Hey, this is Peter Mukuria. Peter Kamau Mukuria. I am a prisoner from the state of Virginia, but I am currently incarcerated here in the state of Maryland at this facility called Jessup Correctional Institution. I’ve been here since I believe, 2022 and I came here through interstate complex transfer, as I said. But, yeah, but, you know, initially, when I first got here, I really thought that this was going to be a “smooth life,” given the circumstances, you know, but it turned out to quickly not be that way. I once heard that power attracts the worst and corrupts the very best. Since I’ve been here, a majority of the staff that work here are pretty much Africans, and I can kind of relate to them on so many levels. You know, as far as ideas or culture, traditions, the whole concept of being an immigrant, I can kind of relate to all these things; the idea of working and sending my money back home to, you know, your country, so you can take care of your loved ones, etc. I get all this. I get all those ideas, because these are things that immigrants tend to do when they come here. However, this is a prison where the majority of the staff, as I said, are Africans from, you know, African descent countries. And to me, it has been so problematic for me to continue to be who I am, a revolutionary, but yet still hold my position being a revolutionary and being an African. It’s not like you know you can be you got to be one or the other. You can be both, and I am both.
However, I also kind of have become accustomed to disliking a lot of people that work here. The reason why is because, again, I have literally seen how power can easily corrupt people when they first, you know, when they first begin working here, and how, you know, gradually they transform and become other different, completely different people than who they were when they first started working here. These are things I see all the time. And then it kind of led me to wonder, how did the slave trade become such a success? How did the transatlantic slave trade become such a success? Did the white man just pull the ship up, you know, on the west coast of Africa and you know, curious Black folks just jumped on the ship and sailed away?
No. There was this thing called aiding and abetting. You know, those natives aided and abetted the Europeans, the Spaniards, the Brits, whoever the hell else felt like they wanted to explore Africa. They aided and abetted them. I’m really in a conflict internally, because I literally feel like I am having so many problems with the mindsets of oppressed people who come to “developed country”, and unbeknownst to them, they gradually become corrupted by the power that they have over other people. They transform into other people, and they become the same people who they did not like. They themselves become oppressive.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
