I joined the Omaha, Nebraska chapter of the Black Panther Party in the spring of 1969.  At the time, i thought of myself as "black" but really didn't have a sense of being African.  This was the case with most, if not all, of the Brothers and Sisters in the chapter, and in the Party nationwide.  Like Brothers and Sisters in this country gene­rally, We had been programmed by the nation's schools, religious institutions, commercial media, and so forth to dismiss Africa--to "think" of its history, traditions, etc. as being either irrelevant or worthy of our shame.  We were in the midst of a process where "black­ness," not "Africanness," was at the core of our political and psychic awakening.

As Black Panthers, We identified with "black" people in the U.S. and with oppressed people around the world--especially, African people and other people of color--but didn't have any significant sense of ident­ification with distinctly African values and traditions.  We were anti-capitalist but didn't know of the communalism of traditional African societies; so We weren't able to look to these societies as resources and/or guides for developing an economic, political, and social vision that We could introduce to our communities.  Our ideo­logy seemed at least as much rooted in the analyses and visions of Lenin and Marx as in those of Omowale (Malcolm X) and Franz Fanon.

The Party looked at "racism" as a veritable "child of capitalism" and resisted the notion that there might be something in the collective history and consciousness of Europeans (Caucasians) in particular that had given birth to the doctrine and practice of "white" supremacy/ "racism."  This may have limited our ability to understand the oppres­sion of our people and the motives and mentality of the Europeans who were running these systems of oppression, as well as stood in the way of our developing effective strategies for combating the forces and mechanisms of oppression.

But this didn't stop us from being dedicated to the cause of libera­tion of and for our people; it didn't stop us from being creative or courageous.  The Black Panther Party provided African children and adults with political-education and legal-rights classes, established breakfast-for-children programs, opened free health clinics, patrolled African communities to protect our people from police harassment and abuse and monitor their activities.  As "David Rice," i was proud of being a Panther then and, as "Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa," i am proud now that i was a Panther.

But looking back on those days, i wish We, and i, had known that it was important and crucial for us to get to know our African selves, the history of our people, traditional African cultures and values. Had We been in the knowledge and understanding of these things, We could and would have turned to our own collective historical experi­ence for inspiration and concrete ideas.  I wish We'd understood that the Black Panther was really an African cat.

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