Black Panther Leader Geronimo Pratt dies in Tanzania

[Abdulhalim]

Ni mtu muhimu kivipi? Watu muhimu hapa nchini wanajulikana na wala huna haja ya kuwamulika kwa tochi ili uwaone. Acheni utamaduni wa kubabaikia wageni.

 

[Paw]

infact this should be sticky

vijana wapate shule

Noted ad considered

 

[mmakonde]

Specifically mahali panaitwa Maji ya Chai baada ya kupita Usariver mbele tu ukishapita njia ya Ngurdoto kama unakwenda Moshi ndo unakuta Maji ya chai na ni katika kijiji cha Embasenyi ambacho hakipo mbali na barabara upande wa juu chini ya Mlima Meru, ukifika hapo Maji ya Chai alikuwa anajulikana kwa jina maarufu kama Mnegro na alikuwa akisaidia miradi mbalimbali hapo kijijini

Usimchanganye na Peter 0 Neal,kwenye picha ni rasta,ambaye ndio alimkaribisha huyu marehemu pale kijijini.
Kwenye YOUTUBE,Panthers in Africa ,inaelezezea vizuri

 

[Sizinga]

Ana uhusiano wowote na movie ya Pink Panther(comedy)??

 

[Chamoto]

RIP brother.

 

[bagamoyo]

Kufuatana na maandiko ya Pete O'Neal na maelezo yake ktk YOUTUBE ni kuwa Mwalimu Nyerere pamoja na Mzee Rashid Mfaume Kawawa waliwapatia haki ya 'UKIMBIZI WA KISIASA' kwa wanachama wa kundi la BLACK-PANTHER toka USA.

Hivyo Tanzania na Algeria zilikuwa nchi za mwanzo kuwapokea wakimbizi wa kisiasa toka USA ambao kwa kiasi kirefu mpaka leo FBI bado wanawahitaji kuwahoji kina Pete O'Neal juu ya harakati zao za kisiasa za kumkomboa Mmarekani mweusi kutokana na masuala ya ubagauzi wa rangi miaka hiyo ya 1960 kama maandiko mengi ya historia ya kikundi cha Black- Panther zinavyosimulia.

Tazama clip( urefu Dakika 4) hii ya Black-Panther :Living in exhile, former member of the Black Panther party now runs a community project for youth in rural Tanzania

 

[Mzee2000]

Local media ndio hao akina Pasco ambao nao washaingia kwenye orgy ya CHADEMA vs CCM as if thats what we need

Maybe one needs to set up an online newspaper na kuachana na the mainstream media yetu

Ndio maana hamna hata gazeti moja lililoandika habari hizi, hata waandishoi wetu hawana uamaduni wa kusoma vitabu kama walivyo watanzania wengi. Ni wangapi wamesoma vitabu muhimu kama 'African origin of civilization by cheick anta diop' au 'The destuction of black civilizations by chancellor williams?

 

[Dingswayo]

R.I.P. Geronimo. You fought a hard battle and won it. Followed your cause in the 70´s and indeed, as Martin Luther King once said, you also reached the mountain top. Deep condolences to the bereaved.

 

[Bijou]

hii habari mbona local press siioni,AU bado wamelala

media yetu ni udaku na maji taka, to them this is no news

 

[Kigarama]

Maybe one needs to set up an online newspaper na kuachana na the mainstream media yetu

Hii nimeipenda zaidi

 

[Kichuguu]

Sikuwahi kumwona ila nilisoma habari zake nyingi sana kwenye miaka hiyo ya sabini. Nimeshangaa kusikia kuwa alishakuwa mtanzania aliyekuwa akiishi kimya kimya Tanzania. Kuna wakati niliwahi kuambiwa kuwa trip mojawapo ya Nakaaya kuja USA ilikuwa imeratibiwa na huyu bwana, ila habari hizo hazikuwa na uthibitisho kwa hiyo sikuzitilia maanani. Naona kama vile huenda zilikuwa na ukweli fulani kama jamaa huyu alikuwa akiishi Arusha.

RIP the African fighter

 

[Anheuser]

Sikuwahi kumwona ila nilisoma habari zake nyingi sana kwenye miaka hiyo ya sabini. Nimeshangaa kusikia kuwa alishakuwa mtanzania aliyekuwa akiishi kimya kimya Tanzania. Kuna wakati niliwahi kuambiwa kuwa trip mojawapo ya Nakaaya kuja USA ilikuwa imeratibiwa na huyu bwana, ila habari hizo hazikuwa na uthibitisho kwa hiyo sikuzitilia maanani. Naona kama vile huenda zilikuwa na ukweli fulani kama jamaa huyu alikuwa akiishi Arusha.

RIP the African fighter

Geranimo Pratt hakuwahi kuwa Mtanzania.

 

[Kichuguu]

Geranimo Pratt hakuwahi kuwa Mtanzania.

Nimesoma profile yake kwenye gazeti moja la LA na kurudia tena pale Wikipedia kuwa alikuwa mtanzania. Huenda walikosea

 

[Ruge Opinion]

Nimesoma profile take kwenye gazeti moja la LA na kurudia tena pale Wikipedia kuwa alikuwa mtanzania. Huenda walikosea

Naomba nisaidie kidogo vijana wasiojua Black Panther ilikuwa nini. Katika miaka ya 1950/60 katika kilele cha mapambano ya civil rights movement kulikuwa na watu na makundi mengi ya watu weusi (negros/black americans) wenye milengo tofauti lakini wote wakipigania ukombozi wa wamarekani weusi. Walikuwepo akina Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Association for Advancement of Coloured Peoples, n.k. Wengi wa watu/vikundi hivi vilikuwa vinaamini katika mapambano kwa njia ya amani (non-violent). Black Panther lenyewe lilikuwa linaamini kuwa watu weusi ni lazima wachukuwe silaha na kupigania haki zao na walifanya hivyo. Vile vile walikuwa wanadai watu weusi kutengewa majimbo yao (states) katika US ili waweze kujitawala wenyewe. Serikali ya US iliwaona kama maadui wakubwa na ilifanya kila njia kuwakandamiza. Baadhi walipigwa risasi na polisi na kuuwawa, baadhi walisingiziwa kesi na kufungwa (kama huyo Geronimo) na hatimaye wengine walihama US na kuja Afrika au sehemu zingine. Katika miaka ya 1970 walikuwepo wengi hapa Dar wakiishi maeneo ya Kigamboni. Baadhi ya viongozi maarufu wa Black Pathers walikuwa ni Eldridge Cleaver, Stokley Carmichael (huyu alikuwa wakati fulani amemuoa marehemu Miriam Makeba) na Angela Davis (huyu alikuwa mwanamama mrembo aliyekuwa anaweka nywele zake kubwa katika mtindo wa Afro kiasi cha kufanya uso wake uonekane mdogo mno). Warembo wa wakati huo walimuiga sana kwa mtindo huo. Wenye kutaka kujua zaidi kuhusu mapambano ya Black Panthers mnaweza kutafuta kitabu kilichoandikwa na Eldridge Cleaver kinachoitwa "Soul on Ice". I hope I have enlightened a bit.

 

[eliakeem]

Watoto wachanga wa JF wanaweza kuuliza hii inahusika vipi kwenye siasa lakini sisi watu tulioenda umri inakuwa ni jukumu letu kuwafundisha hawa watoto tulionao humu kuwa huyu ni mmoja kati ya wapiganaji wakubwa duniani hi huyu jamaa

JF inatakiwa iwe sehemu ya watu kujua na kuchambua na watu kuelewa siasa si CCM vs CHADEMA tuuu

===================

Full Story:

Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a former Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison on a murder conviction that was later overturned, has died. He was 63. Pratt died at his home in a small village in Tanzania, where he had lived for at least half a decade, lawyer Stuart Hanlon, who helped Pratt win his freedom, told The Associated Press from San Francisco on Thursday.

• Pratt was a former high ranking member of the Black Panther Party. He was targeted by the FBI program COINTELPRO, which aimed to "neutralize Pratt as an effective BPP functionary."
  
• In 1970 Pratt was arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping.
• Pratt's conviction was vacated on June 10, 1997, on the grounds that the prosecution had concealed evidence that might have exonerated the defendant.
• Pratt continued to work on behalf of men and women believed to be wrongfully incarcerated until his death, including participation in rallies in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whom he had met when both were active as Black Panthers. Geronimo was living in Tanzania at the time of his death.

Hanlon said he learned of Pratt's death through the former activist's family members. He did not know what caused Pratt's death, but said he had suffered from high blood pressure.

Hanlon said Pratt refused to carry any resentment about his treatment by the legal system.

"He had no anger, he had no bitterness, he had no desire for revenge. He wanted to resume his life and have children," he said. "He would never look back."

The Los Angeles Times, which first reported Pratt's death, quoted a family member as saying he died Thursday.

Pratt was convicted in 1972 of being one of two men who robbed and fatally shot schoolteacher Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court in December 1968. No one else was arrested.

Pratt claimed he was in Oakland for Black Panther meetings the day of the murder, and that FBI agents and police hid and possibly destroyed wiretap evidence that would prove it.

His lawyers, who included high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, blamed his arrest on a politically charged campaign by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI against the Black Panthers and other perceived enemies of the U.S. government.

Pratt's belated reversal of fortune came with the disclosure that a key prosecution witness hid the fact he was an ex-felon and a police informant.

Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey granted him a new trial in June 1997, saying the credibility of prosecution witness Julius Butler - who testified that Pratt had confessed to him - could have been undermined if the jury had known of his relationship with law enforcement. He was freed later that month.

Cochran, best known representing such clients as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, called the day Pratt's freedom was secured "the happiest day of my life practicing law."

Prosecutors announced two years after the conviction was overturned that they would abandon efforts to retry him.

"I feel relieved that the L.A. DA's office has finally come to their senses in this respect," Pratt said at the time. "But, I am not relieved in that they did not come clean all the way in exposing their complicity with this frame-up, this 27-year trauma."

He settled a false imprisonment and civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and city of Los Angeles for $4.5 million in 2000.

Huyu Pratt mbona katika kipindi cha uhai wake hatujawahi msikia popote?????? Hata kwenye kitabu cha autobiography ya Angela Davis sijawahi ona jina lake zaidi ya Afeni Shakur.....
Kimsingi Tanzania alikuwa akijishughulisha na nini???

 

[Nanu]

Did he got TZ citezenship? Was he married to TZ woman?
How did he get there?
R.I.P Pratt!

 

[Nanu]

In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. It was progressive, activist, militantly for ethnic justice, racial emancipation, and real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines. Radical ideas then and now, the party's ten-point program stood for:

(1) freedom and "power to determine the destiny of our black community;"

(2) full employment for Black people and everyone;

(3) "an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our Black community;"

(4) decent housing;

(5) education to expose "the true nature of this decadent American society (and teach) us our true history and our role in the present-day society;"

(6) for "all Black men to be exempt from military service" at a time they were drafted for foreign wars;

(7) "an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people;"

(8) "freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails;"

(9) for Black people in court "to be tried....by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black communities;" and

(10) "land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace."

They also added words from the Declaration of Independence, saying:

-- "all men are created equal";

-- "to secure (their) rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;"

-- "that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and institute a new government;"

-- "to throw off (despotism), and to provide new guards for (peoples') future security."

They believed in rule of law principles, published a newspaper with 250,000 readers, and articulated fundamental wants and needs. They also practiced what they preached with:

-- nutritious breakfasts for poor children;

-- food for needy families;

-- free clinics for medical care;

-- a free ambulance service;

-- help for the homeless;

-- free legal aids and bussing to prisons;

-- after-school and summer classes teaching Black history; and

-- Black voter registration drives.

They helped elect Oakland's first Black mayor, Lionel Wilson, in the city where the Panthers were founded.

They were young and idealistic, willing to put their lives on the line for their beliefs and activism. Their goal - to make the world a better place for Black people and everyone.

They were revolutionaries for justice, hostile to repression. In Huey Newton's words, they were "never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the 'white establishment.' "

The Party, in fact, advocated love for Black people, not hate for Whites. They fought for change from over 30 branches throughout the country with over 2,000 members at their peak.

They wanted redress of longstanding grievances, including slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, discrimination, neglect and abuse. Practicing what Jefferson preached, they were targeted viciously and illegally for destruction, an agenda still ongoing against other activists and dissident groups to make America safe for wealth and power at the expense of beneficial social change, what heroic Panthers and others like them fought and died for and still do. What better reason to do it for than that.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

The Progressive Radio News Hour - Progressive Radio Network.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

 

[Nanu]

Former Political Prisoner Geronimo Pratt Dies
by Stephen Lendman
Sunday Jun 5th, 2011 1:11 AM

persecution​

Former Political Prisoner Geronimo Pratt Dies - by Stephen Lendman

Reporting his death, AP said:

"Former Black Panther Party leader Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt" died at age 63 in a small (Tanzania village) "where he had lived for at least half a decade, a friend of Pratt's in Arusha, former Black Panther Pete O'Neal, said."

He lived a peaceful life in Tanzania, O'Neal explained, adding:

"He's my hero. He was and will continue to be. Geronimo was a symbol of steadfast resistance against all (he) considered wrong and improper. His whole life was dedicated to standing opposition to oppression and exploitation....He gave all that he had and his life, I believe, struggling, trying to help people lift themselves up."

His lawyer and longtime friend, Stuart Hanlon, who spent years working for his release, also announced his death, saying:

"What happened to him is the horror story of the United States. This became a microcosm of when the government decides what's politically right or wrong. The COINTELPRO program was awful. He became a symbol for what they did."

He had southern, rural roots, and hardworking parents who sent all their kids to college. "He (went) to the military, (fought) and (was awarded two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts) in Vietnam, (came) home, (and became) a football star in college. That would be an American hero. It was different because he was black and he became a Panther and then the road went the wrong way."

Calling Pratt one of his closest friends, Hanlon said his case "defined me as a lawyer."

David Hilliard helped recruit Pratt to provide leadership for the Los Angeles Panther chapter. "He symbolized the best human spirit," he said. "His spirit of endurance, his strength, his service to his people. He (was) very positive and a real example for young people who want to look into the direction of Che Guevara, Malcolm X and the leader of our party, Huey P. Newton. He (was) one of the true heros of our era. He dedicated his life to (serve) his people. There is nothing more honorable than that."

On June 3, Los Angeles Times writer Robert Lopez headlined, "Former Black Panther whose murder conviction was overturned dies at 63," saying:

He became "a symbol of racial injustices during the turbulent 1960s....a cause celebre for a range of supporters, including elected officials, activists, Amnesty International, clergy and celebrities, who believed he was framed by Los Angeles police and the FBI" because he was Black and a Panther member.

In fact, he was under FBI surveillance in Oakland when the murder he was convicted of happened in Santa Monica, hundreds of miles south. Nonetheless, he was unjustly framed and served 27 years until freed.

In 1970, he was arrested and falsely charged with Caroline Olsen's murder, a Los Angeles teacher. In 1968, she and her husband Kenneth were attacked on a Santa Monica tennis court by two Black men. Three years later, Kenneth said Pratt was one of the assailants, pressured to name him after first identifying three other suspects from LAPD photos. In 1972, he was falsely convicted.

In fact, Pratt was framed, victimized by LAPD authorities working with the FBI's illegal COINTELPRO counterintelligence program against political dissidents, including communists; anti-war, human and civil rights activists; the American Indian Movement; and Black Panther Party members, among others.

In their book "Agents of Repression," Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall said:

"(T)he term came to signify the whole context of clandestine (mostly illegal) political repression activities, (including) a massive surveillance (program via) wiretaps, surreptitious entries and burglaries, electronic devices, live 'tails' and....bogus mail" (to induce paranoia and) foster 'splits' within or between organizations."

Other tactics included black propaganda, disinformation or gray propaganda, rumor spreading, manufactured evidence, harassment arrests on bogus charges, and assassinations, notably against Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on December 4, 1969 by Chicago police while they slept.

In Pratt's case, Julius Butler was the prosecution's main witness, an FBI/LAPD informant, expelled from the Panthers by Pratt for advocating violence. At trial, he falsely claimed Pratt confessed to the killing.

Later, when Butler was outed as an informer, paid to lie, LA authorities denied Pratt a retrial, keeping him imprisoned wrongfully for another 20 years.

Moreover, according to former FBI agent Wesley Swearingen, Los Angeles Panther headquaters wiretap information showed Pratt was in Oakland when it happened, also confirmed by agency surveillance evidence there. Pratt's defense wasn't told. In addition, in both cities, tapes and other evidence were destroyed to keep an innocent man wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years, eight in solitary confinement, as well as parole denied 16 times.

Delayed Justice Finally Achieved

On May 29, 1997, Judge Everett W. Dickey (an Orange County Reagan appointee), in a sharply worded opinion, reversed Pratt's conviction, ruling prosecutors suppressed evidence to unjustly imprison him in ordering a new trial. At the time, he was America's longest held political prisoner, yet to be fully exonerated.

Over 30 years later in February 1999, it came in a four paragraph Los Angeles County District Attorney, Gil Garcetti, statement, saying:

"We accept the decision of the court of appeals. The murder at issue in this case occurred over 30 years ago. Most of the witnesses to the case are deceased. It would be virtually impossible to retry this case. In our professional judgment, there would be no reasonable likelihood of conviction."

Omitted was any admission of FBI, LAPD, or prosecutorial wrongdoing. In fact, Hanlon at the time said Garcetti fought him and fellow Pratt attorney Johnnie Cochran, Jr. "every step of the way," trying to keep him wrongfully imprisoned.

In May 2000, in a civil rights lawsuit, a federal judge awarded Pratt $4.5 million for false imprisonment, but couldn't return his 27 lost years, or undo the toll it took even on someone with his inner strength.

Journalist and author Jack Olsen wrote about Pratt's ordeal in his book titled, "Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt," recounting his southern roots, loving parents, self-reliance and dedication to right over wrong.

At UCLA, in fact, his awareness of police brutality and racial injustice inspired him to join the Panthers at a time FBI and local police harassed the organization nationally to undermine its solidarity by neutralizing its leaders. As a result, Pratt became a prime target, culminating in his arrest and wrongful conviction, nearly keeping him imprisoned for life.

While there, Olsen explained, he spent years in solitary confinement, his only toilet a hole in the floor that routinely backed up. In addition, he got only three hours of daylight a week, and was routinely harassed, beaten, drugged, moved from one "dungeon" to another, targeted for assassination at times, and falsely accused of other offenses, including attempted murder of guards, inciting riots, planning mass escapes, and masterminding Patty Hearst's kidnapping.

Only his inner strength saved him, using meditation, chanting, astral projection and yoga, along with studying law and other self-help practices to survive despite everything prison authorities threw at him to destroy him. They couldn't, but at age 63 he passed, a major loss to those who loved him, but not his spirit inspiring others to fight the good fight against injustice affecting anyone.

 

[Kichuguu]

Geranimo Pratt hakuwahi kuwa Mtanzania.

Soma hapa WIKIPEDIA


Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt

Born: September 9, 1947 Morgan City, Louisiana

Died: June 2, 2011 (aged 63) Tanzania

Cause of death: Heart attack

Residence: Tanzania

Nationality: American

Other names: Geronimo ji-Jaga

Ethnicity: African

Citizenship: Tanzania

Education: UCLA

Occupation: High ranking member of the Black Panther Party Known for spending 27 years in prison

Home town: Morgan City, Louisiana

Political party: Black Panther Party

Political movement: Black liberation

Criminal charge: Murder

Criminal penalty: 27 years in prison

Criminal status: Released (conviction vacated)

 

[Janjaweed]

huyu jamaa alikuwa anafanya movement nyingi za maendeleo walikuwa wanatoa yeye na peter onell course ya kompyuta na ushonaji bure kwa vijana pale kwenye kituo cha UAAC imbaseni kwa mnegro pia wana huduma ya free library kwa wanafunzi na imewasaidia sana vijana toka vijiji vya imbaseni, ngurdoto na ngongongare pia wanafunzi wa university of arusha wanatumia sana library yake pia waliinfluence uanzishwaji wa free library nyingine maeneo hayo inaitwa jifundishe free library. Pia amehusika sana ktk ukuzaji wa vipaji na muziki wa hiphop arusha. Alikuwa na uhusiano wa karibu JCB na watengwa, pia walishasimamia project nyingi za hiphop 4 development hata kuna kazi FidQ amefanyia kwao, pia pale UAAC kwa mnegro kuna studio nzuri tu ambayo vijana wengi especially undergrounds walikuwa wanarecord for free, kawapa tough wasanii wengi sana wa A taraaa ka kina D-WII, hata Nakaaya Sumary wamemjenga sana kimuziki hata yule msela wake wa dead prez Nakaya walimeet naye kwa Geranimo (RIP), alikuwa amejenga nyumba yake maeneo ya Imbaseni opposite na Anex hostels za University of Arusha i know him personally he was good and charming and he speaks arushan swahili vizuri may his soul rest in peace. Ni pigo kwa vijana, wanaharakati na hiphop funs all over Rchuga brother had departed for justice but struggles continues for free black race all over the world na ndo hicho aliamini sana there is no equality and freedom for black race bila freedom of mind away from white's mind poison

EMT ....

I cant explain how appreciative I am with this thread and the links... I met Oneil wakati naishi Arusha, i admired him and his charm but i never related him to a great Pratt, not because i knew pratt, no!! Its just i knew nothing about the negro as we used to call him

Nimefunguka na nimeanza kusearch more and more.... PRATT'S STORIES AND EXPERIENCES ARE ADDICTIVE, HE WAS A STRONG MAN, PASSIONATE BUT MOST IMPORTANT AN HONEST MAN

I WISH MOST OF US LEARN SOMETHING ESPECIALLY ON JUSTICE, PATIENCE AND CARE

RIP A GREAT MAN I NEVER KNEW....