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In
the preface
to
his collection of poems and raps, Mondo speaks of Pete
and Charlotte O'Neal, former
Panthers from Kansas City who are living
in exile in Tanzania, and says that,
like them, he has "journeyed to the
Motherland." However, his journey has not been a physical one but a
journey made via "books and other printed materials,
filmed/taped documentaries, conversations, my own contemplations,
etc."
As to the poems and raps he
selected for this book, Mondo
states: "[They] express what
it means to me to be an
African and how the meaning of this influences how i see and interpret
things. At the same time, though, i'm an African who was born and
brought up in the U.S. and
continues to be influenced by
its institutions, and i'm an African who's been locked up for
nearly 35 years. These poems and
raps are expressive of and generated by all
of this."
Professor Julius Thompson, Chair of the
University of
Missouri-Columbia Black Studies Program, has reviewed this volume by the
long-time advocate for the dignity
and rights of African
people, writer,
and political prisoner. Thompson
characterizes THE
BLACK PANTHER IS AN AFRICAN CAT as "one guide for black people
everywhere--as indeed, the black
struggle
continues..." He also shares
with us his take on "Mondo's poetic
voice and life's
struggle" as a reminder of "the dues that African peoples have paid on
the journey of life."
In her
review in the Lincoln Star Journal, Fran Kaye [who teaches English and
Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. and also
volunteers in several local and international peace and justice
organizations] notes
that the author of the poems in The Black Panther is an African
Cat ” . . . uses voices ranging from rap to
an
African demotic to a highly polished American Standard English reminiscent
of Langston Hughes. The poems focus on building and educating all
Americans to the need for social justice in a society where Mondo’s 36
years of imprisonment for a crime he insists he did not commit is
ongoing evidence of the continuation of racism."
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