In the previous part of the article I outlined how the black feminist attack, and those influenced by them, against black men and their own communities caused shock and consternation. This part of the article addresses the response to this development. In 1985 I was summoned to a meeting with the Pan African Congress Movement’s (PACM) London Branch Executive Committee and informed that they wanted me to lead a development initiative to help young black males who were struggling under the weight of oppression, misrepresentation, and disadvantage. Even more concerning, was a growing culture of disrespect for black men. For the senior men and women of the Executive, this was a high priority matter. Young men were the lifeblood of the progressive movement and without them it and black people were dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKm9Jnw6BlQ&t=327s

Fund Established To Investigate Umar Johnson The Fraud

One of the principal reasons why older black men must lead the institutional building process is because that is the only way to maximize the full potential of younger men and to provide them with the mentors, life-changing opportunities, and resources to achieve black power and self-actualization in their chosen fields. I know this from experience.  I was used to being summoned by senior leaders regionally and nationally to receive instructions for difficult and sensitive jobs. Initially, I was very unhappy being taken away from day to day work with my troops in the Security and Intelligence Division and complained.  One senior officer put it to me this way, that it was the price of being so good at my job and one of the best security leaders in London, which meant being one of the best in the country.

On another occasion I protested about being taken away from work to lead a personal protection team for a leader who I held in contempt as a coward; one of those Umar Johnson slick talking negroes with no heart or real commitment, who in my view was in this for the pussy and ego strokes. See video above. The political leader in question was always requesting for me to lead protection teams for his weak ass, even after I had been promoted and no longer led personal protection teams.  From schooldays I hated these tough talking, chest beating negroes who love to play up to the crowd, all the while covered with chicken scented perfume and with fear in their eyes. Put them in front of the group a women and they’re tough as hell. Again, I was told it would stand to reason a coward would want the best security leader to protect him. These senior officers knew how to give you strokes to hide the facts that you were going to do what they wanted regardless. It’s called effective man management.  I had featured in most major London, nationwide, and international security operations.  l was involved in the planning and security arrangements for the secret meetings between the soon to be ZANUPF government led by the outstanding young Robert Mugabe, and British Pan African leaders in Manchester, prior to the Lancaster House Agreement; which legally brought into being the nation of Zimbabwe and its independence from the UK.

 I was an important player in the operation to protect key leaders from the African National Congress and fellow South African liberation movement members, and facilitating their ‘disappearance’, to frustrate BOSS (South African Bureau of State Security) who was searching for them in the UK. Caribbean governments played a critical role in this operation in providing a range of assistance and resources which President Nelson Mandela acknowledged and expressed his thanks for when he visited  Caribbean countries, almost creating a frenzy among the people. The success of the operation is documented in former BOSS agent Gordon Winter’s book,’ Inside BOSS’. Winter describes how BOSS had intercepted the phone calls of the wives of a couple of leaders and traced them to London and the frustration of his team in not being able to locate their targets. Nope, but we had identified who we thought were undercover cops or secret intelligence service officers hanging around the PACM’s North London bookshop Headstart which is mentioned in the book.  In the run-up to the US invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983, I was dispatched to the Grenada High Commission with some officers to establish and run an intelligence desk, liaising with the Costa Rican and Cuban Embassies and governments. These are a few examples of how brothers reach out across the waters to assist each other in times of need. This is what we mean by Pan-Africanism.

The Security and Intelligence Division contained the largest body of black men within the organization nationally and was part of a pan-African security network which spanned the globe linking us to thousands of police, armed services, and other specialist security personnel. We were a transnational brotherhood of security professionals. Whatever resource we needed we could get it from somewhere in the black world. We were the go-to guys for difficult and sensitive stuff. On occasion leaders would go around other departments to give important tasks to us because we got things done in a highly effective and prompt manner. During one assignment I was given the responsibility to oversee a BBC documentary which was being made by the famous journalist David Dimbleby, son of the great Sir Richard Dimbleby the father of British TV journalism.  The National Director of Security and Intelligence personally insisted I took on this role, with the very strict proviso that I must not appear on camera. During the interviews with Dimbleby, some of the brothers said things I was unhappy with and I stopped the filming while I advised them how I wanted things phrased. Dimbleby was pissed and forgot who he was speaking to and where he was, which resulted in me having him and his film crew thrown off the premises.  In order to achieve my new task a group, which was made up of trusted  male leaders from various departments within the PACM, and a few from outside the organization, began to kick around ideas about meeting with young brothers to find out what could be done to help them; in the light of this attack against black males. The first meeting involved about 20 males, before growing to larger numbers.

The Rise of Black Single Mothers and the Death of the British Caribbean Family

While many of the key issues that came from those discussions were anticipated, a few others weren’t. These issues revolved around the relationship between young black men and women, children and housing.  This was the origins of the ‘baby mama’ ‘single parent crisis’ which was to become a national problem. Young second generation Caribbean males who were coming into early manhood and sexual maturity were having their first sexual experiences, often becoming fathers by default. The pill was the only popular form of contraception. Condoms were to become popular with the AIDs/HIV crisis during the 90s, by which time the single-parent family norm had become established, with black women mastering the workings of the various system of entitlements.

It is important to stress that doctors and family planning agencies almost always issued the pill as the primary means of birth control. I remember from our sex education classes in school that condoms or ‘French letters’ as they were called by older people were primarily seen as a means of disease prevention and used largely by soldiers and other men working in foreign countries, not by the general population. The pill was given without charge to women, condoms were not free. Medical practitioners put the power of birth in the hands of women who duly abused it. I know several brothers who went to family planning clinics with their girlfriends and were given the pill only for those women to come off it without their consent. In one case the male went to see the woman (who already had a child and was quite a bit older than him)  to demand a termination, only to be met by her and her mother (a single mother of many children) who informed him she (the mother) did not believe in abortion. That child became a statistic. The father walked and kept on walking. This incident shaped my attitude which I hold to this day.  I refuse to condemn black men who abandon women/children where those men made it clear they did not want children.  No contract exists.  Writer Alan Roger Curry has used the term ‘deadbeat moms’ quite correctly to describe the behaviour of black women in trying to impose fatherhood on males who have not consented to one of the most important things that any individual can experience.  These matters are critically examined by Oshay Duke Jackson in the video below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrTLW4GuNk

According to scientific reasoning, the failure rate of contraception is expected to be constant across ethnic groups. The facts of science do not discriminate. For some reason, speaking to brothers there seemed to be disturbingly high ‘failure’ rate with black women supposedly on the pill. Contrary to what was to become a popular negative image of black males, most of them were not reckless where sexual matters were concerned.  The majority of black males, like me, came from families where their fathers drove the fear of God into them about unwanted pregnancies so early in life. Consequently, males generally entered their early sexual relations with caution. Unexpected pregnancies meant one thing in most Caribbean Christian countries; marriage and having to find work to feed a family at the expense of any dreams and ambitions. Immigrants are generally ambitious. Moreover, being an unmarried mother was viewed as shameful, something that impacts on a woman’s parents and extended family in these small islands.

Young British-born Caribbean males and females were not more promiscuous than their forebears, who had very little by means of birth control. However, by the mid-80s the number of single mothers had noticeably increased. Perhaps a hint of one of the drivers of this trend can be seen in the motivations of the first young woman to be a single parent that I knew, who lived on my street while I was still in secondary school. The young woman was a very good student at a respected grammar school and had strict parents, who unlike those of her white school friends would not allow her to have a boyfriend at that age, which was typical of Caribbean parents. News of her pregnancy came as a major shock in the neighborhood of scandalous proportions, which forced the young woman to leave her family home and the borough. A year later, my sister bumped into this young woman and she confided that she deliberately got pregnant in order to get her own home and to remove herself from her parent’s authority. Not long after, I met a former girlfriend who I dated from my neighborhood who told me a similar story about her pregnancy. Within ten years the black community had gone from families consisting of married parents, as when I was in school, to approximately 50 percent of all African-Caribbean children being born to single mothers. Moreover, some young African women were beginning to follow a similar trend, learning from their Caribbean sisters.

Britain in the 80s had one of the best welfare systems in the world. Originally designed by the post-war Labour government to care for the widows and children of armed forces personnel lost in the war. It consisted of a comprehensive benefits system that covered most aspects of a woman and child’s life. However, accessing state benefits could only occur if no man was in the life of the woman or child. This system was based on the War Widow’s Pension introduced during WW1 which involved beat police officers monitoring the men going into and leaving the homes of women pension recipients. Through social learning young Caribbean women begun to factor in the wide range of benefits open to them, especially quality housing, in their decisions around pregnancy. This was to have drastic outcomes in changing gender expectations and dynamics between black males and females in their intimidate relationship with adverse consequences for children.

One of the common experiences we heard speaking with brothers was cases where they had planned jointly with their girlfriends to ‘play’ the welfare system, resulting in them ultimately getting played. For example, on the discovery of the woman being pregnant, she applies for a home and benefits, with the male hiding in the background working and supporting his family, buying furniture etc. State benefits indirectly subsidies men on low incomes, or with little savings, who would struggle to be able to house and support their new families, which is often the case in unplanned pregnancies.  The woman is able to claim for things from the state, on the grounds that she and her child have been abandoned. As these and many men were to find out any informal arrangements that existed did so at the whim of women who could turn at any minute, fundamentally changing their relationships by virtue that they controlled the homes given to them by the government. These structural dynamics in concert with the fundamental changes in the economy, which disproportionately hit black men, and the impact of their public demonization created serious changes in the male and female dynamic, causing dismay, anger, disappointment or a sense of betrayal among a significant number of the young black men we spoke with. Another even more damaging consequence for modern black women is they were now increasingly seen as basically untrustworthy, unlike their mother’s generation, diminishing their value as potential life partners.

The Great British Urban Intellectual Thugtician Speaks on the Baby  Mama Disease

 

The Creation of Utani: A  Black Male Fraternity

Armed with this new knowledge and further discussions on the best way to approach the problems facing black males, the decision was taken to form a black male fraternity which would promote the interests of black men and work to develop and support them in a holistic way. The name Utani (pronounced oo tahni) comes from Kiswahili and means a ‘familiar friend’ and was suggested by brother Owen Henry. The name was adopted because it summed up the current situation that young black men had very few friends in Britain, other than each other. It was important that black males created space and an environment which was familiar and friendly in an extremely hostile environment. In military terms, the troops had to regroup and Utani would play a crucial role in achieving this.

Utani leaders were given responsibility for specific policy areas to develop strategies for. One of the things we agreed was to hold open meetings throughout London to see how widespread particular issues were, and what other concerns black men had. This would also enable us for the first time to start to articulate the views of black men in critical areas about gender relations and matters around family and place them on the public agenda.  The first of these meetings was held in Stoke Newington, North London in 1987 and was attended by several hundred black men. The meeting although directed at brothers attracted nearly 100 women, which included a significant number who appeared to be hell-bent from the outset to disrupt the event. Numerous women were escorted off the premises by security officers.  The area of discussion which most provoked the ire of the women was male critiques and counter-narratives about black families and gender relations. They did not like when the spotlight of accountability and responsibility was shifted from the much demonized black man and moved in their direction.

Just before the meeting started, I was whispering in the ear of Utani’s chairman Kofi Amo (Ghanaian) a well-regarded Town Planner and educationalist, to inform him to expect trouble given the number and type of women who had attended and went through the various protocols he may require to control the event. Kofi did not come from the PACM where leaders were trained by our Security and Intelligence Division how to handle a range of problems that can occur in public meetings. While we were speaking I drew his attention to a black woman sitting in the front row whose facial expression and body language could hardly contain her emotional state. She was like a human bomb waiting to go off. This woman could barely wait until the meeting started to vent. Unfortunately for her she had little time to start any drama and was removed from the event.  It transpired this woman was a secondary school teacher, and a head of year, and had no qualms to come to a public meeting to act like a savage if allowed to.

Nobody disagreed that there were many irresponsible black men. Every black male knows this from the time they are teens, the type of men who are respected and high in the male hierarchy and those who are not.  Progressive and radical politics is no different. From the day I entered black politics various categories of black men had always been the focus of criticism. Be they uncle Tom-type accommodationists; morally bankrupt men, ordinary men who demonstrated undesirable behaviour, such as criminals. Black leaders who sold out the interests of African and Caribbean countries were hated. The most demonized black men of them all, especially in the eyes of black women, were those who married or had white women.  Black men have never spared other males from public criticism at bare minimum. In fact, the entire edifice of black politics for centuries from the slave plantation onward has consisted of one group of black men against another each with their various alliances, networks, and resources. What could not be countenanced was black women being placed under scrutiny and someone having the nerve to suggest that they may have something to do with the serious problems affecting the community; compounding its already weak position, and making matters worse.

Given our experience of discussing and consulting with what by that time was a large and representative number of black men, we believed we were in the position to produce a book, an authoritative account of the lives of black men in Britain. On approaching mainstream publishers that specialized in gender-related books, many about black men, we met an iron wall of non-interest. Interestingly, while these publishers had interest in books about black men, they were not interested in books written by black men; especially those which challenged their preferred narrative.  Fortunately, the public meetings launched by Utani led to a spate of black male-female debates up and down the country and grabbed black media attention throughout the early 90s. The writer spoke at many of these events. Within a few years the black male-female discussion craze was dead. The primary reason for this was the behavior of black women.  Basically, men of all colors understand if they break the rules more powerful and aggressive men will handle them. All men know this. Men are rule-bound animals and this is how the masculine world works. Regrettably, most women think they can ignore the rules of men and escape ultimate sanctions; and are usually successful in achieving because most black western males allow it.

A group of us from Utani attended a major event in South East London and on arriving about twenty minutes late we were met with a group of guys, including my cousin, trying to physically control someone we knew.  The individual in question was a well-regarded brother who managed a popular North London black bookstore; a quiet and peaceful brother. Most of us were stunned at what we saw more so because of who was involved. The meeting had just begun and physical confrontations had already started. Apparently, a woman kept on interrupting the brother while he was trying to speak from the floor, ending up in her insulting him and attacking his manhood in public thus ending civil relations. We entered the meeting just as this brother was going to teach this disrespectful female the facts of life.

I spoke at another event organized by a relatively unknown group who approached us after reading newspaper articles about our work in The Voice and The New Journal and was inspired to hold some small mixed group discussions on male/female relationships. On speaking to the leader of the group, I questioned the logic of having mixed group discussions, as it was impossible to clearly establish male priorities in the same forum as women. The explanation given made little sense to me, but I was asked to suggest some names for a much larger open meeting his group wanted to host. The agreed panel of speakers included well-known black activist, father and husband Lee Jasper and Esther Reid, the wife of Brother Pablo Reid, the founder of New Initiatives; an innovative project working with young black men in South London.

The meeting took an almost Jerry Springer turn when it was unannounced that an additional guest speaker Angie Le Mar the comedian had just arrived. I was very concerned when hearing this announcement and at that point wondered what the hell we had got ourselves into.  Le Mar reminded me of black American comedian Lonnie Love prior to her weight loss. A fat/ overweight loudmouth brassy baby mama with several children. Within minutes of her arrival, Le Mar turned what up until that point was a serious and informed discussion about contemporary black male and female relations into a farce.  She launched into her black men aint shit comedy-type routine of sorts in the middle of what was a serious discussion. Her actions were typical of how most black women respond to issues being raised by black men which is not to address the point being made, but instead to look for diversionary issues to point the finger at black men.  A kind of infantile tit for tat, as if they lacked the maturity and intelligence to realize the issues being discussed are serious and critical to the survival of a people no more than a couple million strong. But then the responsibility for the survival of a people and society has never been the responsibility of women as they do not build civilizations. They are the children in the house of civilization.

 

 

 

The introduction of Le Mar and her tit for tat thinking immediately polarized the meeting into all out gender bashing and rapidly declined into a mess. One of the things that stood out was the contrast between the two black women on the platform. One stunningly beautiful, very dignified and well-spoken and calm, a married mother of two children who up until that time did a great job in challenging the destructive decision making of too many black women and educating them. It is very difficult for women in the audience to attack or disagree with a woman like Esther Reid. However, she stood no chance up against a super ‘strong’ black ghetto woman like Le Mar who begun to appeal to the base qualities of black women present. In addition, women are generally cowardly and those who disagree with the sentiments of women like Le Mar usually sit silently. The meeting basically descended into a mess. I did not realize at that time that Le Mar had a very popular radio talk show, and her loud mouth and provocative statements was an essential ingredient in her popularity which drew a largely female audience with her  ‘sister girl’ approach.

When I had enough I gestured to one of the key organizers of the event, who came to the stage, and informed him to get a grip of proceedings or I would leave the stage and go about my business. I was seething. Once Le Mar came and was given the floor she would not shut up and simply over-talked anyone who tried to counter her, on the grounds that she came late to the meeting and had to make up time. No joke.  Coming late to a formal engagement when you are a keynote or main speaker is the height of lack of professionalism. After the event which was very well attended, I made my displeasure clear to the event organizer that Utani will never work with their group again. We were not informed that Le Mar, an entertainer, would be invited and would never participate in something involving people we do not consider to be serious and committed to the issues. By inviting Le Mar to participate, on what basis or criteria only God knows, the organizers inadvertently provided her with a platform to disrespect black men and to compound matters could not control this heifer. I was so mad I wanted to slap the black off this woman. The event made money no doubt, and was packed and apparently had a lot of radio coverage. But the thing with this kind of circus is they are one hit wonders were money is concerned. You may pull it off once, but will never ever repeat that outcome again.

 

Policing and Regulating Black Women

It was simply not possible to discuss gender issues in open events. For these reasons black family/relationship public discussions died very quickly. Black men voted with their feet. The origins of the British black relationship industry also evolved from these roots with entrepreneurial individuals seeing an opportunity to make money; largely from women I hasten to add.  From the first meeting held by Utani, black women demonstrated their intent to stop black men who did not support their victim paradigm of the world from speaking. They were prevented from disrupting our meetings due to the presence of a significant number of very experienced PACM security personnel and the approach I introduced in my ‘Birmingham briefings’. This approach was designed for policing women, after a major disturbance during an international event involving a large group of Rastafarian women in the city of Birmingham.  These women were sent by a small group of ego driven and jealous black men to disrupt the event in order to embarrass our political leaders in front of some of the most influential black people in the world. This was premised on the flawed assumption that our security arrangements and leaders were similar to most other organizations, which was weak and organizers would not get heavy-handed with women. In short, trying to use women as some sort of human shield. They were sadly mistaken on all accounts.  The PACM was not an ordinary black organization; it was a defacto government and dealt with black countries on that basis. We were the only organization in Europe that had members who later became Presidents and Prime Ministers and operated at that level. It was the actions of our former member Dr Bernard Coard, the Deputy Prime Minister of Grenada, to remove his leader Maurice Bishop which allowed the CIA to play both of them against each other and lay the groundwork for the US invasion to ‘save’ its biggest enemy in the Caribbean Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Similar to the US intervention in Haiti, which was described as assisting President Aristide by taking him into ‘safe custody’.

The only black man in the diaspora to be given an Ambassadorial title from any African country, never mind Nigeria was Babatunde Ron Phillips Chairman of the PACM, who was later asked to be one of the key organizers of the famous 1977 FESTAC event in Nigeria, involving some of the greatest names in the black/ Pan African world of performing arts, literature,  and culture. In attendance were greats such as Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr Frantz Fanon, Dr Mercer Cook, James Baldwin, Richard Wright inter alia.  Phillips came to the attention of the Nigerian government after the successful campaign he led that resulted in the first prosecution and imprisonment of police for the murder of Nigerian David Oluwale in England. The PACM was not an ordinary black organization. We were the big dogs of the black progressive and radical world, not a one man army of fake wannabes, such as the self-appointed ‘Prince of Pan-Africanism’ Umar Johnson. So to assume a small group of bitter insignificant black men driven by bitter jealousy of PACM leaders in Birmingham could do what the police and intelligence service could not do was asking much.  Unfortunately for the conspirators, the superior resourced London branch was given responsibility for all security arrangements of the event, not the local Birmingham branch as we expected trouble.  I was given responsibility for key aspects of security for the event and introduced a protocol for policing women. While we had no idea what attacks we could experience, we knew the most likely forms they would take and developed detailed responses to each and trained and prepared security staff accordingly. The protocol for women was very simple and a slight variant on standard operational procedures. Women who did not comply immediately with a reasonable instruction were to be physically removed with no prevarication or further discussion.

Basically, we operated a one strike rule for black women and they were out. If they did not comply immediately we get ‘hands on ‘and in large numbers to send a clear message. Any simps or men who wanted to be a hero for a day we put down immediately and hard without discussion or pleasantries.  The message is simple we run this place not you. If there was one place on this planet black women will respect the authority of black men, that was at the event that my officers were policing and for which I was responsible for. That was not open for debate. From a security point of view, the event passed without any major incidents which we were not able to handle, although, there were some challenging incidents, and we managed the disruptive women and got them under control. However, I was subject to about a dozen formal complaints about the tactics used.  Groups of journalists were lurking outside the event venue, so it was clear the whole thing was a setup and Arif Ali editor of the Caribbean Times, who I knew, more or less told me they were warned in advance something big was going to go down at the event.  The editor of a major paper does not come to an event in person unless something big is in the offing. Black women were featured in local newspapers and TV reports saying how they had been brutalized by black men purporting to represent black people and were no different than racist police.

One complaint came from a senior female leader from our Nottingham (East Midlands) branch, who was apoplectic about the treatment of black women which she claimed was worse than the white police. What really upset her was an incident where I threw a very tall and big Jamaican female judo style onto her back and dragged her by her hair to the area she was originally asked to go to.  After a firearms incident occurred I had given the instruction for particular areas to be cleared immediately. This woman refused to comply with my officers and just ignored them like she was deaf. Talk about blatant disrespect. Unfortunately for her, I overheard them as I was passing by monitoring events. Three security officers trying to appeal to one woman is a serious waste of resources, which no security manager worth a damn is going to allow; especially after some fools had threatened my officers with guns when it was clear the initial tactic of disruption was not working.  Leaders in this field lead from the front, not the rear, so I grabbed and threw her to the ground. There is a major difference between an instruction and a request. An essential aspect of black power is teaching black people about respecting legitimate black authority, and the cost of not doing so has to be high.

All the complaints against me and my officers were dismissed by the political leadership and I was personally thanked by the National Executive for such efficient and professional work at a meeting called to debrief the event. I will never forget the face of the female National Exec member from Nottingham. After the big speech she had given, about black women this and that and lack of respect for black women.  I wanted to burst out laughing for the public slap down she had just received from her male peers, who just threw her complaint into the bin and then thanked me. As if serious men are going to get upset because some badly behaved black women got manhandled. For black people to have real power, lots of black women and men are going to get manhandled and much worse.

Unlike most black organizations, we had experience of concerted efforts of women trying to disrupt important events and systems in place and leaders who would not think twice in dealing with them in the most firm and forceful manner.  When Utani started its public meeting program with brothers, we already had things in place for policing black women.  We were already drilled. Relationship events organized by promotion companies, primarily to meet the needs of middle-class and upwardly mobile black women in upmarket venues waned even faster, largely due to black men voting with their feet. I have had black female associates who organized these types of events literally beg me to attend their functions, and used all kinds of inducement to that end. This is based on the unspoken understanding if these women are able to attract one man of a particular type, he will bring his peers and associates with him. I have never accepted an invitation or attended these meat market events.  Women from other ethnic groups tend to know it’s not a good idea to publicly bad mouth men from their group, especially the more successful ones and expect them to turn out in numbers to their events.

The Decision to Fight

In 1987 Utani published ‘The Decision to Fight’, which was the first articulation of a holistic strategy for black men that covered every policy area (from personal safety and security to economics and new technology inter alia)  and how black men needed to go about improving their lives.  The title of the publication came from a speech I gave to a new cohort of Security and Intelligence Officers about the oath they had taken and how this separated us from others members and branches of the Pan-African movement. The decision to fight means different things to us than the civilian branch of the movement. We do the shitty and dangerous work behind the big pledges of high-profile political leaders.  This could mean being sent to the other side of the world, for example to Mozambique, to support the organization’s allies and ending up dead or rotting in dirty prisons. This is what happened to our members in Grenada when the US invaded. My co-tutor a specialist in the British armed forces found my talk extremely inspiring and asked me to write it down. The title of the publication and the introduction is a near verbatim account of my talk.

It was the first British publication to declare that a significant number of black women were in cahoots with the white status quo and should be considered enemy combatants.  Black men, the authors argued, had to develop strategies and problem-solving approaches which excluded black women as an important consideration. The booklet was a product of two years work utilizing some of the best strategic and tactical minds at our disposal and some of the best intellectual work I work I have been involved in. Essentially, the task we addressed was how to achieve the same Pan African goals as the PACM without relying on women.

Unlike what was become the white MGTOW movement and their philosophy, much of which we unwittingly shared, black men could achieve their objective without the pessimistic standpoint of their white counterparts. Most black men want to deal with women. They want children. We simply had to apply our mind to the problem and already had examples of how we could go about this. We were Pan-Africanists and worked closely with many impressive people from the black world and had a global network to draw from. I dated at least three wonderful sisters from Southern Africa and other members went on to marry sisters from Botswana and South Africa, Ghana and settled there.  These strategies were not available for the majority of brothers who will spend most of their lives in their home countries. A strategy for this group of men requires exploring and maximizing the range of options on the ground.

 

The Betrayal of Black Women

Black women had divided the community and abandoned any notion of an ‘us’, and the thinking which had shaped the history of black people in Britain, to pursue their own agendas and interests. Gloria Steinham had not only irrevocably divided the black power/progressive movement in the US, she also inadvertently divided it in the UK with one stroke. While some black men and leaders elsewhere sought to appeal to the better senses of black women, Utani leaders refused to waste valuable resources in that manner, and designed strategies based on the new reality and environment.  The game had changed, even though many black leaders elsewhere clearly did not understand how structural, policy, and legal changes had fundamentally altered the relationship between black men and women which you cannot wish or talk away or hide behind terms such as ‘white supremacy’ or romantic and mystical notions of pre-colonial  male-female relationships. To this day these black males and leaders are still talking this nonsense with no evidence of any change in the behaviour of black women.  As I write a veteran and hero of the black power/Pan African movement and advocate of this romantic pre-80s notion of gender unity, is in court facing some bogus charges of criminal damages after his ‘Queen’ locked him out of their home after a non-violent argument, preventing him from obtaining his  money, phone, and possessions. Rather than just allowing him to collect his possessions, he was placed in the position of having to force entry into the home, which enabled her to then called the police and consequently potentially damaging his spotless record and stellar reputation. These brothers are slow learners to how the new black woman operates and blinded by their archaic ideologies.  The Decision to Fight publication was in booklet form designed to be appealing and affordable to everyday black men. It sold 10, 000 copies within months. It was the first attempt to explore the workings of the welfare, legal, and other systems and how black women used these things against black men and how to tackle these matters. Of particular importance, the booklet outlined the historical and strategic significance of the alliance between black men in the UK with their brothers in the US, underscoring its Pan African underpinnings.

 

Baby Father: A Major Break Through

In 2001, a major departure from the prevailing portrayal of black men came with a ground-breaking book by Patrick Augustin, a black man from South London, whose best seller ‘Baby Father’ became a national hit, later to become a successful BBC television drama. The book’s origins came from the frustration of intelligent black men who were increasingly tired of the racist depiction of them in the popular media, fed by black women, and the actual lived reality they and other ordinary black men experienced. The book’s publisher was X-Press, a company formed and led by black men which came into being to provide a better representation of black men and people.

The book charts the complex relationships of four sets of black couples with children through the eyes of the male fathers. It shattered the simplistic stereotypical images of black gender relations in popular narrative. Contrary to popular myth, the book highlighted the dedication of black fathers in very trying conditions, and the all too common attitudes and behavior of black women which contributed to this. For the first time, Augustine showed that many single mothers are not poor or working-class women, but include middle-class professional women, whose values and attitude to family life ran contrary to more traditional black husbands. The book highlighted the love and affection that existed between some black women and the fathers of their children, amidst the ‘madness’, and their ability to sustain their relationships and raise happy healthy children.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5JhqYIZx_U

Thugtician. Delusional Women

 

While the book does not go lightly on the flaws of some of its male characters, it threw a light on the fact that much of this ‘baby mama drama’ is driven by the attitudes and behavior of modern black women. Young black males were not really that much different from their father’s in terms of their basic expectations. Unlike the popular depiction of black men, there are few demon women in Augustine’s book. The author like most black men was not engaged in gender war, or misrepresenting women, but simply telling his truth. Similar to the black men we consulted. Black men are more likely to provide honest and balanced and less victim-focused accounts of their experiences with women than vice versa. Women from this writer’s experience, are particularly dishonest about sex and always the victims of it; even when the initiators. The honest and balanced approach by Augustine, in part explains the success of his book which was bought in large numbers by black men and women alike.

Part 4/Final Part

The Coming of Social Media and the Black Male Fight Back