This is Sheik Bilal Abdul Salaam-Bey, a prisoner at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Hutchinson, Kansas. This piece is called “New Afrikan Creed”.
Number 1: I believe in the spirituality, humanity and genius of new Afrikan people and in our new pursuit of these values.
Number 2: I believe in the family and community and in the community of the family, and I will work to make this concept live.
Number 3: I believe in: The community is more important than the individual.
Number 4: I believe in constant struggle for freedom and end oppression to build a better world. I believe in collective struggle and fashioning victory in concert with my brothers and sisters.
Number 5: I believe that the fundamental reason our oppression continues is that we as a people lack the power to control our lives.
Number 6: I believe that the fundamental way to gain that power and end oppression is to build a sovereign New Afrikan nation.
Number 7: I believe that all the land in America upon which we have lived for a long time, which we have worked to build upon, and which we will fall to stay on, is land that belongs to us as a people.
Number 8: I believe in the Malcolm X doctrine that we must organize upon this land and hold a plebiscite to tell the world by a vote that we are free in our land, independent. And after the vote, we must stand ready to defend ourselves, establishing a nation beyond contradiction.
Number 9: Therefore, our pledge to struggle without [unclear] until we have won sovereignty, our pledge to struggle, without failing, until we have built a better condition than the world has yet known.
Number 10: I will give my life, if that is necessary. I will give my time, my mind, my strength and my wealth because this is necessary.
Number 11: I will follow my chosen leaders and help them.
Number 12: I will love my brothers and sisters as myself.
Number 13: I will steal nothing from a brother or sister, cheat no brother or sister, misuse no brother or sister, inform on no brother or sister or spread no gossip.
Number 14: I will keep myself clean in body, dress, and speech, knowing that I am a light set on a hill, a true representative for what we are building.
Number 15: I will be patient and uplifting with the deaf, dumb, and blind and I will speak my word and deed to heal the New Afrikan family; to bring into the movement, into the community, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters left by the wayside.
Now freely and of my own will, I pledge this creed for the sake of freedom for my people in a better world, while planet disgrace and banishment if I prove false, for I am no longer deaf, dumb or blind. I am by inspiration of the ancestors and grace of the creator, a New Afrikan. Thank you all for your time, effort and energy.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
