, and use the printing press there to print the Republic of New Afrika's newspaper. Since officially meeting her in 1996, I have been on a mission fulfilling a series of tasks and assignments from her. In 1997, she along with Assata Shakur charged me/MXGM (Malcolm X Grassroots Movement) with utilizing rap and Hip Hop to educate young people in the states about Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US. The next summer, the 1st Annual Black August: A celebration of Hip Hop and our Freedom Fighters was presented in Manhattan and Havana, Cuba. Nehanda (who is known to most of us in MXGM as "Ma") continues to be a source of inspiration and information. She remains passionate about freeing her comrades and friends that remain captured in US prisons today. Even in Cuba she makes sure those who come in contact with her are informed of our Liberation movement and the role they can play in continuing that work."
-Lumumba Bandele, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement