Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey, hey, hey!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey, hey, hey!  [cheers and applause from the crowd. Mumia laughing.]

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey. How you all doing?

Unidentified speaker: Happy Birthday, Mumia!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: How you all doing?

Speaker 1: Happy birthday to ya! Happy birthday to ya! Happy Birthday! [crowd and speaker sing Stevie Wonder version of Happy Birthday to Mumia. Mumia laughing.]

Mumia Abu-Jamal: [chuckles] Well, listen…[unclear]

Speaker 1: [singing and overlapping] Happy Birthday!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: (overlapping unclear speech)…it’s hearing the voices of the people!

Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, Say that again!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: If there’s anything that makes me happy on his birthday is hearing the voices of the people! [cheers from the crowd] It’s beautiful.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: It’s wonderful. I appreciate it more than words can say. And you know, I have a few words. I always do. But, I’m almost speechless right now, just vibing on the people and enjoying y’all, the sound of all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for being there. Thank you for always being there. Thank you for holding me up and helping me up when I when I get kicked down. And thanks for rumbling with me, and thanks for being who you are. Thanks for being there. I appreciate all of you, all of you, every one of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [crowd cheers]

Speaker 1: Do you have some words to share with us? We’re gonna put–

Mumia Abu-Jamal: I actually don’t [laughs]. I didn’t write anything. I didn’t have anything prepared.  I just wanted to ya know–

Speaker 1: We don’t want to put you to work on your birthday. Hold on, I’ve got your son here. We’ve got your son here.

Mumia’s Son: Ay! I told ’em I talked to you earlier and you called me and had to pull over. I just wanted to justlet people know that we always appreciate, not only what you can do physically, but also keeping the positive energy in the world. Because we as a people, will free our people. One of my father’s words is that he believed the people will ultimately free him, not a court. We won’t force them, but the people will. Love you, dad, Happy birthday!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: That sounds like my boy, don’t it?  That sound like my son! [Mumia laughs and laughter in room]

Mumia Abu-Jamal: You sound better than your old man, son!

Mumia’s Son: Aww, stop!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Well done, well done. [chuckles]

Speaker 1: Mumia, Mumia we got Pam, who’s just walked in. Do you have any words of solidarity for Pam and for the people of Palestine? We had an incredible march….

Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. The French are here. People from Boston, from Detroit, from New York, Sekou–

Unidentified speaker: (overlapping) Sundiata Acoli’s here–

 Speaker 1: Sundiata Acoli. [background chatter]

Mumia Abu-Jamal: (overlapping) Beautiful, beautiful–

Speaker 1: Wadia’s children are here! Whooo! Wadia’s children are here!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: [laughs] That’s right. Beautiful, beautiful– [background cheers and applause]

Mumia Abu-Jamal: I love you all. Never forget that. I… love…you… all.  Thank you–

Facility automated voice: This is a call from Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution, Mahanoy. This is call the subject to recording and monitoring.

Pam: Hey, Mumia!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey Pam!–

Pam: All right. Okay, you got another part of your crew coming up here. I’m gonna back off. Okay–[Mumia chuckles.]

Issa: Ab! It’s Issa.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey, son!

Issa: (overlapping) Hey, Happy Birthday!–

Ice: (overlapping) Happy Birthday, Mumia! It’s Ice!

Issa: I mean–it ain’t happy…salamun alaykum!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey, baby!

Ice: We miss you. And we just wanted to say we love you on your birthday, and every day.

Jade: Happy birthday, this is Jade.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: (overlapping) I Love you everyday too.

Jade: You know we love you. Stand strong, always.

Ice: WaWa was your biggest supporter. You already know that.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: I know that. Guess what? And don’t nobody know it, I know it, huh!

Unidentified speaker: That’s right.

Unidentified speaker: That’s right.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: [chuckles] That’s right. It’s great, it’s great hearing y’alls voices, you hear me?

Multiple speakers: (overlapping) Always have…you know that. You know we love you…stand strong!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: (overlapping) Love you too. Love you too.Love you Ice!

Unidentified speaker: Wonderful, Wonderful!

Speaker 1: Love you Ice, he said.  Mumia,  Palestine is — chairman Fred is here. Palestine  is  the issue of the hour. What do you have to tell us about Palestine?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: That this is their time and that, you know, when radical moments come around we must grasp it with both hands. And when we see the carnage, the real, the the mega death that’s been visited on the occupied territories of Palestine, it’s time for us to raise our voices and to speak truth to power. But really speak out against this massive punishment against the people for daring to fight for their freedom, to fight for their land. You know, when I think about Palestinians and think about, the indigenous people of the United States, I think about so called Native Americans, because it really is the same dynamic, because Israel and the United States are settler colonial states. And they, listen, they came to take the land from the people, right, in both situations and they’re trying to do that in Palestine, the same way they did it over hundreds of years in the United States.

Listen, how can it be that the indigenous people of the United States, the original people, in what’s now called the United States, live in reservations, in poverty?[Unclear] You know, and the ghettos of Gaza, right are too big for the appetite of the Israelis and the invaders. They want to put them on reservations or wipe them out. Do not, do not get it twisted. So now is the time to speak out and speak up and stand with the oppressed of Gaza, the West Bank, the occupied ter–[applause from crowd]. Just did a commentary a few days ago about Blacks in Palestine. Don’t get that twisted. Our people are there and have been there for several centuries…

Unidentified speaker: Come on!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: …in Palestine. There are black Palestinians over there–

Unidentified speaker: (overlapping) That’s right!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: …and they get bombed like everybody else. [sounds from the crowd] So remember, when the people are oppressed, it’s their duty to fight for freedom, so long live the freedom of the Palestinian people.

Speaker 1: Whoo! [noises and cheers from the crowd]

Unidentified speaker: Free Congo, free Sudan, free Haiti!

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Yes, sir! Yes, sir!

These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.