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Obi Egbuna Jnr Simunye
Earlier this week Africans and freedom-loving people in every corner of the world were denied the opportunity of properly paying homage to Dr Martin Luther King Jnr on the 50th anniversary of his assassination by the FBI and CIA.

This devious plot was engineered very smoothly by US-EU imperialists, who approached commemorating Dr King’s tragic physical exit from this planet in the same manner they approach his birthday celebrations every January 15.

Usually the Democratic Party, the so-called African American Church, Hollywood and Corporate USA, who have worked in coalition to create a commercialised and watered down Dr Martin Luther King Jnr admiration society, have traditionally avoided his assassination like the plague. It did not take rocket science to know that the 50th anniversary would be an entirely different story.

Arguably the most bogus and opportunistic reflection came from Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of former US Attorney-General and 1968 US presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, who used a platform set up in Indianapolis by the former national chairman of SNCC and current US Congressman John Lewis to share the news of Dr King’s assassination with the crowd, that gathered to hear his (Kennedy’s) vision if he successfully ascended to the White House.

What Mrs Kennedy conveniently overlooked was two months after the March of Washington for jobs, justice and peace, her loving father gave FBI bureau chief J. Edgar Hoover the green light to tap Dr King’s phones. Prior to this RFK and his brother former US president John F. Kennedy pressured Dr King to distance himself from the civil and human rights icon Jack O’Dell due to his involvement with the Communist Party USA in the 1950s, at the time Brother O’Dell was on SCLC’s national staff.

Because the white supremacists in the southern part of the US and the colonial forces in Southern Africa were hellbent on maintaining segregation and colonialism at all costs, Africans born in these locations share a very special and unbreakable bond.

Like Dr King many illustrious fighters in Southern Africa were cowardly and brutally assassinated by US-EU imperialism in South Africa — Henry Nxumalo, Steve Biko, David Sibeko, Dulcie September and Chris Hani. On the other side of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe national heroes and revolutionary icons Samuel Parirenyatwa and Herbert Chitepo  top the list.

The African world strongly believes the plane crash that claimed the life of Mozambique’s first president and revolutionary giant Samora Machel was an assassination.

Many years of frontline struggle have taught Mother Africa’s most dedicated servants on the battlefield that long before US-EU imperialism targets us with their bullets, letter bombs, explosives or any other concoction, the malicious attacks on our reputations are their most invaluable weapon.

It is now public knowledge that in November of 1964 Dr King’s widow, the late Coretta Scott King, received what was then an anonymous package, which included a tape of Dr King’s alleged sexual indiscretions.

At the same time Dr King also received an anonymous letter suggesting that he decline the Nobel Peace Prize and commit suicide and step way from the Civil Rights Movement. Since then that letter has been linked to J. Edgar Hoover and his deputy director William C. Sullivan.

Our former colonisers and enslavers target those who represent genuine African resistance regardless of where we fall on the ideological spectrum, let us remember that even Mr Hoover had many sleepless nights concerning the rise of African nationalism inside US borders.

This automatically made Malcolm X and later Kwame Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael, key FBI targets. However, it was Dr King because the church pulpit was his main platform that made Hoover’s blood pressure like steam from a pot full of crabs.

When we think of assassinations, the word target has a rather gruesome connotation because we think of Dr King standing on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Brother Malcolm at the podium at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, or Medgar Evers about to walk through his front door in what the great African songstress Nina Simone called “Goddamn Mississippi”.

The government and people of Zimbabwe have put the world on notice that this same word has been used by US-EU imperialism, each and every time they attempt to justify imposing US-EU sanctions on them for reclaiming the sacred land and indigenising their most valuable resources to break a monstrous cycle of rape and plunder by foreign invaders and conquerors.

Whether imperialist forces aim their rifles and shotguns at our bravest warriors or single out revolutionary nations that refuse to capitulate due to fear or intimidation, we accept being their targets as a way of that go with the territory of choosing the road to revolution.

The historical record also shows how members of the US-EU imperialist diplomatic and intelligence corps attempt to have clandestine meetings with African freedom fighters in order to create panic or find the weakest and most gullible individuals within our ranks.

On February 4, 1964 Brother Malcolm received a visit from two FBI agents, whose names were Mr Beckwith and Mr Fulton seeking to discuss with him a quote from a newspaper and his whereabouts on a particular evening.

Their main focus for this visit appeared to be to show Brother Malcolm the degree of surveillance that he was under. The attempt to poison Brother Malcolm in Egypt/Kemit and a file that represented a collaborative effort of the NYPD, FBI and CIA is all the evidence we need.

The people of Zimbabwe may very well compare this to the secret meeting exposed by WikiLeaks between former vice president and guerrilla standout Joice Mujuru and the former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, that represented textbook manipulation on the part of US imperialism.

Their goal was to convince our sister that within the ZANU-PF inner circle she had emerged as their favourite moving forward. Brother Malcolm’s posture was unwavering where, on the other hand, Sister Mujuru bit the bait.

Our history has shown that in some cases character attacks can be internal, Dr King’s inner circle was heartbroken when Dr King’s closest confidant, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, released a book titled “And The Walls Came Tumbling Down” highlighting Dr King’s vices and shortcomings.

The people of Zimbabwe remember five years before his death national hero Edgar Tekere wrote an autobiography titled “A Lifetime of Struggle” that was used by US-EU imperialism to demonise former president Robert Mugabe individually and collectively.

President Mnangagwa knows the attacks aimed at assassinating his character have only just begun; this includes confused forces with a progressive and revolutionary pedigree stating that President Mnangagwa’s efforts to diplomatically engage the West wreak of neo-colonialism, which becomes justification not to fight to lift US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe.

It was unfortunate that Dr King’s inner circle chose not to use the platform that commemorated his assassination to demand that the US government give full disclosure concerning their role in the assassination.

This was similar to another missed opportunity, three years ago at the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, which was also the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, where we failed collectively to push the Nation of Islam and its leader the Honourable Minister Louis Farrakhan to demand a reopening of Malcolm’s trial that would include the role of the NYPD, FBI and CIA.

To the Honourable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s credit in 1995 when he used the platform of his public reconciliation with Brother Malcolm’s widow Dr Betty Shabazz, to ask our community to join him in a push to reopen the trial for this purpose, this appeal fell on deaf ears.

Both Farrakhan and his mentor, the Most Honourable Elijah Muhammad, have been trashed by those who would rather condemn them than clash with the FBI and CIA.

We conclude with the words of Dr King: “Too many negro social and professional groups have degenerated into snobbishness and a preoccupation with frivolities and trivial activity.”

Obi Egbuna Jnr is the US Correspondent to The Herald and External Relations Officer to ZICUFA(Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association). His email is [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>